"For who makes you to differ? What do you have that you didn't receive?" (cf. 1 Cor. 4:7).
"Apart from Me you can do nothing" (cf. John 15:5).
By definition: the will is the choosing faculty of the mind that makes decisions as it desires, apart from feeling any outside force--the issue is how free it is; basically, it's free to make mundane decisions but has lost ability to make divine choices to choose God apart from His work on our heart. What is important is that we still have self-determination; i.e., we make a decision for or against God voluntarily.
Jonathan Edwards wrote a book by the above title, but he was a Calvinist, or as some call Reformed theologian par excellence, and wasn't propagating Arminianism or that grandiose idea or notion of a so-called free will (liberum arbitrium). "We are free but not freed," said Augustine--meaning we have retained the power to make choices and decisions, but have lost our liberty--we're voluntary slaves! We sin and rebel against God precisely because we want to! We are fallen creatures who have lost our inclination to good completely and totally--what so-called good we do is tainted (cf. Isa. 64:6) by evil motives and self-interest, like the applause of man. We feel no outside force, though, which would be coercion or determinism.
Sin is rebellion against God's divine order and nature and anything that is repugnant to His holiness! Martin Luther wrote the book, or diatribe, De Servo Arbitrio, or, The Bondage of the Will, to refute Erasmus and the Catholic ideas of free will. This word is never mentioned in Scripture, except for free will offerings, meaning voluntary ones. We don't need a free will, but wills made free; we are not born free but born slaves to sin! We get set free upon salvation and the Son is the only one who can adequately do it (cf. John 8:32,36).
In our decision making, the will is only a small part of the equation: environment, heredity or genes, custom or tradition, pressure, etc. all play a role. We all owe God for being born in America and most of us to Christian parents! The thing about God being our Maker is that He designed our nature: sanguine, choleric, melancholy, impetuous, happy-go-lucky, etc. The point is that we didn't choose our nature! We always act according to our nature, even whimsically or in an arbitrary manner sometimes. As an analogy from nature: the dove eats seed by nature; the hawk kills prey by nature; the vulture eats carrion by nature. They will not act au contraire! God is able to make us willing, though, and do so that we become believers (even against our former will), if He chooses to--God made a believer out of you and me, and it wasn't because we were virtuous or intelligent or even wise--we "believed through grace" (cf. Acts 18:27).
When we get saved, our whole soul and spirit gets saved: our heart, mind and will: we become willing to do God's will; and able to comprehend God's Word, and able to love with our hearts and worship God with our spirits. Our mind, heart, and will are all depraved--this is called total depravity (the first point of the Reformed acrostic TULIP). If you deny total depravity you cannot maintain consistency with any of the other points in TULIP. The will is wicked and stubborn (cf. Jer. 17:9; Isa. 46:12), and needs redemption also--the heart of man is desperately sick and evil and we cannot know it (cf. Jer. 17:9). God literally takes our stony hearts and makes them hearts of flesh (cf. Ezek. 36:26).
God bends our wills to His will by an act of sovereign grace ("grace reigns" cf. Rom. 5:21). Our wills are not neutral in that they are able to weigh the pros and cons and make a freewill decision without any influence or wooing from the Holy Spirit to convict us and open our hearts to believe (cf. Acts 16:14). Man was intended to have a mind to know God, a heart to love Him, and a will to obey Him, but this was lost at the Fall, but is restored at salvation. Note that we never ceased to be men, but ceased to be good--after the Fall man is inclined towards evil.
Acts 18:27 says that we believe through an act of grace--it's a gift per 2 Pet. 1:1 and God grants it to us according to Phil. 1:29. God gives each of us a measure of faith according to Romans 12:3. The people that believe in free will think that God's sovereignty is limited by our wills! They also claim some desire to be saved while others don't--no one seeks God per Rom. 3:11! God's sovereignty is total and He reigns and rules over all--what kind of God wouldn't be in control of all? Our destiny is in God's hands, and He decides who will get saved, not us--it's not a matter of sincerity or of willpower! Some very strong-willed seekers will never come to faith because they simply rely on themselves--it's not a matter of trying, but of trust. Note the hard saying of Jesus in John 6:44 and 65 that no one can come to Him unless the Father draws and grants it.
Salvation is monergistic, not synergistic, that is, it's solely an act of God apart from our cooperation--we don't contribute to our salvation nor do any presalvation works. We are dead spiritually and God quickens faith within us and regenerates us so that we can believe in our hearts. We weren't elected because we believe (prescient view) but we are elected unto belief, so that "Salvation is of the Lord" (cf. Jonah 2:9). It is not of man and God working jointly or in concert, nor of man's sole effort, but of God alone! We don't save ourselves--there's only one Savior! God wants all the credit and glory and we cannot even say that we wanted to get saved apart from His grace--without which no one would believe. The almighty and sovereign God is able to change our disposition so that we desire Christ! Soli Deo Gloria!
