Amazing Free Will, How Sweet the Sound? Not Quite.
"I do not come into this pulpit hoping that perhaps somebody will of his own free will return to Christ. My hope lies in another quarter. I hope that my Master will lay hold of some of them and say, 'You are mine, and you shall be mine. I claim you for myself.' My hope arises from the freeness of grace, and not from the freedom of the will."Does a man have a free will? To answer in the affirmative or negative without qualification is just an exercise in reductionism, which only begs more questions. By free will what do we mean? Let me preface this question, and note, one should avoid the twin perils of an egotistic will-exaltation and the denial of the will. Some over viglilant Arminian theologians ascribe near-salvific powers to free will—as if sinful man whimsically wills himself to salvation. This is a falsehood. In contrast, some overvigilant Hyper-Calvinists (as opposed to Calvinists) reach the point of errantly denying man has a free will altogether in reactionary fashion. This is a false view too. Both sides miss the point. Now consider this, sinful man's problem is not the lack of a will per se, but rather that he is in bondage to his will, and that will is to sin!
—C.H. Spurgeon
Walter Chantry offers this incisive observation:
Pelagian, Arminian and modern Fundamentalist support for the moral and spiritual freedom of the will usually centres on one point. We have admitted that man has a responsible freedom. He is free to be himself. He is held accountable for his words and deeds, especially for his receiving or rejecting Christ. On all of this we agree. They use this toehold to argue that the will is not in bondage to sin but has the power of contrary choice. It can do either good or evil, at least when confronted with the gospel. They insist that the responsibility of the will to choose Christ implies ability of the will to choose Christ.Chafer raises a good point. Let us go through an exercise, and ask some questions, and square them with Scriptures. Can man will himself not to be a sinner and thus wholly perfect? The answer is NO. The Word tells us, "...[F]or there is no one who does not sin..." (1 Kgs. 8:46). "[F]or all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God..." (Rom. 3:23). To be sure, man is a free moral agent capable of making moral choices and decisions.
"Because the depraved mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be" (Rom. 8:7).
So, when a person makes the claim that man has a free will? What do they imply? Some erroneously ascribe salvific attributes to man's will. The problem with the condition of "natural man" is that he is "dead in sins and trespasses" and spiritually "blind" and spiritually "dead." He has no cognizance of his perilous condition as a sinner. And it is only by the grace of God, and the supernatural quickening of the Holy Spirit that illuminates his eyes to the truth of the Gospel. Salvation and repentance are all of God. The Apostle Paul observes:
1 And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, 2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, 3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. 4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.But there is definitely a theological sense in which man has a free will per se—in a certain precise connotation. Men are free moral agents, with a free will, capable of making moral decisions with moral consequences. To deny this, is to teeter off the cliff to fatalism. Yet God holds sinful mankind individually accountable and judges according to our works. Where we fall short, we seek the grace of God.
—Ephesians 2
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Man's Will- Free Yet Bound
posted by Ryan S. | 10:37 AM
2 Comments:
Hmmm... responsible freedom... well put. I like that you resist the fatal posture of the hard determinists.
"Where we fall short, we seek the grace of God.
What about where we don't fall short? Would you consider that we're in a permanent state of "short-ness?" In that case, grace is all we have.
(too much to think about on a Saturday. I'm going out to play.)
; )
Actually, whether one falls short by furlong or a gulf the size of the Atlantic is beside the point. One blemish of sin taints us, and we need a mediator and redeemer in Christ Jesus to free us from the bondage of sin. So, grace is as you say, all we have.
No better statement encapsulates the relation of human responsibility to divine sovereignty, then Philippians 2:12-13: "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is at work in you to will and to work for his good pleasure." God renews our will through His indwelling Holy Spirit, which we are unequivocally dependent upon in order to do good works. We should act as though it depends on us, and pray as though everything depends on God.
To clarify, actually, I am a determinist, and I do not resent the label as long as it is with qualification. I could concur in large part with the theses of Jonathan Edwards in Freedom of the Will and Martin Luther in Bondage of the Will.
I think any believer who takes divine sovereignty seriously has to be deterministic in their thinking in large extent. There is a deterministic end to history with Christ's Second Advent. There is a deterministic decree in election, but predestination is unto grace and redemption.
I don't like abstract labels like soft and hard determinist, because they are extrabiblical philosophical concepts. The simple point is that divine sovereignty and human responsibility are both taught in Scriptures. It's a great mystery and paradoxical in many ways, but the two can be reconciled. I think many miss the point on the free will vis-a-vis sovereignty issues.
The Apostle Paul reminds us: So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy (Rom. 9:16). The Apostle James in similar fashion notes, "Instead you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.'" (Jas. 4:15).
This is a thorny issue, and Scriptural clarity is sometimes muddled in theological jousting and rhetorical exchanges.
Freedom has subjective meaning, and no one truly knows freedom until they fathom that true freedom is freedom from the bondage of sin, which can only come through faith.
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