Welcome to a firm foundation presented by Princeton Ministries with Dr. Ken Smith. This is Carol Smith, Ken’s wife. Please enjoy.

Does man have a free will? It is probably one of the questions that has been in the minds of theologians and philosophers for centuries. It has been the source of endless debate as to the possibility of man’s free will, what the parameters of man’s free will are. And let me say this. If you consider the subject of free will not to be necessary to you as a Christian, if you don’t consider this important, and it’s not necessary to you, then there’s one thing I want to say to you. I will have nothing to do with you. So said Martin Luther. There was a time when the subject of free will was so much at the core of the Christian faith that someone like Luther would say, this is not incidental, this is not a side option.

This is not something that you can choose to have one opinion or another. No, Martin Luther saw the subject of free will as at the very core of the gospel. And yet we seem to live in a day where as soon as you talk about the free will issue, I’ve had many people knowing that I was going to talk on this subject, say, well, why do you want to talk on such a controversial subject? Why can’t we talk about the things that we all agree on and leave those other things to other times, and probably just leave them out of your whole teaching schedule? Well, free will is incredibly important for us to understand as Christians. And the battle line was drawn long ago within the church.

For there have only been two answers that have ever been given to the question of free will within the context of the church. On the one side stand the armies of Pelagius. Now, Pelagius lived at a time where the church was beginning to ask the question, what about our free will? Does man choose God, or does God choose man? And so Pelagius came and he said, it is the free will of man that is preeminent, that there is no one who is a Christian, apart from the exercise of their free will. And entwined around Pelagius’s argument was the belief that salvation comes from man and reaches out to God. And so Pelagius constructed a theology that was totally dependent upon the sovereignty of man’s free will. He said that God has endowed man with a free will, which God has done.

But he also said that it is man who chooses salvation. It is man who determines if he will repent from his sins. Pelagius said it was man who would choose to be holy. It was man who would choose to be pure. Now, standing in opposition to that teaching was a man by the name of Augustine. Augustine, as he began to hear the teachings of Pelagius, stood and he said, no, you have misunderstood the gospel of Christ. And Augustine said, yes, man has a free will, but apart from Christ, man always chooses to sin with his free will. Augustine went even further, and he says, what man wants to do apart from Christ is to sin, and that salvation comes only from the movement of God in a person’s life. It is grace alone, declared the reformers.

And so Augustine and the church through the ages has taken the stand that it is God who chooses his people. It is God who places within the heart of man the desire to repent. It is God who places within the heart and the mind of man the desire to confess our sins. It is God by his grace who would cause us to be pure and holy. Now, the battle was very sharp, and there was great discussion. And this went on for decades as the church debated back and forth. What does the scripture say on this subject? And finally, in the fifth century, at the council of Carthage, this was the declaration of all of those years of study. We are aided by the grace of God through Christ, not only to know, but also to do what is right.

Without grace, we are unable to have, we are unable to think, we are unable to speak or do anything pertaining to piety. And yet you would think with all of that discussion, all of that study, that the issue would have been laid to rest. But Pelagianism did not die. It simply stood on its rear legs and took on another form. And the heresy of Pelagianism has been rampant throughout the church as long as there has been a church. Because in the 14th century, as the emphasis once again was placed upon man as doing the choosing, that it was man’s free will that determined whether he would become a Christian or not. A man stood by the name of Wycliffe and said, no. It is God’s grace. It is God’s initiative that saves.

And it is God who must reach down and change that will of man. That man might want to follow Christ. In the 15th century, a man by the name of Hus said no to Pelagianism. A man by the name of Luther. Luther made this declaration of the natural man. He said, if you believe that you have free will, it is a lie. John Calvin stood and said, no. It is only by grace that we are saved. It is not by the initiative of man who in his free will chooses like he were joining some club that I will join this club, the Christian Club. And as long as they have a program that I like, I shall keep my membership there. But once the program changes, then I shall leave that club and I shall join another.

That is not the picture that scripture presents. And so there was an explosion within the church called the Reformation. And the focus of that debate was over the question of free will. Who chooses what is the place of man’s sovereign free will in becoming a Christian, in living the christian life? The father of the Renaissance was a man by the name of Erasmus, that new age that had come upon man. Erasmus wrote a book entitled the freedom of the will, where he declared that we are free to choose exactly what we would want. Luther read that book, and he was so enraged at the thrust of those teachings of Erasmus that he wrote a book which to this day is considered one of the greatest writings of the christian faith.

It is called the bondage, the servos, the servitude, the servant, the bondage of the will. And so again, the church debated between the writings of Erasmus and the writings of Luther. Well, let us look at a definition of free will. What does it mean to have free will? Well, free will is the ability to choose to do whatever we want. The ability to choose whatever we want. And Pelagius said that what natural man, apart from Christ, wants to do, he wants to please God. So declared Pelagius. Augustine, on the other hand, said, the natural man, without the aid of Jesus Christ, is spiritually dead, and he cannot do anything on his own by the exercising of his free will, for even his free will is dead. And so the question is not, does man have a free will?

