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GIRS syllabus index: Survey Studies in Reformed Theology Unit Index: Subjective Soteriology |
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Free Will
by Pastor Bob Burridge ©1998
Westminster Confession of Faith chapter 9
I. God hath endued the will of man with that natural liberty, that it is neither forced, nor, by any absolute necessity of nature, determined to good, or evil.
II. Man, in his state of innocency, had freedom, and power to will and to do that which was good and well pleasing to God; but yet, mutably, so that he might fall from it.
III. Man, by his fall into a state of sin, hath wholly lost all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation: so as, a natural man, being altogether averse from that good, and dead in sin, is not able, by his own strength, to convert himself, or to prepare himself thereunto.
IV. When God converts a sinner, and translates him into the state of grace, he freeth him from his natural bondage under sin; and, by his grace alone, enables him freely to will and to do that which is spiritually good; yet so, as that by reason of his remaining corruption, he doth not perfectly, nor only, will that which is good, but doth also will that which is evil.
V. The will of man is made perfectly and immutably free to good alone, in the state of glory only.
A complex problem
One problem that faces us in a discussion of the freedom of the will of man is the complexity
of the issue. It is not just a matter of exegeting a few well identified passages of Scripture.
It demands that we take the many references to man's mind, intentions, understanding, emotions,
decisions, reasoning, soul and heart and combine them with the various teachings about the
effects of sin, the work of the Holy Spirit, the effects of regeneration and the callings of
God. In this matter our understanding of all of Scripture on these issues must be blended to
form a model based only upon the sound data God has given.
Complicating the issue even more is that the one doing the study is the subject of the study. Fallen man, bound within his creaturely finiteness, is far from a neutral investigator. His own depravity and incomplete sanctification will influence him in ways he may not easily identify. He is also influenced in his thinking by the surrounding attitudes of an information and education system dominated by humanism.
A further handicap in this study is that the words we use in formulating our views already have common understandings in our present culture and often share a whole range of meanings. Often a discussion of man's will may use terms in several different ways confusing both the speaker and the listener. Our modern use of the word "freedom" is likewise heavily laden with historic and philosophical implications.
The Will of Man
Charles Hodge specifies both a wide and a narrow sense of the term "will" as it relates to
man (Systematic Theology, part 2, chapter 2, section 2). In the wide sense it includes "all
the desires, affections, and even emotions." In this sense it includes all the faculties of
the soul that are not comprehended under man's mere store of knowledge. In the narrow sense
it is used of the power of self-determination, of that "faculty by which we decide on our acts."
In this last sense "only purposes and imperative volitions are acts of the will."
Given these varying uses of the term, we may affirm certain things about the will in the one sense while denying them in the other. If careful distinction is not made great confusion emerges.
Diagram of the Nature of Man relating to his Will: Note the accompanying diagram which presents a proposed theological model for the nature of man. It attempts to present in a graphic manner the way in which the biblical data concerning the various faculties of man relate. Added to the model are some other elements derived from our present and limited understanding of the physical parts of man. The additional material should not be received as data. Only that which is directly stated in Scripture, or which is derived by good an necessary deduction from the same, is worthy of being taken as fact. The other concepts are added to explore how they might be accounted for within the scope of the revealed information.
The Concept of Freedom
There is one sense in which man is free as he makes choices, and another sense in which he
is not free. No one is compelled to decide contrary to what he truly desires to do once all
known information is considered and weighed. Yet man's desires themselves are bound by the
moral state of the person in question.
We affirm that man is a "free agent." A. A. Hodge explains in his commentary on the confession that this expression includes three elements.
1. That he has the power of originating action...
2. That he always wills that which ... he desires to will
3. That he is furnished with reason to distinguish between the true and the false,
and with conscience to distinguish between the right and the wrong.
Walter Chantry (Man's Will - Free Yet Bound) alluded to Anselm's observation who wrote in critique of those who say that true liberty is impossible if the person is not able to have options that are real possibilities. Anslem reasoned, "if ability to sin is necessary to true liberty or responsibility, then God is neither free nor praiseworthy."
The presumption that freedom must include full ability to select all the imaginable options is not consistent with the concept of liberty as presented in Scripture. This matter will become clearer after a discussion of the states of man and of the various attempts to understand the will of man and how his freedom relates to the certainty of the decrees of God.
