In Edwin Palmer’s the Five Points of Calvinism, he writes the following on the notion of “free will”:
“And just because a man is free, man is a slave. Just because man does what he wants to do, man has no free will (which is different from saying that he is free); that is, man is totally unable to choose equally as well between the good and the bad. A compulsive drinker—an alcoholic—is not free. Technically he has the external choice of drinking or not drinking. But really there is only one thing he can do. He can no more stop drinking than he can stop breathing. He has to drink. He is a slave to alcohol. And yet he is free. He does exactly what he wants to do. Nobody is compelling him to drink.”
This proves to be an apt explanation as to why the term “free will” is a mythical idea. It’s not that man isn’t “free”. He is free to do as he pleases. But his will places him in bondage to himself. He makes no unbiased decisions in reference to good and bad. In fact, he makes only the most biased decisions toward bad.
The term “free will” implies that a person is able to make moral choices without bias of will. If this were not so, what is the higher decision making power in a person’s mind that governs the will? There is none. It stops at the will. We have to act according to our will. Whether it be our direct will, “I want that piece of cake, so I will eat it”. Or, our indirect will, “Even though I want to eat a piece of cake, I want to fit into my jeans more, so I will not eat the piece of cake.”
No matter how we look at it, we must act according to our will. Therefore, for our will to be “free”, it must not have a moral bias. But as any person aware of their sin knows, it is definitely biased.
Paul eludes to this in Romans chapter 6; more specifically verse 19:
“you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness.”
According to Paul, the notion of a truly “free will” is unheard of. It’s not that people are bound to do evil by some force outside of them, but the very will people claim is free is in fact what keeps them in bondage. And, since there cannot be a higher decision making power in the person’s mind, then the will itself will remain not free until something or someone frees it.
Which Paul gets to to only two verses later in Romans 6:22:
“But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.”
The will is not free. It is in bondage to itself.
Comment by Adam — June 13, 2009 @ 2:57 pm
Very interesting argument. I think most “christians” that use the term “free will” now don’t mean it perfectly literally but it’s just the easy, simple coined phrase in use. I’ve heard Calvinists use the phrase “Response and Responsibility” instead but really who are we kidding here. When people use the term “free will” that is exactly what they mean, i.e. when presented with certain options, we are responsible to respond the way we ought to respond in that given circumstance we are presented. No person can ever argue absolute freedom and no determinist can successfully demonstrate that we should not be held accountable. Now the question is, how can this be reconciled with The Fall and Pauline statements such as the ones you’ve quoted? I think the answer must be very complex to avoid contradictions and it can only narrowly be avoided at best.
Firstly, we must consider the will. The will is merely selective and therefore I grapple with if it is actually “fallen” or indirectly corrupted by our fallen state. Either way: as followers of Christ, we are constantly choosing between the flesh and the Spirit. Paul says very directly in Romans that he does not sin, but it is his flesh that sins. In other words, his true identity is found solely in Christ and not in the old man which is the fallen creature. Yet somehow we continue to behave according to our old heart, old mind, old self. Is it not the will which must choose whether to follow the new creation or the old? every day, every hour, and almost every minute if we consider our internal thoughts?
Here is the only solution that makes any sense to me. We are not in complete control but we must choose to yield to God’s transforming work. He is the agent glorifying us, but clearly what we do affects the extent to which or the speed with which he sanctifies us. Our actions matter. There is no way round. And, of course, that is what God wants… for our activity in the matter to grow close to Him. And this where our wills matter and precisely where our freedom lies in the will (how far from absolute it is!). It lies in us yielding to get every minute of every day to allow us to access Him. There is freedom in Christ and our wills which he created, but we often do not take advantage.