We are not born free and innocent (with a tabula rasa or blank slate) as Jean-Jacques Rousseau and others allege, we are born in slavery to sin and in bondage; Augustine said that we are "free but not freed." That is interpreted as meaning that we retain the ability to make choices, but they are limited and defined by God (only if I throw a ball, do you have the choice to catch it!). We have lost our "liberty" in other words. Adam had the ability to sin, and the ability not to sin, while after the fall only had the inability not to sin--or he could only sin! Only Christ has the inability to sin and proved it at the temptation from Satan. On the other hand, we are constantly in a state of rebellion! When we are saved, it is irresistible and efficacious, because no one is able to resist God's will (cf. Romans 9:19) and grace is sovereign and reigns (cf. Romans 5:21).
God doesn't control us like a puppet on a string--we are not automatons--and God never forces with an outside influence us to do something we don't want to do; however, He made our nature and we act accordingly (God is the one who made us so choleric or melancholy, for example). This is seen by analogy when you observe a dove eating seed and a raven feasting on carrion--note that they both eat according to their desires and what they want; i.e., they are both acting according to their nature, which God created. We were not consulted in the makeup of our nature--God is the Potter and we are the clay in His hands.
Our will has been compared in analogy to a prisoner in jail who has the privilege to play poker with the guys, or to smoke in the lounge, but not to go out to exercise, except when given permission, and certainly, he cannot leave the grounds at will, nor does he have free rein, and you could also compare our will to a man on a train playing cards and not knowing where he is going or where the train is headed and must be awoken by the conductor to make him cognizant of this. However, you can be converted, even in jail, as the Lord's freeman and be free in spirit--remember, analogies can break down if over-analyzed. We don't need free wills to be saved! We need wills made free!
Today's parlance defines conversion as merely a change to a more "responsible lifestyle" to cope with your life; however, in authentic conversion (which involves regeneration, faith, and repentance), our whole being is converted--even our wills are depraved and unable to please God. Conversion is more than an acceptable way of having a nervous breakdown, and of "getting religion." It is a change from the inside out so that the person becomes a new person with new desires of the will, as well as a new heart for the things of God and a new comprehension with the intellect of His will and what pleases Him. Only man has the heart to love God, a mind to know Him, and a will to obey Him and all must be converted: Our whole nature is involved, not just our emotions--so don't think you are saved just because you "love Jesus." He may simply be a Jesus of your own creation, imagination, or fabrication.
We must obey (an act of a will made free) Jesus to prove our love, as He said, "If you love Me, you will obey My commandments." If we are disobedient, it proves we do not believe: "Only he who believes is obedient, and only he who is obedient believes" (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, martyred by the Nazis). The two are linked and correlated and so our wills must be changed to be willing to do God's will--after salvation, we learn to obey! We are able to make the choice as to whether we are willing to do God's will as a sign of positive inclination, but no one is inclined to come to Him apart from the wooing of the Spirit, according to John 6:44, ESV ("No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him..."). John 6:65, ESV says, "... [N]o one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.")
Naturally, we do not love God and are not inclined to come to Him in love, we are incapable of comprehending the gospel message apart from being enlightened, and the eyes our heart is opened, and we do not want to obey God, because of a rebellious will that we are born with, as we are born in sin and are not sinners because we sin, but sin because we are sinners! We are only acting according to our nature, and our nature needs conversion--no one is good and does God's will! Our wills are in defiance or you could say we are volitionally defiant and out of God's will and plan as lost sinners until we get converted, and are found by Christ the Great Shepherd. We can do no good as lost sinners to please God and all our works are as filthy rags according to Isaiah 64:6. We were lost but now are found (by God--i.e., we didn't find Him at our salvation!).
Conversion involves the whole person which means the whole heart (which represents the whole being of man in Scripture--emotions, will, and intellect). God makes the unwilling, willing and all God's people shall be willing (Psalm 110:3 in the ESV says,"...Your people shall offer themselves freely in the day of your power"). Paul says it plain as day in Philippians 2:13 that God is always at work within us to make us willing to do His will and in Col. 1:29 that God powerfully works within him.
If it were not for Christ, none of us would be saved nor have the desire (had He not softened our heart and turned it from a heart of stone to a heart of flesh according to Ezekiel 36:26. We were not more meritorious than others, more intelligent, talented, nor willing! We were destined unto salvation according to the good pleasure of His will. No one can take credit for his salvation as Jonah said, in Jonah 2:9 that "Salvation is of the LORD." This means we didn't even cooperate and do anything--if we had to do anything, we would mess it up. God does all the work and gets all the glory as He gives us the gift of faith.
Jesus told His disciples, "Apart from Me you can do nothing" in John 15:5 and this means we are helpless to do God's will and our wills are in bondage, as Martin Luther declared in his book that shook the Reformation era, The Bondage of the Will. He said that calling our will free was too grandiose a word for it and is misleading--God is ultimately in charge and in control of our destiny, not us, as He is the One who chose us--we didn't choose Him (cf. John 15:16). Believing you came to Christ of your own free will is like taking credit for your salvation and giving yourself some of the glory that alone belongs to God--if you came to Him alone, you probably left Him alone, too. Jesus through the power of the Spirit compels us to come into His Father's house (compelle intrare).
