“FREEEEEDOOOM!” Those of us who made it through Mel Gibson’s “historical” (hehe) film Braveheart will likely never forget that final one-word public speech delivered (and with amazing volume, I might add) by a dying William Wallace. Do you know what gave that one word its ability to stir the hearts of his listeners to patriotic fervor? Their first-hand knowledge of that burden they wished to be freed from–tyranny. It just wouldn’t have fit with the drama of it all to have William cry out “FREEEDOOOM FROM TYRANNYYYY!” But that’s what his audience understood when they heard it. The term “freedom” has no real meaning apart from an understanding of what the freed person or thing is to be freed from. Obvious, right? We talk about free lunches, free thinkers, drawing freehand, freedom of speech, free will....
I’m willing to bet the “free from” element is quickly and easily identifiable for us in each of the above examples, except perhaps the last one (or maybe I’m just slow to catch on). I thought before moving on to the next point of doctrine in my mini-examination of the Calvinistic understanding of salvation, I’d try to briefly address the objection most often raised by non-Reformed Christians when the Calvinist lays out what he believes the Bible teaches about man’s total depravity, or his spiritual inability to respond positively to the gospel. “What about free will? Doesn’t God give people the power of choice?” These are fair questions. In trying to answer them, we better start by defining this thing called the will. Jonathan Edwards defined “the Will” in his Freedom of the Will (after all, you can’t beat Edwards on this topic!) as “that by which the mind chooses any thing. The faculty of the Will is that power or principle of mind by which it is capable of choosing: an act of the Will is the same as an act of choosing or choice.” So, with that eloquent definition before our mind’s eye, let’s try to initially determine what exactly can be meant by the rather ambiguous term “free will” by asking what (or who) the will could possibly be “free from,” then seeing if that concept of freedom is supported by Scripture.
Though the deep-thinker types among us could perhaps come up with more options than I have here, it seems to me that the most likely “entities” that a person’s will could possibly be thought to be “free from” are God, Satan, or our own sinful nature with its desires. (Are you sensing that perhaps I’m in over my head on this one? Me too. But now that I’ve started, I might as well see how this goes...you can always forgo reading my ramblings and instead pick up Edwards’ classic for a truly insightful look at the will of man!) I narrowed the choices down to these particular three because in the supernatural realm the only possible choices are God, who, being omnipotent, obviously possesses the power to control anyone or anything He wishes; and Satan (along with his demonic host), who, as the “god of this world,”is shown in Scripture to have great power and influence in this world–even to the point of being able to posses people’s bodies at times. In the realm of the natural, it seems to me that our own corrupt nature can be our only candidate. Here’s two reasons why: first of all, other people cannot actually control our will, though they may try through various means to coerce us into choosing to believe or act according to their desires (i.e., we are still finally able to refuse their influence); and secondly, because although we are certainly subject to outward influences such as our present circumstances or past experiences, in making a decision we can only say that we are influenced by them (or perhaps by our perception of them), not in any real sense controlled by those influences. Our own fallen nature (which must include our will), with its preferences and desires, is the only non-supernatural possible suspect here. Alright; let’s take a look at those three choices one at a time (and in reverse order, just to make things more confusing yet), looking at Scripture and remembering to ask ourselves, “When a person chooses whether to accept or reject the gospel, is their will truly ‘free’ from the determinative influence of God/Satan/our sinful nature?” We’ll look at the influence of our sinful nature and Satan in this post, and take a more thorough look at God’s influence over man in the next.
Our Sinful Nature
This one should be the most straightforward of the three to deal with. The controlling nature of unregenerate man’s desires is revealed to us in the Word in no uncertain terms. Within the last two posts we looked at two relevant passages: Romans 8:7-8, which speaks of the “carnal mind” and its inability to be subject to the law of God; and I Corinthians 2:14, which denies that the “natural man” is able to receive (i.e., believe, submit to) the “things of the Spirit of God”– because those truths are viewed as “foolishness” to him.
