Synergy of Grace and Effort

The relationship between Divine Grace and Human Effort is what Thomas Aquinas called synergy: effort calls forth grace, and grace prompts effort.

A number of texts stress human initiative as calling forth grace— ”God helps those who help themselves”; others describe God’s grace as preceding and calling for our response.

Father Moon teaches that God’s grace and power contribute some ninety-five percent towards the fulfillment of a work, leaving five percent as the human portion of responsibility.

By leaving a small portion of the work unfinished as our portion, God provides a way for human beings to share in the work of creation and enjoy the glory of co-creators.

However, in the course of salvation history, the requirement that we human beings do our portion has sometimes been a cause of frustration to God when we fail or fall short; it means that God cannot unilaterally complete the task by Himself.

God will reliably do His portion, but human beings are unreliable. Therefore, giving human beings a portion of responsibility means that God is essentially placing the fate of the universe in our hands.

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. Matthew 7.7

He who conforms to the Way is gladly accepted by the way, he who conforms to virtue is gladly accepted by virtue; he who conforms to loss is gladly accepted by loss. Tao Te Ching 23 (Taoism)

If a man, sanctify himself a little, he becomes much sanctified; if he sanctify himself below, he becomes sanctified from above; if he sanctify himself in this world, he becomes sanctified in the world to come. Talmud, Yoma 39a (Judaism)

Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Philippians 2.12-13

God changes not what is in a people, until they change what is in themselves. Qur’an 13.11 Remembering me, you shall overcome all difficulties through my grace. But if you will not heed me in your self-will, nothing will avail you. Bhagavad-Gita 18.58 (Hinduism)

If you wish to find the true way, Right action will lead you to it directly; But if you do not strive for Buddha hood, You will grope in the dark and never find it. Sutra of Hui Neng 2 (Buddhism)

Heaven helps the man who is devoted; men help the man who is true. The man who walks in truth and is devoted in his thinking, and furthermore reveres the worthy—he is blessed by Heaven. I Ching, Great Commentary 1.12.1 (Confucianism)

God has declared: I am close to the thought that my servant has of Me, and I am with him whenever he recollects Me. If he remembers Me in himself, I remember him in Myself, and if he remembers Me in a gathering I remember him better than those in the gathering do, and if he approaches Me by as much as one hand’s length, I approach him by a cubit… If he takes a step towards Me, I run towards him. Hadith (Islam)

God gives each person a hook with which to pluck his fruit. Igbo Proverb (African Traditional Religions)

Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. Revelation 3.20 Prayer indeed is good, but while calling on the gods a man should himself lend a hand. Hippocrates19

It is from below that the movement starts, and thereafter is all perfected. If the community of Israel failed to initiate the impulse, the one from above would also not move to go her. It is thus the yearning from below which brings about the completion above. Zohar (Judaism)

All undertakings in this world depend both on the ordering of fate and on human exertion; but among these two the ways of fate are unfathomable; in the case of man’s work action is possible. Laws of Manu 7.205 (Hinduism)

Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
You must participate in God’s great creative undertaking… Although God provides 95 percent of the ideal form necessary to reach perfection, human beings must still complete the remaining 5 percent by their own responsibility.

God alone cannot bring about human perfection; each person has the responsibility to make a contribution to perfecting him or herself. (115:66, November 4, 1981)

The spirit grows through give and take action between two types of nourishment: life elements of a yang type that come from God, and vitality elements of a yin type that come from the physical self. (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Creation 6.3.2)

As long as you complain and lament over your situation while just sitting in your chair, you will not make progress. God will not help you. God wants you to make new efforts each day. (327:48, July 24, 2000)

God creates to the level of 95 percent and then human beings should add their efforts in accordance with God’s basic rules for creation in order to establish a value standard of 100 percent.

In this way, God wants to give human beings the value of having participated in the completion of His Will. (130:19, December 11, 1983)

The proportion of five percent is used to indicate that the human portion of responsibility is minimal when compared to God’s portion of responsibility.

Yet for human beings, this five percent is equivalent to one hundred percent of our effort…

We should recognize how minuscule the human portion of responsibility is in comparison to God’s toil and grace, which is His portion of responsibility. On the other hand, when we consider the fact that over and over again, central figures in the providence could not cope with their responsibility, we can appreciate how extremely difficult it was for them to fulfill even this comparatively small portion. (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Predestination 2)

No matter how great the saving grace of the cross of Christ, the salvation knocking at our door will be for naught unless we fortify our faith, which is our portion of responsibility.

It was God’s responsibility to grant the benefit of resurrection through the crucifixion of Jesus, but to believe or not to believe is strictly one’s own portion of responsibility. (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Creation 5.2.2)

We are endowed with the nature to empathize with God. We should develop that nature; then when God rejoices, we also will rejoice, and when God is sorrowful, we also will be sorrowful.

Unless you become a person who can intimately experience God’s deep inner heart, you are in no position to become one with God and live in harmony with God, regardless of how much God loves you. (39:8 9, January 9, 1971)

God has borne all the responsibility for His sons and daughters on the road of restoration. But now surely the time has come when we should take on that responsibility.

God has borne all that responsibility to help us, but now, by taking on Satan’s attack, we can stand up as God’s sons and daughters. (31:50, April 12, 1970)