The confession speaks of a "natural liberty." This term is understood in various ways. On the one hand the term "natural" could be taken as relating to the ability of man as a being in the broadest sense. But God's word indicates that the eternal and perfect decrees of God are not able to be modified by the choices of man rendering this sense of the term "natural liberty" to be without support. Or the term can be taken more narrowly relating to the natural liberty of the will alone in making its choices. This means that there is no God created limit that would keep man from making a particular choice if he was able to do so within the bounds of his moral disposition.
Humans are true agents of their actions
Our view of man's ability to make choices freely must not conflict with
facts clearly given to us in Scripture. God is unambiguously revealed to be
sovereign over all things. Whatever he pleases to do he always does
(Psalm 135:6). Nothing is left uncertain in the mind of or in the decrees of
God. Nothing is contingent upon the acts or choices of finite creatures
including man.
It is also clear from Scripture that the choices and actions of creatures are real. Humans are the responsible agents of all the things they do. The Bible speaks of persons making choices and decisions. They are said to sin, believe, repent and fall away. The gospel calls for men to turn to Christ as their redeemer. We are all commanded to obey what our Creator has spoken in his law. The reality of secondary causes is part of the universe as God made it and reveals it.
There is no conflict with these facts unless we incorporate them into a system of thought that is not drawn from Scripture, but that emerges from the fallen creativity of the mind of the mere creature. [See syllabus: Theology Proper, chapter four, The Decrees of God.]
Therefore our view of the human will must not interpret freedom as including the ability to act in ways contrary to the decrees of God. Yet it must include the fact that men do choose to act in ways, and to believe things to be true, which are contrary to the revealed law and truth of God.
A sound biblical model must also consider that man's fall into sin has left him depraved and unable to desire that which is truly good, or to rightly understand spiritual truth (Romans 3:10-12, 1 Corinthians 2:14). [see syllabus: Objective Soteriology, chapter 2, pages 35-39 on Original Sin.]
Analysis of the proposed diagram of man's nature
Man receives information from God's creation through the senses given
him by the Creator. The information is transformed neurally into a form
that can be processed by the person's mind. Information can be stored for
later retrieval or held in temporary places as it is being processed. Man is also
influenced by the signals his own body gives to him about its own physical
condition. What we commonly call the will is that part of the mind of man
which processes information to formulate courses of action, or states and
convictions of mind. Man's conclusions are based upon the information
available, the accuracy with which that information is processed, and the
moral inclinations of the person.
The information a person has available to him is limited and imperfect. The data coming to him through his senses is immediately distorted by the inability of his fallen soul to rightly perceive God's truth and glory in creation and in providence. The data retrieved from memory must be selected from all that is stored. It will be selected on the basis of the pre-judged relevance of the information. This may cause helpful information to be overlooked, or unrelated information to be incorporated due to emotional attachments with an issue. Therefore the process of evaluating data as a basis for our choices is complex and bound to err.
The moral aspect of our choices is even more complex. Scripture indicates that there is a bondage upon the desires of man. While he is free to choose what he desires, he is not free to desire what is contrary to his moral disposition.
The History of Man's Moral Nature
The chart below is a theological model. It attempts to compare the
abilities and moral inclinations of man based upon the information we have
available in Scripture.
| State of man in history | Morally Able to do | Inclined by Nature to | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GOOD | EVIL | GOOD | EVIL | |
| Created | yes | yes | no | no |
| Fallen | no | yes | no | yes |
| Redeemed | yes | yes | yes | no |
| Glorified | yes | no | yes | no |
The Westminster Confession chapter 9 summarizes each of these moral states of man as follows ...
Man in the State of Innocency
II. Man, in his state of innocency, had freedom, and power to will and to do that which was good and well pleasing to God; but yet, mutably, so that he might fall from it.
Man, as God originally created him, was not morally bound to good or to evil. He was able to do either. Since he was created as a mutable being, his moral state was not fixed. God, by decree, connected man's ability to do good with his obedience to the moral principles revealed to him in Eden. As long as he continued to obey, man lived in fellowship with God and was able to both rightly perceive the moral aspects of the data available to him, and was able to make choices without prejudice toward evil.
Man in the State of Bondage
III. Man, by his fall into a state of sin, hath wholly lost all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation: so as, a natural man, being altogether averse from that good, and dead in sin, is not able, by his own strength, to convert himself, or to prepare himself thereunto.
Fallen man lost his ability to do good when he became morally bound to evil. His ability to choose what he desires remained. In that sense his will remains "free" or unbounded. But he lost the desire to do good or to rightly understand how the good relates to the glory of the true God. In this sense his "will" became bound. He is not able to do good because he is morally opposed to it and cannot desire it in its God-honoring sense.
