FREE WILL
All people freely
and voluntarily and willingly reject the gospel because it is their heart’s
desire to do so. A person’s freedom consists in the ability to act according to
one’s desires and inclinations without being compelled to do otherwise by
something or someone external to himself.
So long as one’s choice is the voluntary fruit of one’s desire, the will is
free. This is what I mean when I say, “Yes, all people are free
moral agents.” On the other hand, to say that a person has free will is to say
that he has equal ability or power to accept or reject the gospel. It is to say
that he is as able to believe as to disbelieve, and that this ability springs
from his own making and is native to him notwithstanding his fallen and sinful
state. If this is what you mean when you ask me, “Is man free?” my answer, or
rather, the answer of the Bible, is “No.” A man’s will
is the extension and invariable expression of his nature. As he is, so
he wills. A man is no more free to act or to
will or to choose contrary to his nature than an apple tree is free to produce
acorns.
Sam Storms
Freedom and Depravity – Part II, November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
We are not kept
from believing against our wills. “The one who comes to Me,”
declares Jesus, “I will certainly not cast out” (John 6:37b). The problem,
however, as Jesus goes on to say, is that “no one can come to Me, unless the Father who sent Me draws him” (John 6:44a;
italics added).
Sam Storms
Freedom and Depravity – Part II, November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
The question, then, is this: Does the Bible teach that
people have the power and initiative within their own will to believe the
gospel? The question is not, “Are people morally
responsible for their actions?” The Bible declares that we are. We are
responsible to God for every act of will and work that we perform. Neither is
the question, “Do people have the opportunity to believe?” The Bible
declares that we do. God has made Himself known to all people, either in nature,
conscience, or the gospel, so that all are without excuse (Rom. 1:18-23;
2:14-16; Ac. 14:16-17). The question, rather, is this: Do people have a free
and unfettered will by which they are able to believe? The Bible declares that
they do not. The teaching of Scripture is that all people are born into this
life corrupt in nature and therefore ill-disposed to the gospel and to the
truth.
Sam Storms
Freedom and Depravity – Part I, November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
Something
terrible has happened to us. We have lost all desire for God. The thoughts and
desires of our heart are only evil continuously. The freedom of our will is a
curse. Because we can still choose according to our desires, we choose sin and
this we become accountable to the judgment of God.
Taken from: Essential Truths of the Christian Faith by R. C. Sproul, Copyright © 1992 (Sproul), p. 180, Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.
If
the final decision for the salvation of fallen sinners were left in the hands
of fallen sinners, we would despair all hope that anyone would be saved.
R.C. Sproul
[We without
God have] wills that choose…the problem is that even though we have the power
to choose, we are dead to the things of God, and as a result have no desire for
the things of God. Rather, we follow a different course. We follow it
willfully; we follow it freely, in the sense of doing what we want to do. But
with respect to spiritual things, we are dead.
R.C. Sproul
The Purpose of God, An Exposition of Ephesians, Christian Focus Publications, 1994, p. 47.
It always
seems inexplicable to me that those who claim free will so very boldly for man
should not also allow some free will to God. Why should not Jesus Christ have
the right to choose his own bride?
C.H. Spurgeon
Free
will carried many a soul to hell, but never a soul to heaven
C.H. Spurgeon
Free will I
have often heard of, but I have never seen it. I have met with will, and plenty
of it, but it has either been led captive by sin or held in blessed bonds of
grace.
C.H. Spurgeon
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.
Once there
was free will in paradise, and a terrible mess free will made there, for it
spoiled all paradise and turned Adam out of the garden. Free will was once in
heaven, but it turned the glorious archangel out, and a third part of the stars
of heaven fell into the abyss. I want nothing to do with free will, but I will
try to see whether I have got a free will within. And I find I have. Very free
will to do evil, but very poor will to do that which is good.
