SERMON: “The Question of Free Will” (1 Cor. 2:14)
“The Question of Free Will” (1 Cor.
2:14)
Series: “Reformation
Day Sermons” Text: 1
Cor. 2:14
By: Shaun
Marksbury Date:
October
27, 2024
Venue: Living
Water Baptist Church Occasion:
AM Service
I.
Introduction
Now, some consider a universe where a Creator God is
sovereign places us in a position like those robots — we merely operate
according to His predetermined code. But
is that truly the case? If God
influences our choices, or if sin affects our desires, does that mean we are
without freedom?
This is actually an issue that has well predates modern
electronics and computing. Folks in the
past have read Bible verses like the one we just read, and they began to debate. Of course, today being Reformation Sunday, we
want to consider how the Reformation period affected how people answered this
question in Scripture, perhaps learning a bit ourselves along the way.
It just so happens that one of the very first written
debates of the Reformation was on the nature of man’s will. The German Reformer Martin Luther challenged
the understanding of the humanist Desiderius Erasmus on what God described
concerning man’s will. Luther captured this
debate in his book, The Bondage of the Will, combing Scripture for
definitions, while also combing the learned Erasmus over the coals.
This is our topic for our Reformation Day services, with a
related question for tonight. What
should we think about man’s free will? Are
we simply controlled by God or by baser instincts within us? What affects the choices you make — did you choose
your clothes this morning? Did you choose
to become a Christian?
We see here Scripture says, “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.” We will see today that men and women, in
their fallen state, cannot accept divine truth because they won’t — they
see it as foolishness. They won’t choose
God. Is that what the rest of Scripture
says, and is it how Christians in the past have read it? We’ll consider that last question first:
II.
How Christians have discussed the will
This debate was one we find in the church fathers. A bishop named Pelagius took umbrage with a
prayer that Augustine had prayed, “Grant what Thou commandest, and command what
Thou dost desire.” That prayer asked God
to grant us help to keep His commandments.
Offended, Pelagius argued that people are perfectly able to obey God,
for God wouldn’t command us to do what we could not.
As a debate resulted, Pelagius revealed his wrong
premises. First, he said that Adam’s sin
only affected Adam, not the rest of us.
He explained that we’re each born morally neutral, only falling from
grace when we first choose to sin. He
went on to state humans can choose to live sinlessly, without the
grace of God, and that salvation in Jesus Christ is only necessary for those
who cannot live righteously on their own.
With these as underlying premises, we can see why he believed the human
will could choose God.
Augustine demonstrated what we’ve already read, that the “natural
man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God.” He explained original sin affected our will,
using the Latin phrase to describe us, non posse non peccare, not able
not to sin. In other words, we are not
able to freely choose God or His ways on our own. The wider church believed Augustine’s
argument demonstrated biblical fidelity and condemned what then came to be
called Pelagianism and even semi-Pelegianism later.
Ironically, Rome still adopted some semi-Pelegianism
tenants. The Reformation revealed this
in the debate between Luther and Erasmus.
Rome thought Erasmus a good match for Luther, for he was educated and
they both spoke of their desire for reforming the sin and abuses allowed within
Roman Catholicism (though Erasmus remained loyal to the Pope). Yet, the debate revealed Luther outmatched
his opponent concerning Scripture, for the German monk had spent years in
biblical meditation while Erasmus’s forte was the humanities.
What did Erasmus claim about the will? On page 137, Luther quotes him as thus: “Moreover
I consider Free-will in this light: that it is a power in the human will, by
which, a man may apply himself to those things which lead unto eternal
salvation, or turn away from the same.”
I wonder how many of us might have a similar view of the human will —
that a person can either choose salvation or turn away from it. Yet, Luther argued that slaves of sin cannot
rightly be called free, nor can the servants of the Most High. Unfortunately, the Roman Catholic Church at
the Council of Trent rejected the biblical view for a semi-Pelagian one.
Today, most Protestant Evangelicals would agree more with
Rome on this issue. For instance, one
apologetic dictionary describes Luther’s work as theistic determinism, akin to
the atheistic determinism of the psychologist B. F. Skinner.[1] In short, any teaching denying the complete
autonomy of man must be fatalistic and rejected. Of course, determinism certainly is not
biblical, but that’s not what Luther and others espoused.
