Freedom of the Will

Lesson Three

if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.  

John 8:36

Our only hope for the ability to make the right choices in the matter of free will comes when we are born anew. It is then that God restores the freedom to choose right from wrong that existed prior to the fall of mankind, initiated by Adam. The TRUTH makes us free. This happened to one very important, famous person immediately prior to the worldwide flood that destroyed all human life on planet Earth except for eight people. As we read in Genesis 6:8: But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. (The word favor there means saving grace)  God changed the perpetual, evil inclinations of Noah’s heart and restored him to the pre-fall human state of mind: the ability to choose good vs. evil. That happens to every person who is born again. As proof of the change in his nature we read; Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done. Genesis 8:20-21. The new birth always creates a desire to worship God Almighty, pray and to study His Holy Word. 

The Flood had changed everything but the unregenerate hearts of the seven other humans and their ultimate progeny. Only upon Noah did God’s grace fall. Only Noah worshiped His Savior. Until one is made spiritually alive one is innately driven by evil inclinations. The death of which God spoke in His warning to Adam (Genesis 2:17) was both physical and spiritual and until we are born again we cannot make correct, spiritually based decisions, such as receiving Christ, repenting of sin, worshiping God in spirit and in truth and putting His Word into practice. Jesus Himself taught this fact. He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them.”  John 6:65

Enable (Didomi-Greek-to supply or furnish necessary things). In this case the necessary things are the new birth and the influence of the Holy Spirit. That is because coming to Jesus is a good thing not permitted by the inclinations of our sinful minds which THE BIBLE TELLS US are only evil all the time. In the next blog those “necessary things” will be explained.

Freedom of the Will

Lesson Two

if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.  

John 8:36

The choices one makes are determined by the inclination of one’s mind or heart. In the first lesson we saw that Adam and Eve had been created with freedom of the will and the ability to chose the right from the wrong. In other words, Pre-fall humanity had the freedom to choose for or against God’s will. God had warned Adam, who in turn taught Eve, that disobedience to God’s only law would result in death; God had said, you will certainly die. The result of their disobedience was immediate spiritual death, an inability to do the will of God, and also ultimate physical death. Having been created to live eternally, they would now die within a finite period of time. Thus all of Post-fall humanity would only be inclined to evil in disobedience to God’s will. The Bible clearly teaches that, though some may feel that they do good all the time. From a human point of view, good deeds and things right versus things done in a wrong manner, have differed from age to age. There was a time when abortion was considered evil; now a majority of humanity regards it as a right of choice.  Ever since the fall human inclinations are evil and immutable from the day of our conception unless God intervenes. Genesis 6:5-7: The LORD saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The LORD regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled.  So the LORD said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.”

God lamented this lack of mankind’s spiritual inclination in Deuteronomy 5:29: Oh, that their hearts would be inclined to fear me and keep all my commands always, so that it might go well with them and their children forever! In Jeremiah 7:23-24 God complains:  But I gave them this command: Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people. Walk in obedience to all I command you, that it may go well with you.  But they did not listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the stubborn inclinations of their evil hearts. They went backward and not forward. The apostle Paul teaches us that we are spiritually dead from our birth and only inclined toward evil. Ephesians 2:1-2: As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.