You gotta admit it’s pretty semantical.
You have free will which you will always use to choose sin, unless God changes your free will, without your involvment.
Does God do this against our will?
You have free will which you will always use to choose sin, unless God changes your wants, without your involvment.
You gotta admit it’s pretty semantical. You have free will which you will always use to choose sin, unless God changes your free will, without your involvment. Not at all. This is the very nature of God. Augustine noticed this in the following two passages:
Eze 18:31 "Cast away from you all your transgressions which you have committed and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! For why will you die, O house of Israel? Eze 36:26-27 "Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.
Augustine noticed a contextual problem between these two passages. In the first passage, God command the people to make for themselves new hearts and spirits. But, reasoned Augustine, how could they possibly do that? God then states that He will give them a new heart and spirit? The problem with Augustine's dilemma was if the people do not have the new heart and spirit from God, how could people ask it of God?
It was based upon this reasoning that Augustine rightfully deduced his prayer:
Command what you will, and grant what you command.
Augustine felt that God commands us to do certain things, but He must also grant to us the ability to carry out those things. I will add that Pelagius felt this was crazy reasoning, something the Church condemned Pelagius for.
This is the heart of Christianity. God commands all men to repent, but God must grant repentance.
2Ti 2:25 with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth,
God may, if it be His will, grant repentance to those around us. You can't get this with free will.
Augustine was pretty clever.