Perhaps more explicitly dealing with the question of the will’s freedom from the flesh (or lack thereof) are the words of Jesus to the Jews who professed belief in Him in John 8. At one point Jesus declared to them, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (v. 32). Completely missing His point, they replied that they are in no need of being freed, since they are “Abraham’s descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone” (v. 33). Note the Lord’s answer in verse 34: “Jesus answered them, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.’” What a powerful statement. In what sense are all men–for all commit sin–slaves of sin? I believe He was telling them (and, by extension, us) that in their unredeemed state their minds and wills were powerless before the pull of their sinful thoughts and desires. In what other sense could men be called “slaves” to an immaterial bent towards rebellion? Note also the only way out of this bondage: “the truth shall make you free.” Only Christ, who is “the way, he truth, and the life” (John 14:6; see also Ephesians 2:4-5). And it’s not your “free will” decision to trust Christ, for, as Jesus points out in this passage, your will is corrupt; it is enslaved to sin.
Jesus is not alone in His view of the will’s enslavement to sin. When Simon the Sorcerer displayed the true state of his heart by offering the apostles money in exchange for the power of the Holy Spirit, the apostle Peter perceived that Simon was “poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity” (Acts 8:23, emphasis added). Also, though we won’t look at the passage in depth here, Paul’s argument throughout Romans 6 focuses on Christ’s death and resurrection as the means of believers’ conversion from slavery to sin, to slavery to God and righteousness (see especially vv. 6, 16-22).
Satan
Next up is “that serpent of old.” We understand that the devil is a powerful spiritual being who holds significant influence in the world, causing as much mayhem as God’s sovereign will permits (see the first two chapters of Job, for example); but can people be rightly said to be enslaved to him? Though I admit I’m not able to fully grasp where or how to draw the line between our sinful nature’s controlling influence and that of Satan, I do know that Scripture speaks of the unsaved as being the devil’s slaves. In his second letter to Timothy, Paul gives instruction regarding the correction of “those who are in opposition,” in the hope that “God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will” (2:25-26, emphasis added). He’s not referring here to someone who is physically controlled by a demonic force; in the context of the chapter, he’s talking about false teachers who cause strife or division within the church (see verses14-23). Their minds, wills, and affections are captive to the devil. We need to also notice what is here said to be the deciding factor in whether or not these captives of Satan are able to escape his “snare.” Is it the “free-will” decision of the captive to turn his life over to Christ? No. If one of these false teachers should come to know and acknowledge the truth, their conversion is to be credited solely to God’s granting them the gift of repentance (v. 25). The fact that God’s granting of repentance is required to free the captive shows us that the nature of the devil’s snare must relate to the captive’s heart–his disposition towards God.
In Jesus’ explanation of His parable of the sower (Matthew 13; Mark 4; Luke 8), He says that the packed-down soil by the wayside represents “the ones who hear [the word of God]; then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved” (Luke 8:12). In a real sense, the devil is here said to be able to effectively “take away the word” to prevent saving faith (when God permits it, of course). Paul speaks similarly in II Corinthians 4:3-4 when he speaks of “those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.” As difficult as it may be to grasp, unbelievers are described as slaves of “the prince of the power of the air,” and only God has the power to set those slaves free.
Far from supporting the notion that the unsaved have been endowed with a will that is free from the corrupting and overpowering influence of either its own sinful inclinations or Satanic forces, Scripture consistently points to the slavery and captivity of the unregenerate person’s will. Even if we personally are no longer numbered among “the unregenerate,” we need to get this clear in our thinking. We need to grasp that if we are among those who have acknowledged our guilt before a holy God, realized that Jesus Christ is the perfect and only Saviour, repented of our sin, and trusted Christ alone for our salvation, it is neither because we were more naturally able to overcome our rebellious nature, nor because we were more naturally perceptive to the devil’s deception than the people around us who have rejected gospel truth. If we have been set free, it is only because “He [the Father] has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love” (Colossians 1:13). It was His free grace alone that delivered us from the power of darkness, not our almighty and unbiased decision making abilities. If we choose to repent and believe, but it’s God who has delivered us (including our wills) from “the power of darkness,” where does that leave our “free will” in relation to God? We’ll look more closely at God’s influence over the sinner’s will in the next post.
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