Understanding Free Will

Today I’m beginning a sporadic series through some of the common objections to Reformed Theology. Today we look at the human will and next time we’ll analyze how our will interacts with God’s eternal decree. If you have a question that you’d like one of us to tackle, let us know in the comments!

As soon as the words “Calvinism” or “Reformed” are spoken in mixed-theological contexts, an invisible countdown clock begins. No one knows how long the clock will run but it inevitably ends before the conversation and these words ring out:

“What about free will?”

It’s predictable and I ran into the question again just a few days ago. Frankly, it’s a fair question. When Reformed theology is compressed into sound-bites it sounds like fatalism. If the ability to lay hold of God’s grace relies on a work of the Spirit, how can we ever say that someone is accountable for their actions? Doesn’t Reformed Theology turn people into robots that can’t think for themselves?

These are tough questions! Thankfully, the Westminster Confession of Faith (WCF) has distilled the truths of the Bible on this issue and helps us walk the tightrope. I’m no expert on the Confession, but it’s where I turn to answer the question because the creators of the confession dedicated an entire chapter to the issue of free will. I’ll take a moment to comment on each paragraph. I’ve also included the Scripture “proofs” used to defend each paragraph throughout the centuries.

WCF IX.1 – God has given man a will, which by nature is free, i.e., it is not forced or necessarily inclined toward good or evil. (Mt 17.12, Jas 1.14, Dt 30.19, Jn 5.40, 7.17, Rv. 22.17, Acts 7.51, Jas 4.7)

Simply put: God created human beings with the ability to choose. Humans are not created with any particular disposition toward good or toward evil. Nobody forces anyone to do anything they don’t want to do. This is the principle that controls everything that follows: everyone is able to do whatever they want to do.

IX.2 – In his state of innocence man had complete freedom and the natural ability to will and to do what is good and pleasing to God. God also made man so that he could lose that freedom. (Ecc 7.29, Gn 1.26, Col 3.10, Gn 2.16-17, 3.6)

When Adam and Eve were created and lived in the Garden of Eden (the state of innocency) they were able to please God with their actions. They could, of their own free will, do whatever they wanted; and what they wanted was to follow after the commands of God! They willfully obeyed! However, God created human will. It’s not something that popped up when breath filled Adam’s lungs for the first time. No, it was meticulously fashioned by God himself, designed after the desires of God. For God’s good reasons (which are beyond our comprehension), God created our will in a changeable state. Adam and Eve were able to follow God whenever they wanted, but they could also choose to disobey him, rebelling against God by following a desire away from him. Human beings always choose according to their greatest desire (test this: even the person who lays down a life for a friend desires to sacrifice more than protect herself). At this point in history, Adam and Eve experienced something that no other human person ever will again: the ability to either desire God above all or to desire sin above all without sin as a complicating factor.

The confession also points out a terrifying reality that Adam and Eve were confronted with: this “power to will and do what is good and pleasing to God” could be lost which, as we know, is exactly what happened.

IX.3 – Man fell into a state of sin by his disobedience and so completely lost his ability to will any spiritual good involving salvation. Consequently fallen man is by nature completely opposed to spiritual good, is dead in sin, and is unable by his own strength either to convert himself or prepare himself for conversion. (Rom 3.9-10,12,23, 5.6, 8.7-8, Jn 6.44,65, 15.5, Eph 2.1-5, Col 2.13, 1 Cor 2.14, Ti 3.3-5)

Adam and Eve chose to rebel against God. They weren’t forced to do this and they weren’t designed to do this. No, in a moment of idolatry they obeyed the desires of the serpent (and themselves) and ate the fruit God had forbidden them to taste. At this moment, the will of Adam and Eve bent away from God and toward themselves. They were no longer able to please God if they willed, not because their will was taken away but because it was twisted inward. Everyone still does whatever they want, but now they only want to elevate the idol of self. Put another way? Because of the fall, you and I only ever want sin and rebel against God. We do what we want. And what we want is evil.

Because our will is so bent away from God, we are unable to do anything of any spiritual good (Rom 8:7-8 is key here). The Christian life is fundamentally based on a desire for Jesus Christ above all else, even self. But when the will is bent inward, rebelliously anti-God, then how is it possible to please God with works? How is it possible to prepare myself for salvation? How could I ever make a choice to please God if all I ever want in my sinful state is the exact opposite. Paul has a word for this state: death. We are dead in our sins. The sickening thing is that we like being dead and refuse to come back to life.

IX.4 – When God converts a sinner and brings him into a state of grace, he frees him from his natural enslavement to sin. By God’s grace alone, freely given, sinful man is enabled to will and to do what is spiritually good. However, since the old sinful nature also remains, the believer cannot consistently or perfectly will to do what is good but also wills evil. (Col 1.13, Jn 8.34,36, Phil 2.13, Rom 6.18,22, 7.15-23, Gal 5.17, 1 Jn 1.8,10)

Praise God, he did not leave us in this state of death! Instead, God saves his people from sin and death and brings them back to life. Human will is also affected by this transfer from the kingdom of darkness in the kingdom of God. We are, once again, able to choose to please God with our words, deeds, and attitudes! And yet, this is not a return to the pre-fall state of Adam and Eve. No, we have not been freed from sin. In fact, the sinful flesh of our dead selves stays with us and wars against our newfound ability to choose what is pleasing to God. This battle is described by Paul most explicitly in Romans 7:15ff. It is a conflict that will burden all believers from the moment they are saved from death to the moment they die. It is out of this state of affairs that the Reformed emphasis on pursuing holiness emerges. We are able to please God but our flesh is pulling at us, enticing us to choose sin once more. And we will never “perfectly will to do what is good but also will evil”. Praise God for the grace that forgives us of all of our sins, even those committed after we were brought back to life! And Praise God that this state of war is not the end of the story!

IX. 5 – The will of man is perfectly free and permanently inclined to good alone only in the state of glory. (Eph 4.13, Heb 12.23, 1 Jn 3.2, Jude 24, Rv 22.3-4, 2 Chr 6.36, 1 Jn 1.8-10, 2.1-6, Ps 17.15)

Our will is still being bent away from ourselves and back towards God. One day, it will be fixed on God and we will always choose what is good. Every time! It won’t come this side of heaven. Until we die, we will struggle against sin. But we look forward to a day that Adam and Eve couldn’t have imagined! We won’t be back in a state of innocence again, with a will that could turn back toward rebellion. No, our wills will be permanently fixed on the One who saved us from sin, death, and ourselves: Jesus Christ.

This was brief and I’m sure it didn’t answer every question. But I hope that it is at least a step toward navigating the issue of free will in light of what we know of God according to the Bible. God did not make us robots! We are free creatures, but that freedom was perverted by sin. The hope of Christians everywhere is that more people would hear the Gospel, be transformed by the Spirit into new Creatures, and would find Jesus Christ more desirable than any sin they could imagine!