"In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will" (Eph. 1:11). It is sometimes charged upon those who hold that God is sovereign in all that He does, that there must be recognized that man’s will is another side to this matter which balances out the truth. However, it is hard to imagine how that any statement could be more positive than this one in Ephesians 1:11 and if there is another side to the matter, it will not contradict this statement, for all Scripture is inspired of God, and is infallible therefore.
In no realm is the sovereign will of God denied as it is in the matter of man’s salvation. Only a hundred years or so ago, it was common to hear messages on the duty of submission to the will of God, but who ever hears a message on this theme in this age of willfulness. One often hears great orations upon man’s supposed free and supreme will, and most evangelists (?) cannot give an invitation without enlarging upon this theme, but the will of God is generally ignored.
Yet the above text is not the only one that sets forth the supremacy of the will of God; there are many others, and often they are even more specifically spoken of salvation than the above. Note the following: "He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (John 1:10-13). "So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy. For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth" (Rom. 9:16-18). "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure" (Phil. 2:13). "Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures" (Jam. 1:18). Other texts equally strong and explicit could be added to these, but if anyone is not convinced by these, neither would he be convinced by added Scriptures.
There are several words in the Greek New Testament which are translated "will," and they have various shades of meaning. In Ephesians 1:11, the word rendered "counsel" (Grk. boul?) in its verb form is often translated "will." It is joined with "will" (Grk. thel?ma) which is a weaker form. The Greek word boul? (and its related forms boul?ma and boulomai) is suggestive of "deliberate design" and is "the result of determination," as opposed to mere wish or desire. It is necessary that we distinguish between these two shades of meaning, else we may come to the impious conclusion that God is unable to accomplish His purposes without help from man. The old theologians distinguished between the revealed will of God, and His secret will; the revealed will of God, often expressed by the Greek word thelo or thel?ma, reveals God’s desire, and so it tests our obedience; but the secret will of God, expressed by the Greek words boul?, boul?ma and boulomai, express God’s secret determined will which cannot and will not be thwarted. God’s will is often distinguished into either His efficacious or His permissive will. Dr. Green well distinguishes between these.
It goes therefore without saying that the writer is not a "Free will" Baptist, but is a "Sovereign-Grace" Baptist, for he believes with Charles Spurgeon that "The whole scheme of salvation, we aver, from the first to the last, hinges and turns, and is dependent upon the absolute will of God, and not upon the will of the creature" (Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Vol. 8, p. 183. Pilgrim Publications, Pasadena, Texas, 1971).
We often hear people sum up their theology about the extent of the atonement by saying "Well, I believe in ‘Whosoever Will.’" To which we say a hearty "AMEN!" But this does not touch the real problem in the matter. There is no question but that "whosoever will believe" will be saved, for God’s promise guarantees it, but the questions are: "Is man able to will of himself?" "How can a man will to believe that he might be saved?" Only an outright atheist or agnostic would deny that whosoever will believe will be saved, for such a denial is a repudiation of the promises of God. Man’s problem never has been whether he will be saved if he believes on Christ, but his problem has always been that by nature he is unwilling to believe.
There are five Greek words and phrases which are translated "whosoever" and "whomsoever," but the one found in John 3:15,16 is the most common, and it is more commonly rendered "each one," "everyone" or "all," but always with a limitation either stated or clearly implied. If we will but consider what the Scripture has to say about the natural state of man’s will, we will find that man cannot "will" to be saved apart from the divinely inwrought grace of God, which changes man’s nature, regenerating him, and making him willing in the day that God’s power is exercised in him (Ps. 110:3; John 6:63; Eph. 2:4-10). Let the reader consult the following Scriptures, and he will see that not only is the natural man’s will in bondage to Satan, but that he is totally depraved, with nothing good in him, nor is he capable of either desiring to know or doing the will of God (2 Tim. 2:25-26; Rom. 3:9-12; 1 Cor. 2:14; Rom. 8:7-8). With these thoughts in mind, we would like to consider the subject of man’s will, and we will look at it from a three-fold position.