For the definition of free will is the ability to choose what we want. Pelagius would say, yes, man has a free will. He can choose to do whatever he wants. Martin Luther said, man has a free will to do whatever he wants. But the problem is, what does man want to do? You and I know what we ought to do, but how many of us are able to do it? Like the person who knows if they are overweight, that they need to exercise and to slow down the consumption of food. They know that. They know what they ought to do, but then they say, I can’t do it, or perhaps I won’t do it. And so they continue to expand ever larger before our eyes. And you ask, do they have freedom of choice?

Yes, they have freedom of choice to do exactly what they want to do. The question is, what do you want to do? Now, the natural man according to scripture, wants to do many things. And in order for us to understand free will, it is important for us to see that man has gone through states that we have passed through different doors in our existence upon this earth. And that the first state that we have found ourselves is what is referred to as the state of innocence. Now, the state of innocence was the time long before you and I have ever lived. You and I were never born innocent, even though we may have looked so innocent in the crib. But the scriptures teach there was only one couple who ever lived in the state of innocence, and that was Adam and Eve.

And for a period of time, both Adam and Eve exercised their free will. And they did exactly what brought glory to God. They did what they wanted to do. And what did they want to do? They wanted to bring glory and honor to their creator. They knew that God had declared that they should not eat of the fruit of that tree. And so for a period of time, they did not eat of that fruit. And in that state of innocence, they exercised their free will and totally obeyed God. But then something occurred. They disobeyed something that had never occurred in the history of mankind. And so Adam and Eve ate of the fruit of that tree. And their disobedience, God, as a result, drove them out of that state of innocence. And he drove them to a new state.

And as they looked behind, never again would they be able to enter the gates of that garden, for they had been taken out of that place where the lion lay with the lamb, where they spoke to the living God face to face. And they were driven out of that state of innocence into what is referred to as the state of sin. The state of sin. You and I are the descendants of Adam and Eve. And spiritually, when were born, were not born innocent, but were born with that corrupted nature, the result of their disobedience. And in this state of sin, there is not one main highway that runs through that state, but rather it is as though there is a labyrinth of paths. And in this state of sin, the entire state is covered with mud. And each man walks in his own way.

Each man does according to the desires of his heart. Everyone does what seems right in their own eyes. And so in the state of sin, men and women, boys and girls, wander aimlessly. There are some who are aware of the mud. And so they tiptoe, ever so concerned that the mud not get on their hand or on their clothing. But one look at the sole of their feet will tell you that they are in that state of sin. There are others who do not mind having their clothes soiled with this mud. There are others whose hands are grimy and their nails are filled with the mud. And yet there are still some who enjoy wrestling and living in the mud. And in that state of sin, the scripture declares, there is none righteous, not one. There is none who understands.

There is none who seeks after God. And in that state, according to Ephesians, chapter two, verse five, were dead in our trespasses and sins. And so you and I have been born into this state of sin. And who is the prince? Who is the king who presides over this committee? It is none other than he who has been called Beelzebub, Apollon, Lucifer, Satan. In times past, according to ephesians two, you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, among whom we all had our conversations in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. And were by nature children of wrath. And so we are born into this world as natural men and women, covered to one degree or another with this mud.

Does man have free will in that state of sin? Martin Luther would say, absolutely. Man has free will to do what he wants to do. But what is it that we want to do in the state of sin? What we want to do is to follow our father, the prince of the power of darkness. Before we became christians, each of us, to one degree or another, whether with tiptoes and trying to keep ourselves clean or grovelling in that mud, we all know that we followed not the living God, but we followed another, and he was our father. I think the great danger for those who would come to church is that we come and we scrub ourselves up, and we have our clothes dry clean, and we shampoo our hair, and we come and we sit.

And if ever there was a group of people who looked as though they were not in a state of sin, it is those who come to the church on Sundays. For we look so good and we sound so right. But the scriptures declare, without Christ, we are serving Satan. Jesus says that it is from the heart that all of the words come, all of the activity. And in mark, chapter seven, Jesus tells us what’s in the heart of every man and woman who is born in this state of sin. For out of the heart proceeds evil thoughts, says Jesus. Adulteries. Fornication. Murder. Theft. Covetousness. Wickedness. Deceit. Licentiousness. An evil eye. Blasphemy. Pride, foolishness Isaiah in the 66th chapter, the fourth verse, knew of the state of sin of man. When he said, I called, but no one answered. I spoke, but no one heard.