Fallen man is never forced to sin. He is not a helpless victim of divine or external forces of any sort. His wickedness comes from within. He sins most willingly.
Man in the State of Grace
IV. When God converts a sinner, and translates him into the state of grace, he freeth him from his natural bondage under sin; and, by his grace alone, enables him freely to will and to do that which is spiritually good; yet so, as that by reason of his remaining corruption, he doth not perfectly, nor only, will that which is good, but doth also will that which is evil.
By his work of regeneration, God makes the sinner alive again spiritually (Ephesians 2:1-5). The new life he has in Christ compels him to desire to come to the Savior for forgiveness and to strive to live obediently out of thankfulness for God's grace. No man is ever forced into faith against his will. He freely desires to come to Christ when God changes the moral inclinations of his nature. In all this, the person's will remains free in that he does what he desires. But he is never able to change his moral inclinations which determine his desires. For man to desire to change his desires is a self contradiction.
Though the moral desires of the regenerate man bring him into bondage to righteousness (Romans 6:18) he is not set free in this life from the remaining habits of sin and the temptations of his yet unglorified condition. He is still able to do evil, though it is inconsistent with what God reveals to be right and true. We will consider this more fully under the heading of "sanctification" in the 13th chapter of the Westminster Confession.
Man in the State of Glory
V. The will of man is made perfectly and immutably free to good alone, in the state of glory only.
When the believer is raised to the state of glory he is set free from his struggle with the remaining effects of sin. He will no longer be able to choose to do the evil because his desire for good, and his ability to rightly perceive the moral aspect of his choices as they relate to the holiness of God, will have been perfected. In this state he always chooses to do what is right and good because his desires will have been fully sanctified. He continues to have a free will in that he does what he desires to do. But then his will becomes free in another sense. In glory he is able consistently to do what pleases God, and he will be unable to sin.
1 John 3:2 "now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet that we shall be. We know that, if He should appear, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is."
Man's Moral Ability in the State of Bondage
Man, due to his fallen nature, denies that he has a moral disposition
which has controlling influence upon his decision process. The unbeliever
considers himself to be morally neutral and able to base his choices upon
only the information that comes to him by his senses, which he presumes he
is able to understand sufficiently.
To the naturalist, man is little more than a psycho-chemical machine operating on a level advanced from the animals but not qualitatively different from them. Man's choices are seen as springing from his genetic potential developed by his personal experiences and environment. His decisions are determined by what he has become. These choices then determine what yet he is to become.
The influence of humanism upon modern religion has produced views that, while claiming to be both biblical and Christian, actually subject God's plans to the choices of man. Man, instead of God, is viewed as sovereign ruler over his future through the power of his own choices.
The Reformed position resists the appeal of our fallen nature to imagine that man is both morally neutral and undetermined by the decrees of God. Though we are free to choose what we desire, our desires are governed by our moral nature and the decrees of God. No one is able to change his own nature. No one is able to resist what has been decreed from eternity past. Only God can change a fallen heart and incline it toward good. In regeneration God changes our moral nature and enables the person to act in a manner truly honoring to his Creator.
The determinism of fatalistic religions eliminates the reality of man's own actions. Men are treated as if they were mere objects in the hands of the divine. If a god is in us acting and producing our choices by external coercion, then we have fallen into the danger of pantheism. We become mere extensions of God. If God is the one doing the sinful acts through us then he is the author of sin. Evil loses its wickedness. Since this view treats others with this detachment, it tends to be inhumane and has a little regard for human life itself. People are seen as mere objects to God. Compassion is lost. Responsibility is denied.
The humanistic views see man as little more than a bio-chemical machine determined by the "programming" of his environment which includes his education and social influences. Those which influence us are blamed for our evil actions. The secular form of humanism sees progress as the continuing evolution of man and other living beings. Social advancement and personal achievement are the ultimate goals toward which they believe our ethical decisions ought to be directed. There is no set end and no objective moral boundary for the means used to achieve our goals. Man is believed to select among perceived options according to his genetic ability as directed by learned dispositions.
The religious forms of humanism see God as a non-sovereign divine influence upon man. Man is the final determiner of the course of events relating to his own choices. Those who fail to make good choices are considered inferior morally and intellectually to those who make what is judged a "good choice". This tends to create an arrogance and sense of superiority over others.
