Review of Martin Luther and Free Will

The Bondage of the Human Will book by Luther was perhaps the book that persuaded that calvinism view in regards to this issue was corredct, and not the free will thta I once held with as being in the scriptures!

 

Hopefully, someone can give an insightful meaning of the "free" part of freewill.

 

The basic argument for "free will" is that man has the ability to choose between accepting or rejecting salvation. The "free will" argument against man being in bondage, is that it is unjust because it makes steals from man the ability to choose.

To properly comprehend the reality of a will in bondage, I ask you to consider the following question:

Who desires to be saved but is not saved?
Who is saved, but does not desire it?

If man had true "free will", then there should be people who want to be forgiven, but simply do not know how to obtain this elusive "grace". Has anyone ever met one of them? I have not. Those without God may be dissatisfied with their circumstances, but they do not desire to surrender their autonomy. After "believe in Me", the next most common thing that Jesus calls his followers to do is "die to self".

An observation from life is that people are who they are. They will typically return to what they were because that is what they are comfortable with. Even something as trivial as quitting smoking is the exception rather than the rule. So people are free to do as they please, and what they please to do is sin.

 

There will be none in hell who will say that we really wanted Jesus to save us, that we pleading with God to do that!

 

I praise God that He intruded on mine!

 

In the account of Jesus dealing with Saul, Jesus did not consider Saul's freewill, not did Saul. Saul immediately submitted his will to Jesus.

I missed the part where Jesus knocked and asked permission from Saul. Neither did the Holy Spirit knock when He brought me to awareness of my sinful state.

If you can find scripture to refute the following verse, please share it.

Act 9:6 KJV - And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord [said] unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.

 

Luther was influenced by Augustine. I don't know of anything good that came from Augustine.

 

No. Galatians 1:15-16. 'But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in me.......' There was never any question of Paul rejecting God's call. God chose him in eternity (Ephesians 1:4-6), called him in time and he came.

 

I think Luther is saying we have only two possibilities when it comes to making choices. Before the new birth we have only the flesh to create our desires and to base our choices on. He used Galatians 5:19-21 challenging Ersamus to find anything in the flesh that would want to repent and follow Christ.

“Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” (Galatians 5:19–21)

Then he shows the Christian after the new birth, where the will is biased towards God.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” (Galatians 5:22–25)

But, the Catholics and others turned the gospel into a law the flesh can react to and keep. It doesn't take a supernatural transformation of our spirit for us to comply. So salvation becomes conditional and any who can stoop to pick up a nickle, can meet the supposed conditions of the legalistic gospel in the flesh.

 

God does not 'force His will' on anyone; He changes our will by giving us a new heart, a new spirit, a new birth so that we delight to do His will (Psalm 40:8). 'But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)......' (Ephesians 2:4-5).

Dead men don't choose Christ. I know that some interpret 'dead' to mean 'not very well,' but actually, it means 'dead.'

 

And if Saul/Paul said “no thanks”, then what?