It is generally accepted as a self-evident truth that man is possessed of "free will," and a person denies this at the risk of being termed a "hardshell," yet this term was never applied to any person originally because of his doctrinal beliefs, for when this term first came into use, both those who were called "hardshells" and those who were not, generally held to the same strict Calvinism which denies man to have "free-will." Hardshellism was historically anti-missionism and anti-effortism, and the fact that the Hardshells were Calvinists was incidental, for at that time all sound Baptists were Calvinists. It is therefore a slander of the worst sort to call a man a Hardshell simply because he is Calvinist in theology.
Man does not have "free-will," if by this is meant that man naturally, in and of himself, has the power to choose between good and evil. This is evident from the very fact that not a single person in all of the world’s history has ever been saved apart from divine grace. God has always had to initiate and complete salvation for man. Not only is man unable to be saved apart from divine grace, but even after he is saved, it takes divine grace to keep him in that state of salvation; but for the grace of God, every saved person would be lost again before he had been a believer for one whole day.
In saying that man does not have free will, we do not mean to say that man is not responsible for his sin; man is wholly responsible, for he is a sinner not only by nature, but also by choice. The fact that all men willingly choose to continue in sin shows that he is unwilling as well as unable to exercise any will toward good. By his fall in Eden, man became a sinner; he committed moral and spiritual suicide. It may be illustrated in this way; a man enters the elevator of the tallest building in town: he has the freedom of will to do this; he rides to the roof and there steps out of the elevator: he has the freedom of will to do this; next, he goes to the roof edge and jumps over: he also has the freedom of will to do this; but having done so, he has committed himself to a condition from which he does not have the freedom of will to extricate himself, but is doomed to destruction unless some force outside himself rescues him. So it was with man: by his rebellion in Eden, Adam committed moral and spiritual suicide for himself and for all his posterity; and only an outside force can rescue any one of Adam’s fallen race from destruction.
Neither do we mean by denying free will to deny free agency, for every man is a free agent, but he is free only within the sphere of his natural life, which is one of spiritual death, and so of spiritual incapability. He is a child of disobedience and wrath, under the complete control of the prince of this world (Eph. 2:1-3). Man’s free agency is limited only by man’s nature; he is free of any outward compulsion to sin. Satan may tempt him, but it is always the man himself that yields to that temptation and sins. He thus sins freely when he sins, for it is within his nature to do so. T. P. Simmons says of the free agency of the natural man:
Much emphasis is placed today upon the supposed fact of man’s free will, and it is held by many that no one—not even God—can override man’s will. But the fallacy of this will be seen in a careful consideration of the following facts, which reveal that man’s will is not so free as he supposes.
1. Man’s will is not free in his birth, for no one chooses to be born, nor does anyone have the freedom to choose which home, nation, social status, or other circumstances into which he will be born. God sovereignly determines in advance without so much as a "by your leave," when, where and under what circumstances each one of us will be born.
2. Man’s will is not free as regards his health, for no one would ever choose to be sick, and if one had the choice of the disease that he had to take, if he had to have one, many diseases would soon perish off the earth, yet there are a great many different diseases to which man is subject, and many persons, in spite of the greatest health care, still contact diseases and suffer and die from them.
3. Man’s will is not free as regards accidents, for many accidents—sometimes even fatal accidents—happen to even the most careful people. Often these accidents are of such a freakish nature that they are explainable only by the will of God being the cause of them.
Man’s will is not free concerning the circumstances of life, for many people are thwarted in their ambitions and plans; we could understand how that God might thwart the plans of evil men like Adolf Hitler, but often God thwarts the plans of godly people when their plans are right and good, but He does so that His own purposes may come to pass.
5. Man’s will is not free concerning his intellectual ability, for all men would like to be intellectual giants, yet no man can go beyond the mental ability that God has given him in his birth. A natural limitation of the will of man is as much a limitation as any other, and is directly attributable to the God of nature.
