"Free Will" - The Freedom of Slavery


Our Lord said to the Jewish leaders of His day, "Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of Me. And ye WILL NOT come to Me that ye might have life" (John 5:39-40). While many are quick to defend the freedom of man’s will, our Lord essentially dashed that heresy to pieces with these words. No man has ever or will ever, by his own defiled volition, come to Christ to be saved by His blood and righteousness.

Man’s natural will is free only in the sense that it is at liberty to do whatever his evil heart desires, subject of course, to the sovereign purpose of God. It would be far more accurate to say that man’s supposed freedom is merely the freedom of slavery. He is in bondage to sin; Satan holds him captive at his will (2 Timothy 2:26). Man, uninfluenced by free grace, has neither the desire nor the ability to draw near to Christ by faith. "No man can come to Me except the Father which hath sent Me draw Him: and I will raise him up at the last day" (John 6:44).

Man is free in the same sense a prisoner in a jail cell is free. He has the liberty to do within that cell whatever he may desire, but he has no ability to release himself. Furthermore, the unregenerated sinner does not even realize he is in bondage, so he has no awareness of his spiritual captivity. How could anyone, therefore, ever conclude that man’s will is free? Rather than speak of man’s free-will, it would be more accurate and appropriate to ascribe to every man self-will.

The will of man is controlled by sinful and wicked self, that is, a depraved heart which is said to be stony, (Ezekiel 11:19), foolish (Ephesians 4:18) and desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9). The only way any sinner desires Christ and comes to Him for a full pardon and free justification is because of the free grace of God that makes him willing to be saved by the merits of another. "Thy people shall be willing in the day of Thy power..." (Psalm 110:3).


-Gospel report by preacher Jim Byrd


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