IX. Of Free Will

1. God has endued the will of man with that natural liberty, that is neither forced, nor, by any absolute necessity of nature, determined good, or evil.

MAT 17:12. "But I say to you that Elijah has come already, and they did not know him but did to him whatever they wished. Likewise the Son of Man is also about to suffer at their hands."

Q: Does unregenerate man have the liberty to do good and evil?

2. 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.

 

ECC 7:29. Truly, this only I have found: That God made man upright, But they have sought out many schemes.

GEN 1:26.

GEN 2:16–17, 3:6.

3. Man, by his fall into a state of sin, has 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.

 

ROM 5:6; 8:7. For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.

JOH 15:5. "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.

ROM 3:10. (Looked at last week.) There is none righteous…

EPH 2:1, 5. And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins… …even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved).

COL 2:13.

JOH 6:44, 65.

EPH 2:1–5. And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins…

1CO 2:14. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

TIT 3:3–5. For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit…

4. When God converts a sinner, and translates him into the state of grace, He frees 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 does not perfectly, or only, will that which is good, but does also will that which is evil.

 

COL 1:13. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love

JOH 8:34–36. Jesus answered them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. "And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. "Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed"

PHI 2:13. for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.

ROM 6:18,22

GAL 5:17

ROM 7:15, 18, 19, 21, 23. For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

Q: What determines our will?

Q: Why do we who are regenerate continue to sin?

5. The will of man is made perfectly and immutably free to do good alone in the state of glory only.