Posted on 05/15/2019 5:27:39 AM PDT by Gamecock
“Jesus answered them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.’”
- John 8:34
Conduct an interview with Christians from a variety of different theological traditions, and all of them will almost certainly say yes to the following question: “Are human beings sinners?” The Bible’s teaching that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23) is simply too clear for people to deny outright. Moreover, from our own experience, we are well aware of how often we and all other people (except Christ) transgress our Creator’s law. Few professing believers, then, would deny that human beings are sinners.
If we probe a little deeper and ask what it means to be fallen, what it means to be a sinner, then the differences between professing Christians will start to be clearer. In fact, there exist significant disagreements between professing Christians and even between professing evangelicals as to the extent of sin and its impact on our minds, hearts, and wills. Many people believe that the wills of sinners are essentially free in the sense that they have an equal ability to choose good or evil. Others confess that some kind of enabling grace is required for us to choose what is good, but that receiving this grace does not ensure that we will choose salvation. Precious few will state that our enslavement to sin is so powerful that we cannot muster enough cooperation in ourselves to be released from bondage.
If we consider the writings of some of the most important Christian thinkers in history, however, we will find that they are quite clear on the enslavement of our wills to sin. Martin Luther, for example, considered the idea that human beings possess an equal freedom to choose good or evil so foolish that he wrote a lengthy attack on this notion titled The Bondage of the Will. In this famous work, Luther argued that the human will serves one of two masters—God or Satan—and that apart from grace, all people are enslaved to Satan and are not free to escape this bondage on their own. Many biblical passages testify to this truth, including John 8:34, which tells us that those who oppose Christ are enslaved to sin.
Luther and others such as John Calvin agree that since the fall, human beings possess wills and make choices. The problem is that sin has so enslaved us that unless God sovereignly intervenes, the only choices we make are displeasing to God, because they aren’t made from a heart inclined toward Him. Apart from grace, we cannot love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength (Mark 12:30).
Coram Deo
Understanding that sinners are enslaved to sin can help us have more compassion on them. Although people know better, they do what is wrong because as slaves to sin that is all they can do. We, too, were once in such a state, and we did not free ourselves, but the Lord released us from bondage to sin. Thus, we should be patient with sinners, not excusing their sin but also not expecting them to do what is right apart from divine grace.
Passages for Further Study
Deuteronomy 31:14 And the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, the days approach when you must die. Call Joshua and present yourselves in the tent of meeting, that I may commission him.” And Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves in the tent of meeting. 15 And the Lord appeared in the tent in a pillar of cloud. And the pillar of cloud stood over the entrance of the tent.
16 And the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, you are about to lie down with your fathers. Then this people will rise and whore after the foreign gods among them in the land that they are entering, and they will forsake me and break my covenant that I have made with them. 17 Then my anger will be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them and hide my face from them, and they will be devoured. And many evils and troubles will come upon them, so that they will say in that day, ‘Have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?’ 18 And I will surely hide my face in that day because of all the evil that they have done, because they have turned to other gods.
19 “Now therefore write this song and teach it to the people of Israel. Put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the people of Israel. 20 For when I have brought them into the land flowing with milk and honey, which I swore to give to their fathers, and they have eaten and are full and grown fat, they will turn to other gods and serve them, and despise me and break my covenant. 21 And when many evils and troubles have come upon them, this song shall confront them as a witness (for it will live unforgotten in the mouths of their offspring). For I know what they are inclined to do even today, before I have brought them into the land that I swore to give.” 22 So Moses wrote this song the same day and taught it to the people of Israel.
23 And the Lord commissioned Joshua the son of Nun and said, “Be strong and courageous, for you shall bring the people of Israel into the land that I swore to give them. I will be with you.”
24 When Moses had finished writing the words of this law in a book to the very end, 25 Moses commanded the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, 26 “Take this Book of the Law and put it by the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there for a witness against you. 27 For I know how rebellious and stubborn you are. Behold, even today while I am yet alive with you, you have been rebellious against the Lord. How much more after my death! 28 Assemble to me all the elders of your tribes and your officers, that I may speak these words in their ears and call heaven and earth to witness against them. 29 For I know that after my death you will surely act corruptly and turn aside from the way that I have commanded you. And in the days to come evil will befall you, because you will do what is evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger through the work of your hands.”
Joshua 24:19 But Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the Lord, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions or your sins.
John 8:36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
Romans 6:15 What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. 19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.
20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Ping
Gen 4:7 “f thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.”
Cain had the free will ability to choose to do right and wrong and chose to do wrong. Heb 11:4 Abel chose to do what was right. (See also 1 John 3:12)
If man is so enslaved to sin and cannot escape that enslavement unless, until God ‘enables’ him, how does God decide whom He will or will not ‘enable’? What is the basis of God’s choosing? God becomes a respecter of persons for those He ‘enables’? Why does God command things from man (as command men to believe) if man cannot possible choose to obey those commands on his own?
14 What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be!15 For He says to Moses, "I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION."
16 So then it [does] not [depend] on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.
17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "FOR THIS VERY PURPOSE I RAISED YOU UP, TO DEMONSTRATE MY POWER IN YOU, AND THAT MY NAME MIGHT BE PROCLAIMED THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE EARTH."
