From the Myth of Free Will, by Walter Chantry
No one denies that man has a will—that is, a faculty of choosing what he wishes to say, do, and think. But have you ever reflected on the pitiful weakness of your will? Though you have the ability to make a decision, you do not have the power to carry out your purpose. Will may devise a course of action, but will has no power to execute its intention.The will of man is his power to choose between alternatives. Your will does decide your actions from a number of options. You have the faculty to direct your own thoughts, words, and deeds. Your decisions are not formed by an outside force but from within yourself. No man is compelled to act contrary to his will, nor forced to say what he does not wish. Your will guides your actions.
Yet this does not mean that the power to decide is free from all influence. You make choices based on your understanding, your feelings, your likes and dislikes, and your appetites. In other words, your will is not free from yourself! Your choices are determined by your own basic character. The will is not independent of your nature but the slave of it. Your choices do not shape your character, but your character guides your choices. The will is quite partial to what you know, feel, love, and desire. You always choose on the basis of your disposition, according to the condition of your heart.
It is just for this reason that your will is not free to do good. Your will is the servant of your heart, and your heart is evil. "The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (Gen. 6:5). "No one does good, not even one" (Rom. 3:12). No power forces man to sin contrary to his will, but the descendants of Adam are so evil that they always choose the evil.
Your decisions are molded by your understanding, and the Bible says of all men, "Their senseless minds are darkened" (Rom. 1:21). Man can only be righteous when he desires to have fellowship with God, but, "No one seeks for God" (Rom. 3:11). Your appetites crave sin, and thus you cannot choose Good. To choose good is contrary human nature. If you chose to obey God, it would be the result of external compulsion. But you are free to choose, and hence your choice is enslaved to your own evil nature.
If fresh meat and tossed salad were placed before a hungry lion, he would choose the flesh. This is because his nature dictates the selection. It is just so with man. The will of man is free from outside force but not from the bias of human nature. That bias is against God. Man's powers of decision are free to choose whatever the human heart dictates; therefore there is no possibility of a man choosing to please God without a prior work of divine grace.
What most people mean by free will is the idea that man is by nature neutral and therefore able to choose either good or evil. This simply is not true. The human will and the whole of human nature is bent to only evil continually. Jeremiah asked, "Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then also you can do good who are accustomed to do evil" (Jer. 13:23). It is impossible. It is contrary to nature. Thus do men desperately need the supernatural transformation of their natures, else their wills are enslaved to choosing evil.
In spite of the great praise that is given to "free will," we have seen that man's will is not free to choose a course contrary to God's purposes nor free to act contrary to his own moral nature. Your will does not determine the events of your life nor the circumstances of it. Ethical choices are not formed by a neutral mind but always dictated by your personality.
Nevertheless many assert that the human will makes the ultimate choice of spiritual life or spiritual death. Here the will is altogether free to choose eternal life offered in Jesus Christ or to reject it. It is said that God will give a new heart to all who choose by the power of their own free will to receive Jesus Christ.
There can be no question that receiving Jesus Christ is an act of the human will. It is often called "faith." But how do men come to willingly receive the Lord? It is usually answered, "Out of the power of their own free will." But how can that be? Jesus is a prophet. To receive him means to believe all that he says. In John 8:41-45 Jesus made it clear that you were born of Satan. This evil father hates the truth and imparted the same bias into your heart by nature. Hence said Jesus, "Because I tell you the truth, you do not believe me." How does the human will jump out of man to choose to believe what the human mind hates and denies?
To receive Jesus further means to embrace him as a priest—that is, to employ and depend on him to sue out peace with God by sacrifice and intercession. Paul tells us that the mind with which we were born is hostile to God (Rom. 8:7). How can the will escape the influence of human nature which was born with a violent enmity to God? It would be insane for the will to choose peace when every bone and drop of blood cries out for rebellion.
