The Free Will of Man and the Gospel
One of the great philosophical debates in the history of the Church was between 16th Century theologians Martin Luther and Desiderius Erasmus.
Luther had come to the conclusion that the Church of Rome was in need of more than just moral revival, but a theological revival. To contend with Erasmus, Luther wrote what is considered to be his most important work, “The Bondage of the Will.”
Succinctly, he argues that man’s will is under the bondage of sin; therefore, man is not free and does not have free will.
This is consistent with the broader context of the Reformation that held that when Adam fell in the Garden of Eden, he was representing all of mankind. When he fell, man fell with him. More importantly, Adam’s penalty was imputed to all of man.
The Westminster Shorter Catechism addresses the penalty in this way:
“Wherein consists the sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell? The sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell, consists in the guilt of Adam’s first sin, the want of original righteousness, and the corruption of his whole nature, which is commonly called original sin; together with all actual transgressions which proceed from it.”
Luther’s own personal nagging question that led to own his salvation was, “have I done enough?” We might add, “can I do enough to make myself good enough?”
The answer is no. No individual can make themselves good enough before the eyes of God to deserve His grace.
Because of the fall, man is not good. He is a sinner. He may be good from a societal standpoint, and he may do good deeds. However, this is not the point.
God says we are not good from His perspective, and we are under His wrath and curse.
Because of the Fall of Adam we are all guilty, and the penalty of that guilt includes the loss of free will, among other things.
The outcome of our fallen state is total inability to know God, and total depravity. We have lost communion with God, and our nature is corrupted. We have lost all righteousness and therefore are totally unacceptable to God.
Furthermore, we have lost all ability to return to God. The Fall affected everything about us; especially, the way we think and reason.
Free will assumes that this biblical assessment is incorrect. It assumes that we are free to choose and determine the path of our lives and that our destiny belongs entirely to the exercise of our own free will.
In the Christian tradition, many churches hold that man has free will. How can God hold man accountable if man does not have free will? And, God is fair. Because man is free, God will judge the outcome of his life fairly. Because man is free, man chooses his own destiny. In the liberal tradition, if man chooses to be good, God will accept man.
Some Christian denominations hold that the Church exists to merely remind us of this and to encourage us to be good.
In the semi-Pelagian or Roman Catholic tradition, man is free and able to determine his fate. If he makes the right choices, God will come and infuse righteousness into him and accept him on the basis of the grace of God, mediated by the Church and its sacramental system.
In the Arminian tradition, man is wounded, but still able to come to God. They hold that man still has free will and that man is depraved, but not totally depraved. They believe that God’s grace comes to all, and man is able to freely choose or reject it. If man chooses it, he is saved.
In both of these two traditions, a saved man can freely opt out of God’s grace and lose his salvation. The Five Solas and the Canons of Dort, which was the Dutch Reformed Church’s response to the followers of Jacob Arminius, refute this claim.
The Reformed Tradition’s Belief of Free Will
In the Reformed tradition, man’s will is not free, but under bondage to his fallen nature and the spiritual forces of darkness. Of course, man is free to make choices in the physical world– this bondage is of the spiritual world.
J.I. Packer, in his introduction to Luther’s “Bondage of the Will”, states, “the denial of free will was to Luther the foundation of the Biblical doctrine of grace, and a hearty endorsement of that denial was the first step for anyone who would understand the gospel and come to faith in God. The man who has not yet practically and experimentally learned the bondage of his will in sin has not yet comprehended any part of the gospel; for this is the hinge on which all turns, the ground on which the gospel rests.”
Scripture that Refutes The Doctrine of Free Will
Romans 3:10-12
“There is none righteous, not even one; There is none who understands, There is none who seeks for God; All have turned aside, together they have become useless; There is none who does good, There is not even one.”
1 Corinthians 2:14
“But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.”
Ephesians 2:1-3
“And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.”
The Divine Response to the Loss of Freedom
Thankfully, God acts to save his people.
He provides His Son, Jesus Christ, to pay the penalty of our sin and to reconcile us to God. He recovers us.
Christ’s righteousness is imputed to our account and is the entire basis of our salvation (The Doctrine of Justification).
God also sends His spirit to regenerate us and apply Christ’s work to our lives. He gives us spiritual life and infuses grace to help us (The Doctrine of Sanctification).
Our spiritual freedom is in part restored, but that freedom will not become total and final until eternity and glorification.
The essential point is that God liberates His people from bondage. Because of man’s bondage to sin, we are unable to liberate ourselves. Therefore, God must act to save His people, and He alone is able to. Men cannot save themselves, and men who are spiritually dead cannot believe.
We cannot make ourselves alive and acceptable to God.
Supporting Scripture of the Divine Response
John 1:12-13
“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”
Ephesians 2:4-9
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus, in order that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast.”
Titus 3:4-6
“But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, which He poured upon us richly, through Jesus Christ our Savior.”
Divine Freedom and Sovereignty
The only totally free and independent being in all life is God.
He acts freely, and nothing can stop or prevent him from securing his will. He is sovereign.
The sovereignty of God is the outworking of His total supremacy as King over all. He decrees everything, and he is able to affect what he has decreed.
The Westminster Shorter Catechism defines the decrees of God (as) his eternal purpose, according to the counsel of his will, whereby, for his own glory, he has foreordained whatsoever comes to pass.
Supporting Scripture of Divine Sovereignty
Isaiah 46:9-10
“Remember the former things long past, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, Declaring the end from the beginning And from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, ‘My purpose will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure.”
Romans 9:15-23
“For He says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.’ So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, ‘For this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth.’ So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires. You will say to me then, ‘Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?’ On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, ‘Why did you make me like this,’ will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use, and another for common use? What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And He did so in order that He might make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory.”
Ephesians 1:3-5, 11
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, . . . also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will.”
Conclusion
To affirm that man has free will of man is contrary to Scripture, and contrary to the very nature of God who alone is free.
Additionally, it is contrary to the very nature of the Gospel which is entirely by grace alone. It proclaims salvation is entirely attributed to God’s sovereign power, for man is not just unwilling, but unable to come to Christ. To affirm otherwise is to retreat back to the theology of Rome and Erasmus.
When Jesus went to the synagogue in Nazareth in Luke 4, he said:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are downtrodden, To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.”
This is the gospel, and it hinges entirely on the sovereign will, power, and ability of Jesus Christ.