The gospel message of the religious humanist is spread by manipulating people's emotions and other factors that direct their choices. He tends to combine intellectual arguments and manipulative emotional settings for the purpose of getting people to make specific choices or decisions. They see God's blessings as coming upon individuals by their own determination and merit. Arminian evangelicalism centers upon these forms of "salesmanship" regarding the gospel. Getting people to make particular choices becomes the determining factor in the work of religion. The end is again more important than the means which are seen as totally in the hands of man.
According to the Reformed view, God is both personal and sovereign. He ordains both the means and the ends. But how the means operate in man remains unknown because they are unrevealed. Deuteronomy 29:29 is the operative principle. Our duty is to do what God has revealed as right. The secret things of God's operations remain unknown until they show themselves in the unfolding of providence.
Man is free in his choices but he cannot change his moral disposition. No being can change his own nature for to desire to do so would already imply a departure from what that nature is. Only God can change the moral disposition of fallen individuals. The reason for this limitation is that man in his fallen condition is dead in sin and in need of divine regeneration. Only by being made alive spiritually is he able to believe in Christ and embrace the provision of atonement.
This reformed view promotes a true humane concern for others and compassion. All human life has value objectively because it is made in the image of God. All the good that men do is seen as caused by the merciful work of God, and calls for humble gratitude from the creature. All evil is seen as the sin of the creature which is both determined with certainty by God from all eternity, yet is the action and responsibility of the creature. Both the ends, and all the means to those ends, are within the decrees of God. People are not inferior for not making the choice of faith. They are simply left to their natural moral inabilities which would bind us all if it was not for the work of Christ and the application of that work by the Holy Spirit.
The Reformed view of man is not based upon mere philosophy and reason. It is based upon the direct teachings of the inspired Scriptures which leave no doubt about their message when left to speak for themselves. One text that clearly illustrates this view is John 6. There, Jesus explained the nature of man regarding his moral inability to come in faith to the message of the gospel. He taught that this coming in faith can only take place by the supernatural work of regeneration which is based upon the eternal decree of election.
In John 6 Jesus explained that this moral inability of fallen man requires that God must first change the heart, or man cannot come to the Savior. That work is limited to those given to the Son by the Father from eternity. Note the following texts in particular ...
37 "All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.
40 "For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him, may have eternal life; and I Myself will raise him up on the last day."
44-47 "No one can come to Me, unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the prophets, 'And they shall all be taught of God.' Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me. Not that any man has seen the Father, except the One who is from God; He has seen the Father. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life.
If God works by grace to enable a particular heart to come to him, that person most certainly will come and will be received at the assurance of the Savior. This coming is based upon the eternal decree of election (Ephesians 1:4, Romans 8:29-30). We only know those called by God when they actually come to Him. This idea is dramatically opposed to the disposition of our fallen hearts. It even caused defections from Jesus as he taught these things.
60-66 Many therefore of His disciples, when they heard this said, "This is a difficult statement; who can listen to it?" But Jesus, conscious that His disciples grumbled at this, said to them, "Does this cause you to stumble? What then if you should behold the Son of Man ascending where He was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. But there are some of you who do not believe." For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who it was that would betray Him. And He was saying, "For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me, unless it has been granted him from the Father." As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew, and were not walking with Him anymore.
A typical reply to this passage is to suggest that God draws each individual human to come to Christ as Savior. They presume that this "drawing" includes all of humanity without exception. To explain why every person does not come to Christ, they conclude that it must be a decision of man that ultimately determines if he will respond to that drawing and come to Christ. To support this theological idea reference is often made to another text, John 12:32.
12:31-33 "Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world shall be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself." But He was saying this to indicate the kind of death by which He was to die.
The problem with using this text is that the issue being addressed is totally different. In John 12 God is not said to draw all men to Jesus for salvation. It says that he draws all men to himself for judgment. The victory over the "ruler of his world" (Satan) was about to be secured in the death of Jesus on the cross. As we are drawn to the crucified Savior we are judged either as those defeated with Satan, or as those redeemed by the Savior's death in our place.
If this text meant that all men are drawn savingly to Christ, then God failed, because not all men come to him. Jesus said that all who are drawn do actually come to him (compare John 6:37 and 6:44). This tension cannot be removed by merely introducing the humanistic assumption that man's neutral choice is left to be the final arbiter. The John 6 text says that they come.
The John 12 text does not mean that all men are drawn savingly to Christ. God did not fail in the work Jesus Christ came to do. He gloriously succeeded and has secured the full redemption of those he determined to save from before the foundation of the world.