The Bondage and Freedom of the Will

Romans 6:19 I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.
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Paul presents the great dichotomy of the human condition. Prior to being born again, we were slaves to sin (c.f. v. 17). After being born again we are slaves to righteousness. The human will is involved in both realities. The question is whether the human will that is enslaved to sin is capable of any meritorious action independent from God, or does the human will first have to be changed, i.e. freed or released from the bondage of sin?

But before we get too far, let me set the parameters for this discussion. This opening post and subsequent posts are going to delve into the scriptures for insight and answers. Therefore, I will ignore any post that claims I am not citing scriptures. Another form of this is demanding a single verse to try and bully your opponent into a box. This is a tactic of hyper-literalists who insist on taking every word in the bible literally. However, they do not hold each other to the same standard. They ignore the fact that doctrine of the Trinity does not have one verse to prove it true. They have a problem when Jesus calls Himself a lamb, a door, or the bread of life. Is Jesus literally a lamb, bread, or a door? Figures of speech are lost on them. So, I am going to make a reasoned biblical case for my position and I insist you do the same. If you will not or cannot make a reasoned biblical case for your position, I will not interact with you. Many of us have grown tiresome of frivolous accusations that Calvinists do not appeal to the scriptures. To those of you who agree that some posters are making these baseless accusations, consider not engaging with them in this thread too. If they will not change their behavior, let them talk to the hand.

Tom Cassidy posited an excellent question from a previous thread and I am asking an amended form of this question here. What part of man has not been affected by the Fall? Did the Fall affect man's physical condition? Did the Fall affect man's spiritual condition? These questions are central to the Mongerist vs. Synergist debates. What did the Fall do to the human will? Obviously, we must turn to scripture for insight.

Here is what God said to Adam and Eve after the Fall:

Genesis 3:16-19 16 To the woman He said,“I will greatly multiply Your pain in childbirth, In pain you will bring forth children, Yet your desire will be for your husband, And he will rule over you.”17 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life.18 “Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you will eat the plants of the field;19 By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return.”

Prior to the Fall, it was not God's plan for women to suffer pain in childbirth. The Fall had a negative impact on work. Work would now be accompanied by toil and trial. The ultimate change to the human condition was the introduction of death (Gen. 2:17). Prior to the Fall, human death was unknown. There is a Reformed teaching called the Covenant of Works. R.C. Sproul defines the Covenant of Work this way:

Once the Fall occurred the covenant relationship God had with Adam was broken. It was necessary for God to create another way to restore that covenant relationship, but that way could not be made directly with Adam because Adam was no longer capable because he was cursed (Gen. 2:17). A mediator was needed and ultimately provided in the person of Jesus Christ (1 Tim. 2:5). I will deal with this in a later post.

End Part I

 

Part II

So, we see that the Fall most definitely affected Adam's physical condition because death was introduced to the human race. But what about Adam's spiritual condition? In Reformed Theology there is a doctrine called the Federal Headship view. The Federal Headship view posits that since Adam was created without sin, he was a true moral free agent. He could rightly claim to be humanity's fair and just representative. Ergo, when Adam sinned he did so in our stead, much like a senator or congressman votes on our behalf. When Adam sinned his posterity (including you and me) were born into a state of sin, just as if we committed Adam's sin. 1 Cor. 15:22 tells us that in Adam all die. This is only possible if sin and its penalty are imputed to us. If we are born as moral free agents (like Adam), then sin is not imputed to us. Pelagius (360-418 AD) taught that as part of his view of free will and sired the name of a heresy called Pelagianism. Pelagius taught that humans are born tabula rasa, or as a blank slate (morally). He believed that, while highly likely, a person could be born and not repeat Adam's fall. As a result, that person could earn eternal life. Today there are very few true Pelagian's among us, although his teachings are alive and well (although muted) in something called Semi-Pelagianism. Semi-Pelagianism affirms original sin and the Fall, but it also teaches that the will of man is not completely fallen, it is merely hindered by sin. The main teaching of Semi-Pelagianism is that man cooperates with God in salvation. More than Arminianism, Semi-Pelagianism is the dominant view of the church when it comes to the will of man and beliefs on soteriology. Accept or deny, it is at the heart of modern belief on free will.