6. Man’s will is not supreme in the acquisition of material possessions, for it is a very rare thing to find anyone who is poor by choice. It is easy enough to plan to be a pauper and to succeed, if anyone with such a peculiar desire should be found, but the world is full of would-be millionaires who are withheld from being rich because God has not granted them the power to get riches (Deut. 8:18; Luke 12:16-21). Often the most carefully planned business ventures become financial fiascos.
7. Man’s will is not free in his relations with his fellow creatures, for laws are often passed which restrain the individual’s will. Not only so, but it is well known that one man can often override and coerce another’s will; indeed, one who has some knowledge of psychology can manipulate people to get them to unconsciously do his will. Parents often do this with children, and sometimes children use psychology on their parents; and the wife’s ability to "twist her husband around her little finger" has almost passed into a proverb.
8. Man’s will as a natural being, apart from the grace of God, is not free, for the Scripture expressly declares that the natural man is taken captive by the devil "at his will" (2 Tim. 2:26), so that it is as absurd for man to boast of his free will, when the devil takes him captive any time he wants, as it was for the Jews to boast that they had never been in bondage to any man even while they had the yoke of Roman bondage upon them (John 8:33). But our Lord showed in verse 34 that the sinner, so far from having free will, is in an even greater bondage—the bondage of slavery to sin, for "servant" is literally "slave."
9. Man’s will is not free in the matter of salvation, for he cannot be saved any time he pleases, as John 1:13; James 1:18; John 6:44 et al, teach. Not only so, but if man’s will were as free as he likes to boast, then he could be saved, not only any time he pleased, but also under any circumstances, and even without any help from the Lord.
10. Man’s will is not even free as a Christian, for of all people, the believer’s will is always subject to God’s will. See Acts 16:6-10. Not only so, but according to Galatians 5:17, the fleshly nature still exerts such a force upon the believer that he often "cannot do the things that ye would." The evil nature of the flesh is a potent force, even preventing the renewed will from functioning as it desires to do.
11. Man’s will is not free concerning death, for few even are permitted to choose the hour of their death, and many would-be suicides are thwarted in their attempts to take their own lives, and they live on to rejoice that they were withheld from their own attempted self-destruction. "There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he power in the day of death" (Eccl. 8:8).
If there were no other proof of the fallacy of free will than the statement in 2 Timothy 2:25-26, it would be sufficient to forever sweep away the idea, for this text declares: "In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will." If we consider these verses in reverse order to which they are given, we will find the following things: (1) The natural man is taken captive at the devil’s will, and hence man is only as free as the devil chooses to allow him to be, and the devil certainly would never allow any person to will to be saved if he could prevent it. (2) The natural man is unconscious of this bondage to the devil, yet this unconsciousness is self-chosen, for the word "recover" (marginal reading "awake") means to awaken as from a drunken stupor. Thus, man acts freely in sin, though he is unconsciously in bondage to the devil. (3) The only hope of escape lies, not in man willing to free himself from the devil’s power, but in God’s giving him repentance, and this He does, using the Word as the instrument of instruction and conversion. God is always the active party in man’s salvation, and there are many texts which declare that both repentance and faith are God’s gifts, wrought in man. Thus the Orthodox Baptist Confession of Faith declares under Article 8:
Proud man would like to think that he is, as William Ernest Henley wrote in his poem "Invictus," "master of my fate, and captain of my soul," but both Scripture and history abound with examples of men whose attempted control of their own destinies resulted only in the eternal destruction of their souls. Whatever of good that has ever been found in any man, is not the result of any "free will" in him, but is directly ascribable to the providence and provision of God (See Jam. 1:17).
