***Man, in his natural state, has the “free will” to sin or not sin.
We are in agreement on this, Irish. I am not sure your Reformed friends here are, but the Orthodox and Catholic most certainly are.***
I am absolutely positive that most, if not all, of my “refomed” friends agree.
***I am not sure that by being regenerated we gain freedom, since our options actually narrow.***
Galatians 5:13 “You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.” This is my point. We are FREE, more free than the unregenerated. We have the freedom to love one another as Christ loved us. No unregenerated man can do this. So, we have the choice to sin (which is NOT a good choice, but we do it every day), not sin (which is better than sinning), or we can choose to serve, honor, and please God (which is ALWAYS the best choice). Can you see what I am getting at?
Your reformed friends dney free will.
Galatians 5:13 “You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.”...We are FREE, more free than the unregenerated.
And Ephesians 6:6 says "not by way of eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart."
In other words, doing the will of God is not freedom but servitude. And servitude means less freedom. It comes form the heart, but it's sevritude nonetheless, because that heart was changed by God's will and not ours, right?
Your theology teaches that God changes our hearts and gives us faith and that you really have no choice but to believe, so you are actually less free; you have fewer options if you are obligated to do God's will!
But a Christian soul is free from the fallen world, and the tansient charm it has on us; we cannot be bought with wordly things and simple pleasures, to which we were born as slaves into our fallen naure.
***Galatians 5:13 “You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.” This is my point. We are FREE, more free than the unregenerated. We have the freedom to love one another as Christ loved us. ***
If we are free to love, we are free to hate. Otherwise there is no freedom. If we are free to follow the Way of Jesus, we are free to follow any other way as well.
I think that I understand your point - that without the Grace of God, we cannot possibly have true faith and obtain salvation. But let’s understand the full implications of that thought. Adam was free to reject God; so are all men.
That is how perfect His love is for us.
Either we make a choice or we make no choice. We either have freedom or we don’t.
Kosta: We are in agreement on this, Irish. I am not sure your Reformed friends here are, but the Orthodox and Catholic most certainly are.***
Irish: I am absolutely positive that most, if not all, of my “reformed” friends agree.
I certainly agree. The comeback is always that the Reformed do not believe in free will. But you and I know that that is only from a certain perspective. What I have found is that our friends cannot or will not accept the idea that free will and God's total sovereignty (control) can exist at the same time. To them, either man is in control of everything to do with himself or God is in control and creates evil. We know that neither of those is true. God is in full control AND man has a measure of free will, depending, as you laid out.