There is also another Reformed doctrine that is relevant to this discussion, it is Total Depravity. Total Depravity teaches that every faculty of man was negatively affected by the Fall. It does not teach, as erroneously believed by some, that man always acts as depraved as he is capable. For instance, not everyone is Adolph Hitler, but sin makes such evil actions possible.

The Old Testament is not without relevance here. In Genesis we read:

Genesis 6:5 5 Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

So, about 1100 years after the creation of Adam, society had devolved into wickedness. While not proof in itself of Total Depravity, it certainly points to how fast sin had corrupted humanity. Genesis 8:21 is a bit more revealing:

Genesis 8:21 21 The LORD smelled the soothing aroma; and the LORD said to Himself, “I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth;

King David understood his sin problem, enough so that he claimed he was born in sin (iniquity):

Psalm 51:5 5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.


In the New Testament, we have a theology that is more developed. In his letter to the Romans, Paul wrote:

Romans 3:9-18 9 What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; 10 as it is written,“THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE;11THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS,THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD;12 ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS;THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD,THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE.”13 “THEIR THROAT IS AN OPEN GRAVE,WITH THEIR TONGUES THEY KEEP DECEIVING,”“THE POISON OF ASPS IS UNDER THEIR LIPS”;14 “WHOSE MOUTH IS FULL OF CURSING AND BITTERNESS”;15 “THEIR FEET ARE SWIFT TO SHED BLOOD,16 DESTRUCTION AND MISERY ARE IN THEIR PATHS,17 AND THE PATH OF PEACE THEY HAVE NOT KNOWN.”18 “THERE IS NO FEAR OF GOD BEFORE THEIR EYES.”

(c.f. Psalm 14)

Paul drills down on this some more. Five chapters later he writes about the capabilities of sinful man.

Romans 8:7 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,

The mind that is set on the flesh (i.e. the sinner) is not able to subject itself to the law of God. I repeat, not able. We know the mind set on the flesh does not desire to subject itself to the law of God, but it is also not able to do so. Why? We have to go 1 Corinthians to answer that question.

1 Corinthians 2:14 14 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.

The natural man is the fleshly, carnal man. He is still a sinner, unsaved. Like the mind set on the flesh in Romans 8:7, this man does not subject itself to the things of the Spirit of God. The reason he does not subject or accept is because he cannot do so. He is prevented from doing so by his own fleshly mind that is in bondage to sin. The things of the Spirit are spiritually appraised. One must have experienced the new birth; been born from above; have been regenerated. One must have become a new creature (2 Corinthians 5:17).

In Ephesians 2:1 Paul writes, "And you were dead in your trespasses and sins". The word for "dead" is the Greek word "nekros". Nekros means a corpse, like a dead body in a coffin. Used in context, Paul was speaking about the Ephesians believers spiritual condition before they were saved. They were dead men walking; alive physically but dead spiritually. They were the "mind set on the flesh" in Romans 8:7 and the natural man in 1 Corinthians 2:14. Because of their sinful condition, they were unable to come to God. They were utterly in bondage to sin. Their will was held captive. They followed the prince of the power of the air (Ephesians 2:2) because they were children of wrath.

How can one be loosed from spiritual bondage when he is incapable of doing so himself?

Ephesians 2:4-9 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.

"But God". It is God who makes the first move. Even when we were dead in our transgressions, God made us alive with Christ. God the Holy Spirit illumined our mind and changed our heart (Ezekiel 36:26) making us able to believe. When we believe we do so willingly and freely, but it was God who first changed us making us capable of believing. All the credit and glory belongs to God.

This first post will suffice to get the conversation rolling.

 

Deacon,

Thank you for your kind reply.

I do not disagree. We make choices every day. The choices I am getting it are spiritual in nature. How far (or to what extent) did the Fall corrupt human faculties?

But that is what the text says. It says, "To the woman He said, “I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth, In pain you will bring forth children;" (Gen 3:16). It is reasonable to conclude that childbirth was not originally planned to be accompanied by pain.

Was Noah righteous prior to salvation or after? The scripture is clear that none are righteous. The scripture says Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness (Gen, 15:6; Rom. 4:3). I believe that Noah was righteous and Abraham believed because they were believers*, not because they possessed a latent faith.