The underlying idea of what is generally termed "free will" is very flattering to the carnal nature of man, and it takes some real grace and self-denial to accept any other view, but what is generally meant by "free will" is based upon some rotten foundations and some unscriptural ideas. First, it is founded upon the idea of human self-sufficiency and self-reliance, which is an outright denial of the doctrine of the total depravity of man; it is impossible to consistently hold to both of these doctrines, for they are contradictory. If man is totally depraved, as the Scriptures teach, and as Baptists have long held, then there is nothing in man that would be acceptable to God, nor could he perform any spiritual act that would be pleasing to God.
Romans 3:9-12 shows the race-wide extensiveness of depravity: "What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; as it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one." This whole portion denies any spiritual ability or desire in man; it is a denunciation of man’s sinfulness in the following ways, (Note how this portion also shows that man’s whole nature is depraved): (1) Since all men without exception are referred to in verse 10, it shows that man’s nature is wholly evil, for none are excepted. (2) The mental faculties are referred to in verse 11, and it is shown that there is no desire to learn of, nor to seek God. (3) Consequently, the deeds are wholly evil, and all men are shown to be living in rebellion against God’s will (v. 12). (4) Even the speech of the natural man is perverted and depraved (vv.13-14). This is the index of the heart according to Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 12:34-37. (5) Evil also characterizes the feet and the daily walk of the natural man (vv. 15-16.) (6) Finally, their whole outlook, signified by their eyes, is one of willing ignorance and unconcern about spiritual truth, (vv. 17-18). Here is a tragic but true picture of mankind in its natural state; it is hard to conceive of a stronger statement of man’s total depravity than this. Who can see any good predicated of man here?
Romans 7:18 likewise shows that this depravity is total in the natural man: "For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not." Paul spoke this as a Christian, possessed of two natures which were constantly at war with one another: but the natural man does not have a regenerated spiritual nature to resist the flesh; he is wholly a fleshly man, under the domination of this carnal nature, in which Paul declares "dwelleth (literally, ‘is at home’) no good thing," but which is in a continual state of willful rebellion against the will of God. Man’s will is bent in but one direction—away from God and toward sin. If John 15:5f is true of believers—"without me ye can do nothing" —how much more so is it true of the natural man who has no spiritual nature to strive against the flesh?
Second, the idea of a free-will in man is based upon a denial of man’s fall in Eden, or else, it holds that the fall was only a minor and temporary hurt which was of no consequence. Charles Spurgeon rightly says:
The idea of man having free will is also founded upon self-deceit, for man is unwilling to believe that he is as bad off spiritually as he is, but he thinks that he has the power to remedy his own case. The natural man is like a person who has cancer, and is told by the doctor that only radical surgery done immediately can give any hope of life, but who steadfastly refuses the doctor’s diagnosis, and thinks that by taking aspirin and killing the pain that he shall soon be cured of the malady. We know that the result of such folly would be a certain and very painful death; but the natural man’s condition is even more solemn, the cure is even more sure, and the results of not receiving the diagnosis of the Great Physician are even more dreadful. Yet the natural man is self-deceived into thinking that he can take care of his own problem without any help from God, for he flatters himself that he has "free will," and that this is sufficient to get him to heaven. After all, he reasons, is it not simply a matter of being willing to believe that Jesus died and that He will receive all who assent to this fact? Unfortunately, many preachers have encouraged men in this matter by telling them that they only need to change their minds and to will that it be as they desire it to be, and it will be. A. W. Pink says:
Jonah said "Salvation is of the Lord" (Jonah 2:9), and this is the consistent teaching of the Scriptures, and never is there so much as a hint that man has anything at all to do with the spiritual salvation of his soul; rarely, he is admonished to save himself, but this always refers to a mere physical or moral deliverance. On the other hand, man’s regeneration is always spoken of as being God’s work, in which man is passive until the Spirit quickens him, after which he manifests this fact by faith.