C.H. Spurgeon
Free-will
doctrine – what does it? It magnifies man into God; it declares God’s purposes
a nullity, since they cannot be carried out unless men are willing. It makes
God’s will a waiting servant to the will of man, and the whole covenant of
grace dependent upon human action. Denying election on the ground of injustice
it holds God to be a debtor to sinners, so that if He gives grace to one He is
bound to do so to all. It teaches that the blood of Christ was shed equally for
all men and since some are lost, this doctrine ascribes the difference to man’s
own will, thus making the atonement itself a powerless thing until the will of
man gives it efficacy. Those sentiments dilute the scriptural description of
man’s depravity, and by imputing strength to fallen humanity, rob the Spirit of
the glory of His effectual grace: this theory says in effect that it is
of him that willeth, and of him that runneth, and not of God that showeth
mercy.
C.H. Spurgeon
A
Jealous God, Sermon 502, March 29, 1863.
A man is not
saved against his will, but he is made willing by the operation of the Holy
Ghost. A mighty grace which he does not wish to resist enters into the man,
disarms him, makes a new creature of him, and he is saved.
C.H. Spurgeon
Sermons, 10.309.
We should
observe that God does not send anyone to hell. He desires that none should
perish (2 Pet. 3:9). God created humans to have fellowship with Him and
provided the means by which they can have that fellowship. It is a human's
choice to experience to agony of hell. His or her own sin sends the person
there, and his or her rejection of the benefits of Christ's death prevents
escape. As C.S. Lewis has put it, sin is the human being saying to God
throughout life, "Go away and leave me alone." Hell is God's finally
saying to the human, "You may have your wish." It is God's leaving
the person to himself or herself, as that individual has chosen.
Millard Erickson
Christian Theology, Baker, 1998.
Free-will
tears the reins of government out of the hands of God, and robs Him of His
power. It places the creatures beyond His absolute control and in some respects
gives them veto power over His eternal will and purpose. It even makes it
possible that angels and saints in heaven might sin, that there might again be
a general rebellion in heaven such as is supposed to have occurred when Satan
and the fallen angels were cast out, and that evil might become dominant or
universal.
Loraine Boettner
The Reformed Doctrine of
Predestination.
If God
actually stood powerless before the majesty of man’s lordly will, there would
be but little use to pray for Him to convert any one. It would then be more
reasonable for us to direct our petitions to the man himself.
Loraine Boettner
The Reformed Doctrine of
Predestination.
Much zeal is shown for the freedom of
man’s will; little jealousy seems to be left for the freedom of God’s will. Men insist that it is unjust and tyrannical in God to
control their wills, yet see nothing unjust, nothing proud, nothing Satanic in
attempting to fetter and direct the will of God. Man, it seems, cannot have his
own foolish will gratified, unless the all-wise God will consent to relinquish
His! Such are some of the steps in the march of Atheism. Such are the
preparations making in these last days by the wily usurper for dethroning the
Eternal Jehovah.
Horatius Bonar
The Reign of Grace, Preface, 1844.
Men are not
sinners because they choose to sin; they choose to sin because they are
sinners.
Walter J. Chantry
Man's Will-Free Yet Bound, The Banner of
Truth magazine, Issue 140, by permission Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. May
1975.
God never
forces men to act against their wills. By workings of outward providence or of
inward grace, the Lord may change men's minds, but He will not coerce a human
being into thoughts, words or actions.
Walter J. Chantry
Man's Will-Free Yet Bound, The Banner of
Truth magazine, Issue 140, by permission Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. May
1975.
Indeed, in
conversion, a man must make a decision. We shy away from that term because in
modern jargon a “decision” has come to be identified with an outward
expression, such as raising the hand or going forward to the front. While such
external acts have nothing to do with forgiveness of sins, the heart must make
a decision to be saved.
Walter J. Chantry
Man's Will-Free Yet Bound, The Banner of
Truth magazine, Issue 140, by permission Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. May
1975.
When a sinner
refuses to come to Christ, he is guilty because he has made a free choice. It
reflects his own state of mind, feeling and attitude toward GOD and His Son. He
has acted voluntarily without coercion. It is his decision.
Walter J. Chantry
Man's Will-Free Yet Bound, The Banner of
Truth magazine, Issue 140, by permission Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. May
1975.
If the will
were able to make decisions contrary to reason, and to the likes and desires of
the heart, it would be a monster… This is most profoundly true in the moral and
religious realms. When the mind is at war with God, denying His truth; when the
emotions hate Christ His Son; when the desires wish God's law and gospel were
exterminated from the earth; the will cannot be in a position to choose Christ.
