"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 ...