But they did evil before my eyes and chose that in which I do not delight. And so it is as though when were born into this world, unseen by natural eyes, Satan had bound our arms and were not free. And when God would even call out to lift our arms, they were bound, and we couldn’t even lift them. We were not able to outstretch them. And the picture that scripture paints is a picture of a man whose arms have been bound in sin. But not only bound, but that we are blind to our sin, but not only that we are deaf to our sin. And not only that we are dead in our sins.

And if any would come to life, the only way the scriptures declare that it occurs is for Jesus Christ, as he did with Lazarus, to declare, after four days in the grave, come forth. And Lazarus, who was physically dead, came forth. The scriptures say that you and I have been born in the state of sin, and that even if we should want to come to life in Christ, we have a heart that is made of stone. And even if we should want to see Christ, our eyes are blind. And even if we should want in that state of sin to hear Christ, we are deaf. And apart from God’s reaching down in grace and touching our heart and our eyes and our ears, we will exercise our free will, and we will do exactly what we want to do in the state of sin.

And what is it that we want to do? We want to sin. And so there was a time before you came to Christ that you wanted to sin. And that is the reason that the scriptures declare that there is a third state, and that is the state of grace, where God would reach down and touch us and give us spiritual life. We read in John 836, if the son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. Romans 618, that we have been made free from sin, you because the servants of righteousness being made free from sin, and therefore you have become servants of God. Now in this state of grace, we should not be confused to think that we’re made perfect.

For Paul makes it very clear in Romans chapter seven, verse 21, that he then found a new law at work, that when I want to do good, evil is present with me. And so if you ask a person in the state of sin, what do you want to do? They will say, I want to sin. That’s what I want to do. And that’s how I will exercise my free will. But you ask a person in the state of grace, what do you want to do? And for the first time, that person is able to declare, what I want to do is to please God. Does man have a free will? Yes. But does man in the state of sin want to please God? No. And what of the man who is in the state of grace? Yes.

It is as though God has reached in and changed your wanter. Do you remember before you became a Christian, what you wanted to do? Used to enjoy all of those activities and you wanted to do those things. And if someone came to you at that point and said, I have a great way for you to spend Sunday morning, why don’t you come with me? And we will go and sing some hymns at a church, and we will pray and we’ll study the Bible. Don’t you want to do that? And you looked at that person in the state of sin and you said, why in the world would anybody want to do that? And now you’re a Christian. What do you want to do? For there is also good news.

And that is that there is another state that none of us have yet to pass through. It is called the state of glorification. We read about it in one John, chapter three, verse two. Beloved, now we are the sons of God. And it does not yet appear what we shall be. But we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him. And when we would be with Christ in heaven, we will again have free will. But it will be a free will that is not limited by the restraints of our body. For we will be given a new body in which to worship him. We will be given that spirit. And in heaven, both spirit and body shall worship the Lord freely. I think the subject of free will strikes at the very heart of the question of how great is God?

Is God mighty enough to give you a new heart? Is God mighty enough to give you faith? Is God mighty enough to take you out of darkness and to bring you into light? For the scriptures teach that he is mighty enough. He takes people like me and you, who were unholy, and he makes us holy. He takes people like me, like you, who were like dry, bleached bones, incapable of coming to life. And into that valley of bones walks the son of God, whose hands had been pierced, whose side had been pierced, whose brow was bruised. And he walks among that field of dead bones, and he touches one. And with the touch of his hand there is flesh and muscle and sight and hearing. And one stands and he touches another and he gives them life.

Can you imagine that pile of bones saying, it is me who chose you. It is me who declared that I should come to life. It is me who declared that I will have a new heart, a new mind. It is God who gives us new life. It is God through Jesus Christ who truly gives us a free will to know what we ought to do. And then helps us to do it. May his name be ever praised. Amen. Our God and our father, we come before you as people who have lived in darkness. And yet, in all of that time, we thought were exercising this mighty free will. And yet, Father, we realize that the things that we wanted to do were not in accordance with what we ought to do.

So, Father, we thank you that you have chosen to reach down and by grace to give us life, to truly give us a free will, not only to know what we want to do, but you’ve given us the ability to do it. We ask that in this moment, Father, if we have not transferred that faith to you, that even now, we would come before you and ask, give me eternal life. Please give to me the ability to say yes to Christ. Father, we would give you thanks in Jesus’s name. Amen.

Thank you for listening to a firm foundation presented by Princeton Ministries. This programming is supported by you, the listener. You may go to our website, princetonministries.org, or send your donation to Princeton Ministries Post Office Box 2171, Princeton, New Jersey 8543. That’s Princeton Ministries Post Office Box 2171, Princeton, New Jersey 8543. The Lord bless you, and Dr. Smith looks forward to hearing from you. We would like to thank Rones web Development company for making this webcast possible. You can find their link at the bottom of our website, princetonministries.org.