If it were, a man would not be truly free to be himself. Here is the tragic truth about man's will.
While free from outward coercion, it is in a state of bondage. It is not in a stated neutrality. It is not a lever with which to move a
man's personality from sin to righteousness, from unbelief to faith.
Walter J. Chantry
Man's Will-Free Yet Bound, The Banner of
Truth magazine, Issue 140, by permission Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. May
1975.
Man is like a
tree. His heart, not his will alone, is the root. There is no possible way by
which the will can choose to produce fruit contrary to the character of the
root. If the root is bad, the tree is bound by its very nature to produce evil
fruit. Man is like a person standing
alongside his treasure chest. There is no possibility of bringing pure gold out
of a box filled only with rusty steel. The contents of the heart determine what
words and deeds may be brought out. Far from being neutral, the will must reach
into the heart for its choices. Every thought, word and deed will partake of
the nature of the treasure within. Man
is like a stream which cannot rise above its source. If the fountain is
polluted, the outflow will be evil. If the source be sweet, the stream will not
be bitter and cannot choose to be so.
These three illustrations alike contain the same lesson. What a man is
determines what he chooses. Choices of the will always reveal the character of
the heart, because the heart determines the choices.
Walter J. Chantry
Man's Will-Free Yet Bound, The Banner of
Truth magazine, Issue 140, by permission Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. May
1975.
Hell
is God’s great compliment to the reality of human freedom and the dignity of
human choice.
G.K. Chesterton
God can
restrain not only people’s actions, but even their most deeply rooted desires.
No part of the human heart is impervious to God’s sovereign but mysterious
control.
Jerry Bridges
Trusting God, 1988, p. 64. Used by permission of NavPress – www.navpress.com. All rights reserved.
So while the Bible asserts both God’s
sovereignty and people’s freedom and moral responsibility, it never attempts to
explain their relationship.
Jerry Bridges
Trusting God, 1988, p. 67. Used by permission of NavPress – www.navpress.com. All rights reserved.
We must not
misconstrue God’s sovereignty so as to make people mere puppets, so we must not
press man’s freedom to the point of limiting God’s sovereignty.
Jerry Bridges
Trusting God, 1988, p. 69. Used by permission of NavPress – www.navpress.com. All rights reserved.
Freewillism is that doctrine that says, “God
loves you, Christ died for you, and the Holy Spirit is calling you; but it will
all be vain unless you choose to be saved.” Freewillism
makes the determining factor in salvation to be the will of man. It makes the
work of the Triune God and the grace of God to be impotent without the consent
of man’s “freewill.” Freewill religion is in direct opposition to the gospel of
the free grace of God. The Bible declares that salvation is not accomplished,
determined by, or dependent upon the will of man, but by the will of God (John
1:12-13; Rom. 9:16). The word “freewill”, when used with reference to salvation
is a blasphemous obscenity!
Don Fortner
Damnable Heresies.
Used by Permission.
If any man
ascribes anything of salvation, even the very least thing, to the free will of
man, he knows nothing of grace, and he has not learned Jesus Christ rightly.
Martin Luther
Everything
will happen as God’s will has determined, but the freedom of people to choose
their actions is not infringed. Indeed, the freedom of moral agents is ratified,
because in His will He has determined that free agents will act freely. For
example, in God’s will it was impossible for the soldiers to break Christ’s
bones. But no coercion was laid upon them: they were free agents, who freely
chose not to break them.
Samuel
Willard
The Decrees of God, 1690.
The friends of
free-will are the enemies of free-grace.
John Trapp
A Puritan Golden Treasury,
compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 130.
A man’s free
will cannot cure him even of the toothache, or a sore finger; and yet he madly
thinks it is in its power to cure his soul. The greatest judgment which God
Himself can, in the present life, inflict upon a man is, to leave him in the
hand of his own boasted free will. Look where you will,
and you will generally find that free-willers are
very free livers. According to Arminianism, grace has the name, but free-will
has the game.
Augustus Toplady
To suppose
that whatever God requireth of us that we have power
of ourselves to do, is to make the cross and grace of Jesus Christ of none
effect.
John Owen