Gup20
Active Member
I do not want to speak for Aaron, but you may be misunderstanding him.
The free will position believes that everyone has the ability (i.e. "natural power") to either accept or reject the Gospel message, and the pivot on which that decision rests is the choice of the individual. This is why Aaron states, "those who say yes do so because they are inherently better than those who say no".
Let me put it another way. If person A and person B both hear the Gospel message and only person B responds in faith, why did he believe and person A did not? If the free will advocate is honest with himself he has to say that the decision comes down to the choice of the individual. If God will not force anyone to believe then, de facto, person B has something to brag about. Jesus Christ may have made the way possible for salvation, but salvation cannot occur unless and until the individual chooses to believe. Very few people on the free will side will admit to that understanding because it does sound wrong. How can God, from eternity, orchestrate every facet of salvation only to leave the final piece up to a vile, wretched sinner who is dead in his trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1) and unrighteous (Romans 3:9)? It is easier to overlook the biblical description of the sinner's plight and make the plea for free will.
I marvel at the silliness of the argument that human beings can't "believe certain information" unless infused with magical or mystical power. Human beings can believe anything they are told, regardless of the truth quality of that information (and many do believe "fake news"). Obviously, people can believe anything about Muhammed and Allah and Buddha with no problem... but believe anything good about Jesus? Nope... not humanly possible (according to Calvinists). God told Adam that he should not eat from the tree of the knowledge of GOOD and EVIL.... it wasn't the tree of the knowledge of ONLY EVIL. We can know both. John 3:19 says that light came into the world, but we loved darkness (indicating an element of choice).
Now the ONLY reason for enduing the choice to believe the gospel with this mystical, majical juju is because it is assumed that God immediately acts on the belief to make the person righteous (to 'save' them) and Calvinists cannot fathom how a person who is lost in sin can have that kind of power over the God of the universe to force him to act according to their will. To them, this diminishes God's sovereignty. And perhaps it would if there were any truth to that assumption. Where the assumption is wrong is in the fact that faith CAUSES God to act to make the person righteous. Faith does no such thing. This is why I say that faith and righteousness have an INDIRECT relationship. Faith merely qualifies a person as a theological descendant of Abraham. It does not make them righteous. Abraham himself was the only person in history who will ever have been made righteous directly for his faith. And there is a good reason for that -- we are all out of saviours who can exchange their righteous state for Abraham's sinful state.
The thing that makes those with faith righteous... the thing that motivates God to make a person righteous... is not the person's faith. The thing that motivates the creator of the universe is His own nature. God promised with a covenant or oath that Abraham's descendants would inherit the righteousness that Abraham was given. The nature of God is that He keeps His promises. God is motivated by His Word to make the descendants of Abraham righteous, just as he promised. When we have the same faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ that Abraham had (Abraham was the first to hear the gospel, and therefore the first to believe the gospel, and therefore all who believe or have faith in the gospel are his theological descendants) we are qualified as his descendants. God makes us righteous not because of our faith, but because He is keeping his oath to Abraham to bless his descendants.