18 So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.
19 You will say to me then, "Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?"
20 On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, "Why did you make me like this," will it?
21 Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?
22 What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?
23 And [He did so] to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory,
24 [even] us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.
Rom 9:15 does not give a basis as to why God has mercy upon some and not others (Jer 18:8-10 gives man’s obedience as the basis)
Rom 9:17 says God raised Pharaoh up to show His power over Pharaoh and to magnify His name in the earth. God accomplished this without violating Pharaoh’s free will for the verse does NOT say God raised Pharaoh up to violate his free.
God would show His power and magnify His name no matter what Pharaoh choose.
If Pharaoh had chosen to obey and let the people go, then God would have showed His power over this great king and God’s name magnified.
Yet Pharaoh choose to disobey and God still magnified His name and showed His power over Pharaoh (with plagues).
Therefore there was no need for God to force Pharaoh to do anything against his will.
The OP implies man is born with a sinful nature. If such were true, then Pharaoh would have had this sinful nature. And this sinful nature would have made Pharaoh to disobey so there would be no need for God to make Pharaoh disobey against his will.
Exodus 7:3 (NASB) "But I will harden Pharaoh's heart that I may multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt.
Exodus 14:4(NASB) "Thus I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he will chase after them; and I will be honored through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD." And they did so.
Exodus 14:17(NASB) "As for Me, behold, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them; and I will be honored through Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and his horsemen.
Romans 5:12 (NASB) Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned--
You can harden a person’s heart by commanding that person to do something that person does not want to do. God foreknew Pharaoh would not want to let the people go, therefore just by commanding Pharaoh to let the people go would harden Pharaoh’s heart. Since God created the circumstance in putting Pharaoh in a position to have to obey or not, then in that sense God is said to have hardened his heart.
Ex 8:15 “But when Pharaoh saw that there was respite, he hardened his heart, and hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had said.”
Here, Pharaoh hardened his own heart ‘as the Lord had said”.
Where prior to Ex 8:15 did the Lord say Pharaoh would harden his own heart? This must mean in Ex 4:21 when God said “I will harden his heart”, this must include Pharaoh hardening his own heart.
—God commands Pharaoh to let the people go...
—Pharaoh hardened his own heart choosing to disobey...
So in two senses (1) God hardened his heart and (2) Pharaoh hardened his own heart....both statements are true.
Cain and Abel both had the ability to choose to do right and wrong as did Pharaoh. Abel choose to do eight and Cain choose wrong.
Pharaoh chose to do wrong yet the king of Nineveh chose to do that which was right, Jonah chapter 3. The king of Nineveh was put in a position to either choose to not repent and be destroyed or choose to obey by repenting and be spared. He chose to obey and in verse 10 it says:
“And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.”
Why would God need to ‘repent’ if God is controlling all the decisions a man makes and all the things a man does? God reacted to Nineveh’s free will choice to obey and God repented, He followed a predetermined path in how He deals with nations that repent (Jer 18:8-10).
Rom 5:12 “because all sinned” shows man’s personal culpability in committing sin and not how man was passively born against his will.
If this is the case, please explain why Romans 9:18-24 goes on to explain this completely differently than what you have just said.
Also, do you think God changes His mind, or that He foreknew the response of the Nineveh and did not act on their wickedness?
If a man was born without legs can he be justly rightly held accountable for not walking? No.
If a man were born with a sin nature against his will and that nature forces man to sin, can man be rightly justly accountable for his sins? No.
Does God cause men to sin against their will then punish them for the sin God makes them commit? No, such would be unjust, unrighteousness.
Romans 9:18-21
18 So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.
19 You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?”
20 On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it?
21 Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?
God did not change His mind, but changed His course of action and followed a predetermined course of action in how He deals with nations that choose to obey or disobey Jer 18:8-10
Rom 9 is NOT a discourse on Calvinism. Instead Paul points out in Rom 11 God’s chosen, the Jews, have been cast of and the once unchosen Gentiles grafted in. (This goes against Calvinism’s idea of election).
And in Rom 9 Paul is raising argument he knew the Jews would have in God casting them off and refuting those arguments.
On the contrary, it completely holds up Romans 9:15-16:
15 For He says to Moses, "I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION."16 So then it [does] not [depend] on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.
The Jews thought they were the chosen just because they were Jews by birth, but as is pointed out in Romans 2:28-29:
28 For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh.29 But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.
Finally, "... we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth." 2 Thessalonians 2:13 (NASB)
Grace and Peace,
K51
16 So then it [does] not [depend] on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.
Those that Repent and Believe the Gospel were chosen to have God's mercy. Their response is due to the Grace of God (Ephesians 2:8-10), and that is why they are a "new creature."
Man's will is never violated by God. I agree with that. But man's nature is changed by God. The natural man will never accept the Gospel. Only those who are a "new creature" will follow after God.
I agree God’s mercy is not arbitrary in nature but God CONDITIONALLY shows mercy to ANYONE who chooses to obey Him and not only to certain select, random individuals God chose unconditionally before the world began
Roman 3:11 (NASB) THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD;
The ideas are not in conflict, as you suppose. It is more a chicken/egg issue. Did the person ask by their own nature, or was their nature affected so that they asked?
Frankly, for my salvation, I would rather rely on the "arbitrariness" of God rather than on my weak human flesh.
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