Paul’s Definition of a Christian

Along with no confidence in the flesh, we should not retain any hope for our flesh, that it would be somehow reformed. Paul always speaks of the flesh, the old man, the sinful nature as DYING rather than changing. If we are to progress in holiness, it's not by cleaning up or retraining our flesh, but by being renewed and enlivened in spirit, which happens by believing the Gospel.

I am struggling with the Calvinism vs. Free Will debate. Why, when one "flees to Christ" as you say is there not the possibility of NOT fleeing to Christ. Is there not a choice involved here? Fleeing to Christ is not a work is it? Turning to Christ is not a work is it? Why is choosing to believe in Christ considered a work by so many Calvinists? When I believed in Christ I gave Him ALL the glory as I then understood that NOTHING I can do would satisfy God. ONLY what Christ did saves me! But I must choose to believe, trust, follow, Flee to Him! Where am I going wrong?

Dear Glenn:

Thanks for writing. That is a great question and hits directly at the crux of the matter. This is the very issue that Martin Luther battled the most with Erasmus and the Roman Catholic Church in the Sixteenth Century. His book Bondage of the Will is considered to be the manifesto of the Reformation and he himself said that it was his most important work.

What is this issue of the bondage of the will all about? It points to what the Bible says is the real condition of the natural man. If you set aside your church traditions for a moment go through what the Bible asserts about fallen man it may be surprising to you. First we need to establish whether or not man has a free will, according to Scripture. Would you agree that this is important at the outset? But how do we do this?

The Text not only says that man is a sinner, but that he does not have the Spirit of God. He is not born of the Spirit. Agreed? Jesus says, Flesh gives birth to flesh and the Spirit gives birth to spirit (John 3:3,6) and "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is of no avail.”" (john 6:63) & Paul says that “the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Cor 2:14). We do not receive things we think are foolish and that we do not understand. The natural man does not have the mind of Christ so even if someone preaches to him until he is blue in the face, man will not respond to the gospel unless God grants belief and repentance (see John 6:65 & 2 Tim 2:25, Eph 2:8). The Bible indeed declares that no one can believe without a preacher but this is not enough by itself …. the seed of the gospel that is cast forth from the preacher must be germinated, so to speak, by the Holy Spirit if a person is to come to Christ. Paul explains how he knows some were chosen of God, He says, “For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.” (1 Thess 1:4, 5) Here is another evidence the Spirit is necessary, not optional ..without which man would remain dead to the things of Christ.

So the Holy Spirit is critical for salvation, so critical that without Him, no one would ever willingly come to Jesus Christ. Agreed? Or do you believe a man can come to faith apart from the Holy Spirit? All true Christians affirm the necessity of the Spirit. So we have established therefore, that man has no free will. Again, what is meant when we say no free will? We are not speaking of someone coercing us from the outside. No. It means that we are in bondage to a corruption of nature, out of which we cannot free ourselves BECAUSE WE DO NOT HAVE THE SPIRIT and hate God by nature (John 3:19). Jesus says somewhere to the Jews that only the Son can set them free, but they are now children of the Devil the father of lies, who lies becuase it is in his nature. In Rom 6 is says that natural men are slaves to sin, that Satan has taken men captive to do his will. If Christ is to set us free then it means we were not free and in bondage.

So it is important to ask, can a person without the intervention of the Holy Spirit believe the gospel? Does the natural person have the capacity to understand spiritual things? According to the above passages the answer is clearly no. No one says “Jesus is Lord” apart from the Holy Spirit. So the unbeliever is void of the Spirit which is another way of saying that he has no free will. His condition, if left to himself, is hopeless. God must intervene to illumine his mind, open blind eyes, unplug deaf ears, disarm our natural hostility, change our disposition and turn our heart of stone to a heart of flesh.

So if we can agree that a man will not come to Christ apart from the Holy Spirit then we agree man has no free will. God must act if we are to do anything toward our redemption.

Now that we have established this, lets take the other part of your great question.

>>>>Why, when one "flees to Christ" as you say is there not the possibility of NOT fleeing to Christ. Is there not a choice involved here? Fleeing to Christ is not a work is it? Turning to Christ is not a work is it? Why is choosing to believe in Christ considered a work by so many Calvinists?