The first fault, and one that lies at the root of many others, is that this theory refuses to recognize that man is wholly in bondage to sin. Listen to Paul’s declaration in Romans 7:18-21: "For I know that in me (that is: in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me." If this incapacity is in the believer, then how much more so is it true of the natural man who has no spiritual nature about him? The great fault of this theory of man’s will is that before it declares man’s supposed ability to do spiritual acts and good deeds, it lowers the divine standard to the capability of the natural man. As someone has well said, "I can jump over any church steeple, provided I am allowed to say how high that steeple can be."
Man originally had a perfect freedom of the will before the fall, and the justified man will again have it after he has been glorified, but presently he does not have this. E. G. Robinson describes this ideal state as follows:
The same thought is set forth in 1 Peter 4:3: "For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries." The unregenerate will is always seen to be evil in its tendencies, and the reader is challenged to produce a single instance where the will of the unregenerate, natural man is ever seen to be capable of a single truly good or spiritual act apart from the divine enabling.
A second fault of this view of man’s will is that it always fails to glorify God, but it always puts the glory upon man’s supposed ability; this is but natural, for if man by nature has this ability to repent and believe at any time without the aid of divine grace, then God deserves no praise beyond what is given for His creation of man. However, we are told in Isaiah 42:8, and the context shows that it is in reference to Jesus’ redemptive work, that: "I am the Lord: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images." Hence, the Lord denies that anyone else has a part in salvation, for He claims all of the praise, which would not be the case if man’s "free will" entered into it. God has created all things for His own glory (Rev. 4:11), yet that glory is stolen from Him in great part by those who exalt their own abilities, and trust in their own will to put them into a right relation with the Lord.
Another of the faults of the belief in free will is its tendency to produce other and worse beliefs, such as: (1) Procrastination. Because of their belief in their own free will, many people keep putting off repenting and submitting themselves unto the Lord, for if they are possessed of a free will that makes it possible for them to turn to God at any time they please, then later will do just as well as now, and they can drink to the full of the world in the meanwhile. (2) Apostasy of the soul is a twin-sister doctrine to this one of free-will, for it is held that if one can turn unto God at any time by the mere exercise of the will, then he may also turn away from God and be lost again at any time. This logically follows, but it is incorrect, because both ideas are founded upon erroneous foundations. (3) This theory has been well tested by time, and the result of holding it has almost always been that it leads into Socinianism, Pelagianism or Unitarianism. Arminianism is bad enough, but these other three are strictly spiritual poisons which damn the souls of all who hold to them. One has but to look to the English General Baptists, and to some of the Baptists of New England, both of whom held this theory of the will, and he will find that this was the almost unvarying result: both were taken over by these other beliefs and soon completely lost their identity as Baptists. On the other hand, the Particular Baptists, who have never held to the freedom of the will, have never been troubled with any considerable defections to Socinianism, Pelagianism or Unitarianism.
We feel that we must reject this general view of freewill, for the will of the natural man, being wholly depraved and perverted, cannot and does not desire to do God’s will in anything. On the contrary, the mind of the natural man is "enmity against God," and how then could its will ever be in harmony with the will of God, From experience, the believer is compelled to admit that he still cannot do the things that his spiritual nature desires to do, for the will of the flesh is still a potent force.
What then? How can man be rescued from this dilemma? He must recognize that only by the infusion of a new principle in him—being quickened and regenerated by the Holy Spirit—can he be fitted to do God’s will. Apart from God’s grace, we cannot do anything good or right, but with God’s grace working in us, we will both will and do His will. We shall be willing in the day when He exerts His power in us (Ps. 110:3). We are accountable to use the means of grace that are given to us, for by the hearing of the reading and preaching of the Word, faith is instilled in men, and they are sanctified and made fit for the Master’s use. We are all created for God’s glory, not for our own, and we shall never have joy and contentment until we achieve the purpose for which we were created. Because of God’s gracious dealings with the sons of men, we occupy a glorious position as the born-again sons of God. We ought to glorify God for His grace that places us in such an exalted position.
By Davis W. Huckabee, Pastor,