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THE MYTH OF FREEWILL
A message for all those caught up in
the lie of Freewillism
One of the greatest lies being fed to professing
Christians today is that man, by his own free will, is able to accept or
reject salvation. Many deluded souls hold this heresy, a gospel that is
really “another gospel”.
Previous generations called this idea, the “if you
will” religion of works, in which like the doctrines of the Church of
Rome, grace requires the help of man. It also goes under the names of
“Arminianism” and “semi -Pelagianism”
named after the men who originally introduced the heresy. This same evil
still causes division in the body of Christ. The enemies of the true
Gospel of God’s Free and Sovereign Grace do all within their power to
infiltrate their insidious doctrine into the minds of the unsuspecting.
The distinctive marks of this deviation from the
truth are always the same, the “if”, the “you” and “your free will”.
These are the decisive factors that supposedly make the plan of
salvation work. This “if you will” religion offers salvation so long as
you let God save you. The god of this “if you will” religion can only
desire the salvation of sinners and offer to save them, He is helpless
to secure, by his own power, what he wishes to do. Redemption cannot be
accomplished unless man, of his own free will, chooses to permit God to
achieve His purposes. This is another gospel and one that is described
in the as being “accursed.”
The questions are, does unregenerate man have a free
will so that he can of his own volition, without any assistance from the
Holy Spirit choose to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for
salvation? Is every unsaved man free to co -operate
with God in this way in order to bring about his own salvation?
Does unsaved man have freewill to choose to repent
and believe
The Biblical, Evangelical and historic answer is an
emphatic “No!” Unregenerate man does not have free will in the sense
that he can choose to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for
salvation. In his unregenerate state, man can choose only to reject the
Lord Jesus Christ. In this natural state he is, firstly, at enmity with
God, and firmly entrenched in that position and secondly, he is dead to
spiritual matters.
Unregenerate man is not free to co -operate
with God, but he is free to rebel against Him. Men, in their natural
state, are servants of sin as Jesus Himself makes plain in John 8:34. As
servants they do their masters bidding. Paul by the inspiration of the
Holy Spirit clarifies this when he says “But God be thanked, that ye
were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of
doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye
became the servants of righteousness. I speak after the manner of men
because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your
members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so
now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. For when
ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness”
(Romans 6:17-20).
The lost are in the snare of the Devil and cannot do anything towards
their escape.
Man can do no good in God’s sight
The Lord Jesus makes this point very clear when in,
speaking of good and bad fruit he says “Even so every good tree
bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree
bring forth good fruit” (Matthew 7:17 -18).
We can only conclude that unregenerate man does not abide in the vine,
the Lord Jesus Christ. he cannot, therefore, bring forth any good fruit
for “As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in
the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are
the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth
forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing” (John 15:4-5).
Neither can man graft himself into the true vine,
because he is not indwelt by the Holy Spirit and cannot, therefore, say
from his heart that Jesus is the Lord. And as the apostle says “no
man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.” (I
Corinthians 12:3).
.
The unregenerate cannot do any thing worthy of
salvation because they are carnal and fleshly. “Because the carnal
mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God,
neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please
God” (Romans 8:7 -8).
They cannot therefore in any way subject themselves to God’s Law and
therefore cannot please God
Man cannot discern that which is good in God’s sight.
Unsaved man sees with natural eyes; but cannot see
with spiritual eyes. He hears with his natural ears but cannot hear with
spiritual ears. As the Lord Jesus said “Therefore speak I to them in
parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not,
neither do they understand” (Matthew 13:13).
Similarly he cannot know, receive, or believe on the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ who “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 1:11 -13).
He does not, he cannot seek God “There is none that understandeth,
there is none that seeketh after God” (Romans 3:11.)
Furthermore the unregenerate man cannot understand
the truth until God does a special work of grace in his heart as was the
case with Lydia, “a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of
the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us: whose heart the
Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of
Paul” (Acts 16:14).
Unregenerate man cannot come to the Lord Jesus Christ
in repentance and faith, using his own free will unless he has been
given to Christ by God the Father. “All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out”
(John 6:37), and until God the Father effectually draws him to Christ,
“No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw
him: and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:44).
“Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were
given unto him of my Father” (John 6:65).
Salvation is of the Lord.
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