The phrase conflates two fundamentally incompatible concepts. Self-help represents a turning away from divine help toward personal initiative[1]—they operate in opposite directions rather than in partnership.
The error assumes that while God handles justification, sanctification becomes our solo responsibility, requiring us to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps[2]. This misses a critical theological reality: both justification and sanctification flow from God’s grace—justification as a one-time act and sanctification as ongoing divine work[2]. The phrase “self-help with God’s help” suggests we’re the primary agent with God as supplementary support, reversing the actual relationship.
More deeply, self-help constitutes a rejection of God’s prevenient action and an attempt to take charge of one’s own reconciliation[1]. This represents a quest for power and self-aggrandizement in which the ethical agent attempts to usurp God’s initiative[1]. The addition of “with God’s help” doesn’t resolve this fundamental posture—it merely baptizes it with religious language. The ethical agent naturally wants to help herself; need alone doesn’t teach us to pray, so a command is required to redirect us from locating help in ourselves toward humble petition to God[1].
The phrase also obscures what Scripture actually teaches. When Jesus said, “whoever loses his life for my sake will find it,” he wasn’t addressing self-help advice but the essential nature of the saving gospel[3]. We’re called to obey and act, but always in humble reliance upon God’s grace[2]—not as co-equal partners where we supply the effort and God supplies the bonus boost.
The problem isn’t effort or responsibility; it’s the theological grammar. Better phrasing would be: “God’s grace working through our obedience” or “Our cooperation with God’s transforming work”—formulations that preserve God’s primacy while affirming genuine human participation.
[1] Ashley Cocksworth, Karl Barth on Prayer, ed. John Webster, Ian A. McFarland, and Ivor Davidson, T&T Clark Studies in Systematic Theology (London; New Delhi; New York; Sydney: Bloomsbury T&T Clark; Bloomsbury, 2015), 26:73–75.
[2] J. Ligon Duncan, “The Christian Life—Philippians 2:12–13,” in Preaching like Calvin: Sermons from the 500th Anniversary Celebration, ed. David W. Hall, The Calvin 500 Series (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2010), 148.
[3] Nathan Busenitz, “A Sense of Purpose: Evaluating the Claims Of: The Purpose-Driven Life,” in Fool’s Gold? Discerning Truth in an Age of Error (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2007), 49.
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