And so when you say you have "free will" be sure to make it clear what you are positing, because you don't have the power, will, nor the inclination to please God or do His will of receiving Christ apart from the grace of God. We do retain the natural freedom to make choices like what we want to eat, but spiritual and moral freedom is curtailed and limited because of our total depravity, which includes total depravity of the will, as part of the makeup of our human nature. In summation, Paul said, "So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy" (Romans 9:16, ESV). Soli Deo Gloria!
God doesn't control us like a puppet on a string--we are not automatons--and God never forces with an outside influence us to do something we don't want to do; however, He made our nature and we act accordingly (God is the one who made us so choleric or melancholy, for example). This is seen by analogy when you observe a dove eating seed and a raven feasting on carrion--note that they both eat according to their desires and what they want; i.e., they are both acting according to their nature, which God created. We were not consulted in the makeup of our nature--God is the Potter and we are the clay in His hands.
Our will has been compared in analogy to a prisoner in jail who has the privilege to play poker with the guys, or to smoke in the lounge, but not to go out to exercise, except when given permission, and certainly, he cannot leave the grounds at will, nor does he have free rein, and you could also compare our will to a man on a train playing cards and not knowing where he is going or where the train is headed and must be awoken by the conductor to make him cognizant of this. However, you can be converted, even in jail, as the Lord's freeman and be free in spirit--remember, analogies can break down if over-analyzed. We don't need free wills to be saved! We need wills made free!
Today's parlance defines conversion as merely a change to a more "responsible lifestyle" to cope with your life; however, in authentic conversion (which involves regeneration, faith, and repentance), our whole being is converted--even our wills are depraved and unable to please God. Conversion is more than an acceptable way of having a nervous breakdown, and of "getting religion." It is a change from the inside out so that the person becomes a new person with new desires of the will, as well as a new heart for the things of God and a new comprehension with the intellect of His will and what pleases Him. Only man has the heart to love God, a mind to know Him, and a will to obey Him and all must be converted: Our whole nature is involved, not just our emotions--so don't think you are saved just because you "love Jesus." He may simply be a Jesus of your own creation, imagination, or fabrication.
We must obey (an act of a will made free) Jesus to prove our love, as He said, "If you love Me, you will obey My commandments." If we are disobedient, it proves we do not believe: "Only he who believes is obedient, and only he who is obedient believes" (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, martyred by the Nazis). The two are linked and correlated and so our wills must be changed to be willing to do God's will--after salvation, we learn to obey! We are able to make the choice as to whether we are willing to do God's will as a sign of positive inclination, but no one is inclined to come to Him apart from the wooing of the Spirit, according to John 6:44, ESV ("No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him..."). John 6:65, ESV says, "... [N]o one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.")
Naturally, we do not love God and are not inclined to come to Him in love, we are incapable of comprehending the gospel message apart from being enlightened, and the eyes our heart is opened, and we do not want to obey God, because of a rebellious will that we are born with, as we are born in sin and are not sinners because we sin, but sin because we are sinners! We are only acting according to our nature, and our nature needs conversion--no one is good and does God's will! Our wills are in defiance or you could say we are volitionally defiant and out of God's will and plan as lost sinners until we get converted, and are found by Christ the Great Shepherd. We can do no good as lost sinners to please God and all our works are as filthy rags according to Isaiah 64:6. We were lost but now are found (by God--i.e., we didn't find Him at our salvation!).
Conversion involves the whole person which means the whole heart (which represents the whole being of man in Scripture--emotions, will, and intellect). God makes the unwilling, willing and all God's people shall be willing (Psalm 110:3 in the ESV says,"...Your people shall offer themselves freely in the day of your power"). Paul says it plain as day in Philippians 2:13 that God is always at work within us to make us willing to do His will and in Col. 1:29 that God powerfully works within him.
If it were not for Christ, none of us would be saved nor have the desire (had He not softened our heart and turned it from a heart of stone to a heart of flesh according to Ezekiel 36:26. We were not more meritorious than others, more intelligent, talented, nor willing! We were destined unto salvation according to the good pleasure of His will. No one can take credit for his salvation as Jonah said, in Jonah 2:9 that "Salvation is of the LORD." This means we didn't even cooperate and do anything--if we had to do anything, we would mess it up. God does all the work and gets all the glory as He gives us the gift of faith.
Jesus told His disciples, "Apart from Me you can do nothing" in John 15:5 and this means we are helpless to do God's will and our wills are in bondage, as Martin Luther declared in his book that shook the Reformation era, The Bondage of the Will. He said that calling our will free was too grandiose a word for it and is misleading--God is ultimately in charge and in control of our destiny, not us, as He is the One who chose us--we didn't choose Him (cf. John 15:16). Believing you came to Christ of your own free will is like taking credit for your salvation and giving yourself some of the glory that alone belongs to God--if you came to Him alone, you probably left Him alone, too. Jesus through the power of the Spirit compels us to come into His Father's house (compelle intrare).
And so when you say you have "free will" be sure to make it clear what you are positing, because you don't have the power, will, nor the inclination to please God or do His will of receiving Christ apart from the grace of God. We do retain the natural freedom to make choices like what we want to eat, but spiritual and moral freedom is curtailed and limited because of our total depravity, which includes total depravity of the will, as part of the makeup of our human nature. In summation, Paul said, "So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy" (Romans 9:16, ESV). Soli Deo Gloria!
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