The people of the city relished his theology, since it reflected the convictions of Dutch people whose thinking concerning the gospel had fermented quietly for at least two centuries. Since it was a reformed pastor's custom to preach through a book of the bible, Arminius began with Romans. Three years later he was up to chapter 7. Arminius countered that he had always affirmed the deity of the Son. In all of this Arminius maintained, with the universal church, that free will is found only in the regenerate, in those whom God has freed to know and obey him.
Unbelievers remain in bondage to sin.
A few months later Arminius was expounding Romans 9. An opponent accused him of preaching that unrepentant sinners are condemned only on account of their sin. In other words, they aren't condemned on account of a hidden decree of God enacted before they were born and therefore before they could have sinned. The same fellow denounced him for declaring that while good works don't merit God's pardon, the pardoned should do all the good they can. In his detailed examination and closely reasoned exposition of Romans 9, Arminius articulated a doctrine of grace that recognizes the humanness of the beneficiaries of grace and that honours them as human agents, God's covenant-partners made in his image.