There does exist a kind of free will, but it’s bound by our
fallen principles and preferences. An
illustration might help here. James
Montgomery Boice explains:
In the animal world there are
animals which eat nothing but meat: carnivores. There are other animals which eat nothing but
grass or plants: herbivores. Imagine
then that we have a lion, who is a carnivore, and place a beautiful bundle of
hay or a trough of oats before him. He
will not eat the hay or the oats. Why
not? Is it because he is physically
unable? No Physically, he could easily
begin to munch on this food and swallow it. Then why does he not eat it? The answer is that it is not in his nature to
do so. Moreover, if it were possible to
ask the lion why he will not eat the herbivore’s meal and if he could answer,
he would say, “I can’t eat this food; I hate it; I will eat nothing but meat.” We are speaking in a similar way when we say
that the natural man cannot respond to or choose God in salvation. Physically he is able, but spiritually he is
not. He cannot come because he will not
come. He will not because he really
hates God.[2]
That helps us to make more sense of the matter — we as
sinners make choices, but they always seem against God in some way. Another term Christians have introduced is
helpful to describe this state: free agency.
Because unbelievers are free agents, they have the choice but not the
ability without the regeneration of the Holy Spirit. This inability is a moral one.
To make it more personal, you can still choose
between differing sins, even choosing to define some as “good” by the world’s
standards. In fact, you may choose the
highest good at times, laying down your life for others. Your faculties may be able in some
sense to obey God, and you can read the Bible with understanding. Yet, there is still intrinsic to your natural
will a moral inability to turn to God, repent for your sins, and live a life of
devotion to Him. This bondage of the
will requires the freedom Christ alone brings.
This is why so many unbelievers share a scoffing response to
a biblical presentation of the gospel, no matter how well reasoned and
argued. They love their sin, so the
message of the cross is foolishness to them, and they cannot understand it because
it’s spiritually appraised. Still, we
must start with His Word, for the truth sets us free.
III.
What the Bible says about the will
In one sense, this has all been introductory, but we already
know much of what’s to come. We’ve
considered one verse, but let’s see what else God’s Word says about this
anthropological question. I was at a
luncheon a few years ago with some other Reformed pastors, and as we were
talking about this topic, I jotted down some of these points from there. I hope you’ll do the same.
A.
Our free will is dead in sin (Eph. 2:1)
Scripture says, “And you were dead in your trespasses and
sins.” This is a familiar passage to us
since we’ve been through Ephesians together and we commonly cite this during
our corporate prayer times. We are
completely separated from the life of God.
Now, what works could a dead man do to become alive? The answer is none! New life requires a miracle, and we see
gospel hope in vv. 4–5: “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.”
Salvation is by grace here, and we see that underlined in vv. 8–9: “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, so that no one may boast.”
This is completely monergistic regeneration, worked by Him alone, a
process to which we that dead cannot contribute.
Consider again our condition, this time in Romans 8:6–7 (and
I’ll just read this one from my notes): “For the mind set on the flesh is
death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set
on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law
of God, for it is not even able to do so,
and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” This passage gives us a description of the
death we experience. We are separated
from the life of God, meaning we cannot ever please God. This is a way of saying we will live lives in
hostility toward Him, opposed to His will.
That brings us to the next point.
B.
Our free will is opposed to God (Rom. 3:10ff)
Again, this is a familiar passage. Consider it, though, while considering your
human will apart from Christ. Can you
choose to be righteous? We read, “There
is none righteous, not even one.” Can
you choose to fully comprehend the things of God? We read, “There is none who understands.” Can you choose to seek God on your own? “There is none who seeks for God.” We must conclude our natural will is opposed
to God.
In fact, we continue, “All have turned aside, together they
have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one.” This describes professed but unconverted
believers and atheists alike. On the
sliding scale of the world’s morality, we might in ourselves do some decent
act, but we cannot do true good as God defines it.
What do we often choose to do? We continue, “Their throat is an open grave,
with their tongues they keep deceiving, the poison of asps is under their lips;
whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.”
Our mouths demonstrate the bondage of our will to sin, and it continues:
“Their feet are swift to shed blood, destruction and misery are in their paths,
and the path of peace they have not known.”
Our fallen condition will lead us toward sin and even toward the worst
kinds of sin, hurting others in violation of God’s command to love.
This is us walking according to our own devices, even if we
sometimes pick up Bibles or occasionally attend church. The passage ends with this explanation: “There
is no fear of God before their eyes.”
Outside of Christ, we may perhaps fear what others think of us and,
occasionally, eternal damnation. Yet,
when we don’t know God, fear of God won’t be a defining reality, and our lives
will be opposed to Him. Why? Because:
C.
