Self determination in God is determined by the heart of God. God's heart is immutably righteous and therefore it is impossible for God to will contrary to righteousness. Not because lack of will power but because lack of desire as his heart desires are immutably righteous and nothing externally can tempt God contrary to His immutably internal desires of His heart. In other words the nature of God determines His will.
Adam was not created in a state of immutable righteousness. He was created in a state of mutable innocence with the ability to maintain or violate that innocence by the act of the will. Hence, there was no immutable INTERNAL desire. The fall was influenced by EXTERNAL temptations that moved him to wrong desires arising within.
Due to the choice to violate His innocense of sin his heart became IMMUTABLY confirmed in unrighteous so that he loved darkness and hated light. Hence, in keeping with immutable unrighteousness (Rom. 8:7) it is impossible for fallen man to will contrary to his unrighteous nature only because he "will not."
Therefore, he is like God in regard to immutability of nature but conversely so. If you can show that God "will" choose to do evil, then you can show that man "will" choose to do good. Both have the power of contrary choice but neither "will" choose what is contrary to their nature. Moreover, the Scriptures confirm this - "there is none that DOETH GOOD, NO, NOT ONE." They "can not" only because they "will not" and they "will not" because their heart loves darkness and hates light. So it is not a matter of "can not" but "will not" and it is because they "will not" that they "can not." Hence, it is not a lack of power but a lack of desire and motive.
.
Absolutely false. Fallen man has the power of choice between two or more possibilities involving decision. The power is present but the desire is not. The desire is determined by what the heart loves (loves darkness) and what the heart hates (hates light) and therefore they can not choose light ONLY because they "will not" choose light.
Nothing prevents the worst sinner from coming to the light except his own free will!
Again, the heart determines the desire in God as in man. Both have the power of contrary choice but neither "will" choose contrary to the immutable state of their heart.
In contrast, prefallen man had no immutable condition of heart. His heart was neither immutably righteous or immutably evil but simply innocent of sin with full capabilty to choose evil as to choose good. The desire for choice was provided EXTERNALLY through temptations. However, in God and in fallen man the desire is immutably fixed from WITHIN.
In God and in man the seat of mental and emotional desires is the “heart.” It is also the seat of self-determination as it is “with the heart man believeth” (Rom. 10:10), as well as, with the heart he refuses to believe – “evil heart of unbelief”- Heb 3:12
Hence, the will of man is simply the vehicle of expression for the heart. This is proven by the nature of the two Greek words translated “will” in the Greek New Testament:
1. Boulomai – Intellectual determination
2. Thelema – Emotional determination
Self-determination in God is the function of His heart. God’s heart is immutably righteous. Therefore His will is simply an expression of an immutable righteous heart. His inability to sin does not arise from the lack of will power but from the lack of heart motive and desire for sin. His heart motives and desires are immutably righteous. Since his heart or INTERNAL condition is immutably righteous He cannot be tempted by EXTERNAL means to sin.
Self-determination in fallen Adam is the function of his heart. Fallen man’s heart is immutably unrighteous. Therefore his will is simply an expression of his immutable unrighteous heart. His inability to choose and do righteousness does not arise from the lack of will power but from the lack of heart motive and desire for righteousness.
Rom. 3:10
As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one….12 there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
His heart motives and desires are immutably unrighteous and the Scriptures clearly teach this:
John. 3:19
And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
Just as in God the heart is immutably righteous so that no external temptation to do evil has any influence or power to tempt His heart to choose evil, so also, in fallen man the heart is immutably evil and no external temptation to do righteousness has any influence or power to change his heart to do good. The only way to reverse the immutable state of the heart in either is for the heart to be replaced by a new heart.
Nothing prevents the worst of sinners from coming to God and doing righteousness except their own free will and nothing prevents the free will from choosing to do so but the heart’s intent and desires love for darkness and hatred for light. Fallen Adam
cannot simply and only because he “
will not.”
Rom. 8:7
Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
Adam was not created in a state of immutable righteousness. He was created in a state of mutable innocence. He had no experiential knowledge of good or evil in regard to making alternative choice between the two. He possessed the power of choice to maintain or violate his state of innocence by simple choice between alternative options. Since his heart was not immutability fixed either way then the internal heart of pre-fallen Adam could be brought under the influence and power of external temptations to choose either good or evil. Hence, there was no immutable INTERNAL desire as in God or fallen Adam. The fall was influenced by EXTERNAL temptations that moved him to wrong desires arising within.
Due to the choice to violate His innocence by the choice to sin, he fell from his MUTABLE innocent internal state and his heart became IMMUTABLY confirmed in unrighteous so that he loves darkness and hates light.
Therefore, he is now like God in regard to immutability of nature but conversely so. If you can show that God "will" choose to do evil, then you can show that man "will" choose to do good. Both have the power of contrary choice but neither "will" choose what is contrary to the intent and desires of their hearts.
So, neither God or man lacks will power in regard to alternative moral choices but they lack internal intent and desire to choose and do what is morally contrary to the immutable condition of their own heart. They “can not” only because they “will not” and they “will not” because their moral intent and desires are immutable.
James 1:14
But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. 15
Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
This was true in pre-fallen Adam and this is true in fallen Adam.
Nothing prevents the worst sinner from coming to the light except his own free will! It is not a lack of will power but a lack of heart intent and desire.
Again, the heart determines the desire in God as in man. Both have the power of contrary choice but neither "will" choose contrary to the immutable state of their heart.
The only way contrary moral choice is possible in either God or fallen man is by creation of a new heart.
Deut. 29:4
Yet the LORD hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day.
Ezek. 36:26
A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.
Ezekiel 36:26 is the New Covenant description of how God saves sinners.
