The Will Of Man

"Man has not ceased to be man, he has just ceased to be good," according to Martin Luther. The will is not sovereign, but operates subject to the disposition of the person. When we talk of the total depravity of man we are not saying we are as bad as we can be, just that we are as bad off as we can be; all of our nature is sick with sin, including the intellect, will and emotions. "The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint" (cf. Isa. 1:5).

A definition of the will by Jonathan Edwards was that it was that by which the mind chooses. We always choose according to the strongest desire at the time to suit our own best interest, all things considered. God never coerces us to do something we don't want to do. We never do something we don't want to do.

The trouble is no one wants to receive Christ apart from the grace of God. He woos us and makes us willing and able to believe by grace. Arminians think that we cooperate with God in our salvation, but Calvinists maintain that "Salvation is of the Lord." He does it all and gets all the credit--we don't contribute anything to our salvation. "He is at work within you both to do and to do according to His good pleasure." No one can say they came to Christ uninfluenced by the Holy Spirit! There is no such thing as prevenient grace given to all to enable them to make a decision. God is the enabler and is able to overcome the most reluctant, hardened, and sinful heart. (Think of Paul's conversion!)

We are free to choose our own poison, as it were. We are not chatty dolls or automatons but are free moral agents responsible for our choices.

This doctrine according to Luther is the very heart of the gospel. If you fail to realize that you really aren't grace-oriented. There cannot be both free will and sovereign grace at the same time. We don't meet God half-way, but he only rescues us like a lifeguard rescuing a drowning swimmer, when we give up trying to save ourselves. A good example of our will is like the difference between a dove and a raven; the dove has no desire to eat the raven's carrion--it is against his nature.  We did not choose our nature either.

The Council of Trent in the 16th century said that anyone who does not affirm that the freewill cooperates with God in salvation is anathema. This was the Arminian position in opposition to the Reformers (Refer to the Synod of Dort in 1618).

We are voluntary slaves who have lost our inclination to do good at the fall. There is no point of neutrality that we can cling to and have free will. We cannot change our God-given nature. There is no place of "moral equipoise" or neutral territory that we can stand on.  We are not neutral and able to equally choose to be good or evil--we're prone to evil, not inclined to good!   Soli Deo Gloria!

Freewill?

 "... Why then does He still find fault?  For who can resist His will?"  (Rom.9:19, HCSB). 

Martin Luther said that the freedom of the will is too grandiose a term and fit only for God. Our wills are enslaved to the old sin nature, biased toward evil, and prone to do nothing but evil. We cannot do any good apart from God: "Apart from Me you can do nothing" (cf. John 15:5). "All our righteousness is as filthy rags" (cf. Isa. 64:6). Saint Aurelius Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, said that we are "free but not freed."  No mind game--just emphasizing that we don't have liberty, though we are responsible agents. We are free in the sense that we are not coerced from any outside force to do anything we don't want to do, that would be determinism (without our free input).

The trouble is is that we only want to do evil. Augustine also said that we are non posse non peccare, which means unable not to sin--we can only do evil. The freedom of the will is a curse in other words because we only act according to our fallen nature.  That is to say, we don't need a free will; we need wills made free.

God is perfectly free, yet unable to sin!  In glory, we will be ditto.  God's will overrides ours and His sovereignty isn't limited by our freedom (cf. Jer. 20:7).  "For it is God who is working in you, enabling you both to will and to act for His good purpose"  (Phil. 2:13, HCSB).  A man in prison is free to play cards, but not free to leave or do as he desires--our freedom has limits and, though we maintain moral ability to choose, we have lost the ability to choose God apart from grace working in our hearts in the wooing ministry.  

There are several Bible verses that come to mind: "It is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God who shows mercy." "Who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." "The way of man is not in himself, it is not in man that walks, to direct his steps" (cf. Jer. 10:23). "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him ..." (Cf. John 6:44). "No one can come to Me unless it has been granted of the Father..." (John 6:65). Does that sound like free will? "Who makes you to differ? What do you have that you didn't receive?" (Cf. 1 Cor. 4:7). (cf. Prov. 16:9; 20:24; Ps. 37:23.)   Soli Deo Gloria!

Freewill Or Power To Choose?

Do you think you came to Christ merely of your own volition? God makes the unwilling willing. Why do you think it says, "You are not willing to come to Me?" (cf. John 5:40). Isa. 63:17 says, "O LORD, why do you make us err from your ways and harden our hearts, so we fear you not." God hardens whomsoever He wills, according to Romans 9:18. So why does He then still find fault? (Cf. Rom. 9:19); we are made culpable. "The elect attained unto it, the rest were hardened" (cf. Rom. 11:7).

The question is not that you were willing and pat yourself on the back, but who or what made you willing? You act according to your nature only and God created your nature. For example, if you are nice, that is God's gift to you of being nice. Whether you are phlegmatic, sanguine, choleric, melancholy, introverted or extroverted, God made you that way. If you have a mental illness also--God is your maker. He is the potter, we are the clay. "The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, like rivers of water, He turns it whithersoever he will." (Prov. 21:1) You are only free in the sense that God doesn't force you to do evil, you do it on your own. You can do nothing good to please God (Isa. 64:6; Rom. 8:7-8).

Jesus said, "Apart from Me you can do nothing." So you think you can be saved anytime you want? "For now is the day of salvation...." John 6:44 says, "No one can come to the Father, unless who sent Me He draws him." God must woo us. Arminians can never figure out why God doesn't woo everyone and why some do respond favorably. It is all God's grace. "Salvation is of the Lord" (cf. Jonah 2:9). It is not of the Lord and man, nor of man.

Freewill can do nothing but evil, according to Martin Luther. We are unable to do nothing but evil: Augustine says:  we cannot not sin, or in Latin non posse non peccare.  John 1: 11-13 and Rom. 9:16 clearly say that salvation is not of man's will, but of God ("It is not of him who willeth, nor of him who runneth, but of God who showeth mercy"). "Who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man...." "Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of Hosts...." Ps. 110:3 says He makes us willing in the day of His power. David prays for a willing spirit in Psalm 51:12.   "He works in us both to do and to will of His good pleasure" (Phil. 2:13).   Soli Deo Gloria!