Freedom From Freedom of the Will

For people of the world today their so-called “free-will” is the be-all and the end-all of their identity. Without it, they believe, they would be automatons. Without it they would have no raison d’être because their perception of their reason for being is so that they can will to do or to be anything they want. They may choose to do good or not on the basis of their own reason. Their ability to actually choose is sacrosanct to them. The very idea that they might not be in absolute control of their own choices destroys their sense of identity and, therefore, either offends or enrages them.

Yet these are often the same ones who embrace the deterministic attitudes by which many destructive behaviours are mitigated or excused. It was their genes or their environment that caused the behaviour, and they are therefore “not responsible” or were acting in a “diminished capacity”. Such thinking is wonderful humanism, but it is lousy soteriology. In fact, it is the unavoidable result and the inevitable end of humanism.

These humanistic influences have also polluted the heart of the faith of many. Some Christians actually believe today that the unsaved have the power to choose between believing in Christ unto salvation or remaining under condemnation, even though the Bible clearly does not teach this. Such thinking is based on the erroneous belief that fallen man can form the will to choose between good and evil. He cannot. Man has the responsibility to choose the good over the evil, but he no longer has the desire to do so. His will is corrupted, along with everything else about him.

A corrupt will is not a free will. A corrupt will, lacking the power to choose the good, is actually enslaved to evil. Since it is able to make only one choice there is, in reality, no choice at all and the very concept of freedom of the will (soteriologically speaking) becomes absurd. A careful and proper understanding of this Biblical truth frees us from the error of absolving man of responsibility for sin on the basis of the impotency of his will. Left to himself fallen man will always choose evil, yet he is still responsible to his Maker for not choosing good. This is the sting in the promise of Satan that Adam and Eve would “know good and evil”. They were not promised that they would know good from evil. Not knowing the difference is fatal.

Much of modern Christianity is so permeated with worldly thinking that few can shake the carnal dogma of freedom of the will as it applies to the unsaved. Flying in the face of scripture they think anyone can become a Christian simply by willing it of their own volition. This can lead to humanistic attempts to spread the gospel, less on the basis of the leading and movement of the Holy Spirit, and more on the basis of carnal effort. God still saves many – because all that the Father has given to the Son will be saved – but He does this despite the beliefs of some of the messengers, rather than because of them.

Because God has every right to demand of His fallen creatures that they repent and believe, and that they love and obey Him, in no way implies that they are any longer willing to do so. But some would deny God that right on the basis of the lostness of His creatures! Because men are universally “unwilling” to come on account of their own unwavering preference for sin, the thinking goes, then God has no right to demand that they come. Such deluded and twisted thinking is blasphemous in the extreme.

Rather than commit to this blasphemy, some believers therefore commit another. They give all men the ability to come “if they will”. They restore, on God’s behalf but without His permission and prior to regeneration, fallen man’s original nature and, with it, his moral ability to choose the good. At a stroke they deny the total depravity of man as taught in the Bible – and as preached by our blessed Saviour - and restore human nature halfway to sanctification.

God justly demands that all men everywhere repent – and His justness is in no way diminished by their invariable unwillingness to do so. Because their will is enslaved to sin and can do nothing but choose the evil in no way reflects upon God. Men prefer evil. Men are in a permanent state of rebellion against the truth. Men are in darkness – not twilight, not dawning, not even firelight – they are in utter and complete (spiritual) darkness – a darkness justly called “death”.

God, therefore, must be the One who brings about their salvation. Jesus is the Way and faith is the means – but God’s elective grace is the reason. It is not a decision left to fallen man. It is not a change originating in the will of man at all, but a sovereign election springing from the eternal counsels of God. It is God, working through His elective providence by the power of the Holy Spirit, Who brings man to a willingness to accept and live in Christ. He does this without violating their will, and without any outward sign that they are acting with any other faculty than that of the rest of the world.

So far corrupted is modern Christianity in some circles that the very idea of God’s sovereign elective grace often elicits hostility rather than reverence. Such carnal thinking calls God unjust for electing some while leaving others under condemnation. If He is going to save some, they think, then He must save all. Since He does not save all He must be an unfair monster. What a vile travesty of the truth from the father of lies this is! As for Christ, the natural man still will not have this Man to reign over him.

The law, Paul said, was a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. God’s just and righteous commands are not given because we will to obey them (even though we are obliged to) – but as a reminder that, apart from His righteousness living within us in the Person of Jesus Christ, we are unable to do so. Exhortations to stand, continue, persevere, last, carry on to the end and so forth are given for the same reason. They are not given because we are able to do so of ourselves. They are given so that we will be constantly reminded of Who it is that is at work within us both to will and to do His good pleasure, and so that we will, in faith, cast ourselves upon Him to perform it in us through our crucified wills.

On a final note, and I speak with the utmost reverence, we would all do well to consider the limitations of God’s will before we start defending our right to freedoms of our own. There are things that God cannot do. He cannot lie. In fact, He cannot sin at all. It is not simply a question that He chooses not to sin – that is false theology and an improper understanding of God. The point is that God’s actions are limited by His very nature, which never changes. Since He is pure and holy then only purity and holiness can possibly spring from His being.

Now, on the other hand, consider fallen man. His nature is absolutely corrupt. And that corruption is what prevents his choosing good. Along with all else about him, man’s will itself is corrupt. We will not come to God. The nature of a being, then, is what dictates the direction of the will. From a pure well comes pure water. But from a poisoned well, no amount of drawing will ever bring up anything potable. An entirely new well must be dug by God Himself.