Then too, receiving Jesus means to welcome him as a king. It means choosing to obey his every command, to confess his right of rule, and to worship before his throne. But the human mind, emotions, and desires all cry out, "We will not have this man to reign over us" (Luke 19:14). If my whole being hates his truth, hates his rule, and hates peace with God, how can my will be responsible for receiving Jesus? How can such a sinner have faith?
It is not man's will but God's grace that must be thanked for giving a sinner a new heart. Unless God changes the heart, creates a new spirit of peace, truthfulness, and submission, man will not choose to receive Jesus Christ and eternal life in Him. A new heart must be given before a man will believe, or else the human will is hopelessly enslaved to evil human nature—even in the matter of conversion. Jesus said, "Marvel not that I said to you, you must be born again" (John 3:7). Unless you are, you will never see his kingdom.
Read John 1:12 & 13. It says that those who believe on Jesus have been "born, not of the will of man, but of God." As your will is not responsible for your coming into this world, it is not responsible for the new birth. It is your Creator who must be thanked for your life, and if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation (II Cor. 5:17). Who ever chose to be created? When Lazarus rose from the dead, he chose to answer the call of Christ, but he did not choose to come to life. So Paul said in Ephesians 2:4 & 5, "When we were dead in sins God has quickened us with Christ (by grace you are saved)." Faith is the first act of a will made new by the Holy Spirit. Receiving Christ is an act of man just as breathing is, but God must first give life.
No wonder Martin Luther wrote a book entitled The Bondage of The Will which he considered one of his most important treatises. The will is in the chains of an evil human nature. You who extol the free will as a great force are clinging to a root of pride. Man, as fallen in sin, is utterly helpless and hopeless. The will of man offers no hope. It was the will choosing the forbidden fruit that brought us into misery. The powerful grace of God alone offers deliverance.
Then perhaps you aren't saved yet.
For myself, I heard the Gospel and understood the meaning through common grace. A call was made by the Father and I accepted. The moment of my faith and belief in the propitiation of our sin through Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit imputed an efficacious grace for my salvation.
I continue to grow in Him. If I slip because my soul had been scarred, I nevertheless have been reborn and regenerated in the spirit.
The Holy Spirit indwells me and my joy remains as long as I do not quench the Spirit.
If I do sin, or fall away from Him, for a period, my sins have already been paid for at the cross. All that I must do is return to Him so He may return to me if He so wills. By my confession of those sins through Christ and repentence, He remains just and faithful to His judgment of sin in Christ.
Sin was paid for on the cross. Not good nor evil. Even unbelievers have capacity to perform good. Not divine good which is understood by things eternal in righteousness by Him, and it is for this reason that they will be judged by the opening of the second Book of Works. When they show no works of righteousness via divine good, then their works will amount simply to good for nothingness and the Lake of Fire will become their destiny.
Perhaps God has chosen me or yourself in eternity past, but using the criterion of such we will never know from that perspective which attempts to place man as judge of God's past foreknowledge.
On the contrary, it is only by acceptance of the Perfect Sacrifice, the unlimited atonement which was made for us by Jesus Christ, that have faith in Him. Once that faith exists, even coincident, then conditions have been established for God to meet His promises as we return to Him, He is able then to return to us. His grace and His love then continues in His faithfulness to His Son, whereby we receive the indwelling even of all three persons of God.
We also have the ability to choose evil. If we choose to sin, or disobey God, we still become separated from Him. But as sin has already been paid for,...all sin, past and future, then we still may return to Him and a situationa again arises where He may return to us in righteousness.
If we continually sin after we believe in Him, then He will probably discipline us, and if we continue in sin, to the point where we have no saltiness left, then He might call us home via the sin unto death. In that situation we no longer afford Him any usefulness while in this body and continued evil would only serve as disadvantageous to those seeking righteousness.
Spoken like a soulish man. But by faith in Him we can will through Him to even move mountains. If we attempt to will this merely for ourselves then we act independent of His will and not through Divine righteous faith through Him. Both we and Him have free will and when man exercises positive volition through Him we are afforded the power to perform good works of the eternal sense.