Our free will is inclined to sin (Gal. 5:19–21)
We read here of just some of the deeds of the flesh. For instance, in our porn-saturated and
hyper-sexualized society, we find people engaged in “immorality, impurity,
sensuality.” Cheating spouses, lustful
activities, prideful embraces of the LGBT lifestyles, and all other manner of
debauchery evidence just how the will is inclined to sin.
You might say, “Wait a minute! I control myself from these baser
passions.” That’s fine, but something
more from this list may describe your inclination. For instance, you might seek religious
fulfillment in something other than God (“idolatry”). Some people get on the “WitchTok” channels of
TikTok to dabble in sorcery; of course, the term for sorcery is pharmekia,
and maybe you trust in pharmaceuticals to work magic, maybe through something
like Ayahuasca. We must beware violations
of the first table of the law.
Not offended yet? It
may also be that your baser passions come out “enmities, strife, jealousy,
outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying.” Some people love drama, so they like to take
stories they’ve heard about others and maybe amplify them. They want to tear down, letting sinful anger
and thoughts take root as they lash out at others. Some just know nothing but shouting at the
world.
Something else here might describe you. Other debaucheries include “drunkenness,
carousing, and things like these.”
Partying until you black out? Why
— for fun or to drown out guilt and anxiety with excess?
Of course, none of these are exclusive categories, and you
might see your will inclined to more than one of them. In fact, this isn’t an exhaustive list, which
we can see with the words, “things like these.”
Paul continues here by warning us “that those who practice such things
will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
That’s another way of saying we inherit hell.
We choose this willingly because we’re inclined to it. We might comfort ourselves with drawing
lines in the sand, thinking that we won’t go too far or that we won’t
engage in that activity. Yet,
this horizontal thinking, doesn’t include God, keeping us from gazing upward
because we’re bound to the earthly.
That’s because:
D.
Our free will is enslaved to sin (Rom. 6).
We’ve essentially already evidenced this point, but let’s
see it in Scripture. In v. 6, we read
that Christians are crucified with Christ “so that we would no longer be slaves
to sin.” This means that those who don’t
put their faith in Christ are slaves to sin. The Christian, however, has a new reality;
look at v. 12. We read, “Therefore do
not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts.”
Christians can choose to live in a way that unbelievers
can’t, and that is the choice not to allow sin to reign; Christians have a new
master. Yet, how do Christians become
free? Is it that they choose one day to
rise up against their lusts, throwing off the shackles of sin for the glory of
God? No, for their bondage is a welcome
one, a pleasant one, a slavery to every pleasure and desire of the heart. That leads to the final point.
E.
In summary: our free will cannot be free (John
8).
Consider what Jesus said: “If I speak truth, why do you not
believe Me? He who is of God hears the
words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God” (John 8:46–47). He’s not saying that they have a hearing
problem. It’s not that they are confused
and lack education. They hear but they
cannot hear because they are in spiritual bondage.
Look just a few verses above that to v. 44. We read there, “You are of your father the devil, and you want to
do the desires of your father. He was a
murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is
no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father
of lies.” Jesus is challenging their
nature by discussing the nature of Satan — they want to do his
desires and embrace his lies.
Again, they are inclined to sin because they are enslaved to it.
Lest we think that this only describes the scribes and the
Pharisees, remember where we started: “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.” We need a work of God or all is lost.
IV.
Conclusion
The bondage of your will isn’t external; it’s
self-imposed. You choose freely to sin
each and every time, but in your natural, fallen state, you would choose to do
nothing but sin. God is under no
obligation to help you, and since you have the natural ability of choice, God
will hold you culpable even for your lack of moral inclination.
If that troubles you, then there is no conflict between
everything we’ve said and these next words — you need to repent of your sins
and turn to Christ for salvation. This
is where the good news of the gospel enters in.
We don’t deserve God’s grace, but He gives it through the promises of
the gospel.
He regenerates us, giving us new life with a new will. He opens our eyes to the fact that we sin,
and He gives us the freedom and ability to exercise faith in Him. He does all the work, so we know that our
faith in Him isn’t something we created on our own. So, if you repent and turn to Him, you know
that He has helped you do this — in fact, He worked it entirely by Himself.
If you are a Christian, this may lead you to wonder about
something else. This good news should
prompt you to want other people set free from sin, but you may wonder how best
to witness to the truth. If the human
will be in bondage to sin naturally, then how do you tell people about the
gospel? We’ll talk about that tonight.
[1] Norman L. Geisler, Baker
encyclopedia of Christian apologetics, 1999, 196.
[2] James Montgomery Boice, Foundations of the Christian Faith: A Comprehensive & Readable
Theology, (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1986), 213.