"Apart from Me you can do nothing" (cf. John 15:5).
By definition: the will is the choosing faculty of the mind that makes decisions as it desires, apart from feeling any outside force--the issue is how free it is; basically, it's free to make mundane decisions but has lost ability to make divine choices to choose God apart from His work on our heart. What is important is that we still have self-determination; i.e., we make a decision for or against God voluntarily.
Jonathan Edwards wrote a book by the above title, but he was a Calvinist, or as some call Reformed theologian par excellence, and wasn't propagating Arminianism or that grandiose idea or notion of a so-called free will (liberum arbitrium). "We are free but not freed," said Augustine--meaning we have retained the power to make choices and decisions, but have lost our liberty--we're voluntary slaves! We sin and rebel against God precisely because we want to! We are fallen creatures who have lost our inclination to good completely and totally--what so-called good we do is tainted (cf. Isa. 64:6) by evil motives and self-interest, like the applause of man. We feel no outside force, though, which would be coercion or determinism.
Sin is rebellion against God's divine order and nature and anything that is repugnant to His holiness! Martin Luther wrote the book, or diatribe, De Servo Arbitrio, or, The Bondage of the Will, to refute Erasmus and the Catholic ideas of free will. This word is never mentioned in Scripture, except for free will offerings, meaning voluntary ones. We don't need a free will, but wills made free; we are not born free but born slaves to sin! We get set free upon salvation and the Son is the only one who can adequately do it (cf. John 8:32,36).
In our decision making, the will is only a small part of the equation: environment, heredity or genes, custom or tradition, pressure, etc. all play a role. We all owe God for being born in America and most of us to Christian parents! The thing about God being our Maker is that He designed our nature: sanguine, choleric, melancholy, impetuous, happy-go-lucky, etc. The point is that we didn't choose our nature! We always act according to our nature, even whimsically or in an arbitrary manner sometimes. As an analogy from nature: the dove eats seed by nature; the hawk kills prey by nature; the vulture eats carrion by nature. They will not act au contraire! God is able to make us willing, though, and do so that we become believers (even against our former will), if He chooses to--God made a believer out of you and me, and it wasn't because we were virtuous or intelligent or even wise--we "believed through grace" (cf. Acts 18:27).
When we get saved, our whole soul and spirit gets saved: our heart, mind and will: we become willing to do God's will; and able to comprehend God's Word, and able to love with our hearts and worship God with our spirits. Our mind, heart, and will are all depraved--this is called total depravity (the first point of the Reformed acrostic TULIP). If you deny total depravity you cannot maintain consistency with any of the other points in TULIP. The will is wicked and stubborn (cf. Jer. 17:9; Isa. 46:12), and needs redemption also--the heart of man is desperately sick and evil and we cannot know it (cf. Jer. 17:9). God literally takes our stony hearts and makes them hearts of flesh (cf. Ezek. 36:26).
God bends our wills to His will by an act of sovereign grace ("grace reigns" cf. Rom. 5:21). Our wills are not neutral in that they are able to weigh the pros and cons and make a freewill decision without any influence or wooing from the Holy Spirit to convict us and open our hearts to believe (cf. Acts 16:14). Man was intended to have a mind to know God, a heart to love Him, and a will to obey Him, but this was lost at the Fall, but is restored at salvation. Note that we never ceased to be men, but ceased to be good--after the Fall man is inclined towards evil.
Acts 18:27 says that we believe through an act of grace--it's a gift per 2 Pet. 1:1 and God grants it to us according to Phil. 1:29. God gives each of us a measure of faith according to Romans 12:3. The people that believe in free will think that God's sovereignty is limited by our wills! They also claim some desire to be saved while others don't--no one seeks God per Rom. 3:11! God's sovereignty is total and He reigns and rules over all--what kind of God wouldn't be in control of all? Our destiny is in God's hands, and He decides who will get saved, not us--it's not a matter of sincerity or of willpower! Some very strong-willed seekers will never come to faith because they simply rely on themselves--it's not a matter of trying, but of trust. Note the hard saying of Jesus in John 6:44 and 65 that no one can come to Him unless the Father draws and grants it.
Salvation is monergistic, not synergistic, that is, it's solely an act of God apart from our cooperation--we don't contribute to our salvation nor do any presalvation works. We are dead spiritually and God quickens faith within us and regenerates us so that we can believe in our hearts. We weren't elected because we believe (prescient view) but we are elected unto belief, so that "Salvation is of the Lord" (cf. Jonah 2:9). It is not of man and God working jointly or in concert, nor of man's sole effort, but of God alone! We don't save ourselves--there's only one Savior! God wants all the credit and glory and we cannot even say that we wanted to get saved apart from His grace--without which no one would believe. The almighty and sovereign God is able to change our disposition so that we desire Christ! Soli Deo Gloria!
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