Fleeing to Christ only becomes a work when we think we did this apart from God’s grace. If faith is a product of our unregenerate human nature then we could boast like this:

"Thank you Lord I am not like other men who do not have faith. They did not make use of the grace you gave all men, BUT I DID."

What makes them to differ from other men then was thier ability to have faith, not grace. But the Sctipture says the grace of God makes us differ from others, not something we had by nature that our neighbor did not.

Even when you think that the assistance of grace depends on your own humility and that is was not grace itself that made you humble then you no longer believe in grace alone but that you came to Christ due to your own great humility. You are establishing a religion of grace PLUS this and that. But when we recognize our faith in Christ is due to the fact that God has changed our heart so that we may see and understand his beauty and excellence, then we give all glory to God for all our salvation. Can you thank God for your faith? or is this the one thing that you can boast of contributing to the price of your salvation?

If all men have equal grace, as you seem to be suggesting, an important question to ask is why does one man believe the gospel and not another? Is one smarter, or have more natural sensitivity than others to spiritual things? Jesus says, My sheep hear my voice but some “do not believe BECAUSE [they] are not his sheep.” He does not say they are not his sheep because they do not believe (See John 10). So he reveals that the nature of the person determines the choice they will make. An unregenerate man will not exercise faith in a holy God. Jesus says a bad tree does not bear good fruit … but MAKE the tree good and its fruit will be good. …. The seed of the gospel which falls on our soil … Is this soil good by NATURE or by grace? God must first plow up the fallow ground of our hearts. That is why Jeremiah says that he will turn our heart of stone to a heart of flesh THAT we might obey. No one believes or obeys while his heart is still stone. A blind man cannot see unless given new eyes. Shining a light into his eyes will not help.

It is not the man who wills or runs but God who has mercy (Rom 9:16) John 1:13 says it is not the will nof man that causes us to believe but the new birth.

If God extends His grace to all men, as you claim.... then why do some reject him? Is it grace that makes men to differ or the faith of the natural man? How does one, who the Scriputre says, is hostile by nature to God, have his nature changed so that he loves God? Does grace change him or is it self, pulling oneself up by ones own bootstraps? Otherwise why does not everyone believe?

Romans 8:30 says, “those who were called were justified” According to this verse, I ask you, how many of those God called were justified? The answer to this question is why no one resists God’s call.

And Jesus himself said, “ALL that the Father gives to me WILL come to me…”(John 6:37) Not some, Jesus says, but ALL that God the Father gives the SON will believe on him. We believe that grace is invincible because this is what the Bible teaches … and without which no man would willingly come. When your child runs out in the street and a car is coming, do you wait to see what he will do with his free will, or do you run to scoop him out of danger. Love doesn’t just wring hands and hope but it gets the job done and, in God's case saves the ones He came for. (See John 6:39)
Jesus says he will lose NONE OF ALL THAT THE FATHER HAS GIVEN HIM - John 6:39

Hope this helps.

Dear John,

I agree wholeheartedly with your reply to Glenn. However, you state that "man has no free will". Would it not be more correct to say that man's will is very free and very active, but that this freedom is in no way inclined toward God.

Traditionally, Calvinists have affirmed the freedom of man's will. But they have believed that left to his own devices man will never freely come to Christ without the direct intervention of the Holy Spirit. In fact, he cannot come in the corruption of his flesh as he is actually at enmity with God.

I simply post this as your statement "man has no free will" is not a very precise statement of the biblical teaching on man.

In Christ,

Tony

Tony:

Actually that the natural man has no free will is a very precise statement of the biblical teaching. The Bible teaches that man is in bondage to the corruption of nature. "Bondage" means a lack of freedom. His affections and will are not free. The Scripture says that Satan has taken men captive to do his will (2 Tim 2:26) until God grants repentance (2 Tim 2:25). i.e. until Christ sets them free.
"So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." John 8:36

"For one who has died has been set free from sin." Rom 8:6

"and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness." (Rom 6:18)

"But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life." Rom 6:22

"For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery." Gal 5:1

Christ need not set people free unless they are in bondage, i.e. not free. And that bondage, according to Scripture is bondage to sin. Bondage to sin is what I refer to when I say and what the Reformers have taught about bondage of the will. Both Luther and Calvin have an entire work dedicated to this which are available under the free will section of MonergismBooks.com

When we speak of man not having a free will we do not mean that he is coerced from outside, but we mean what the Bible says about it, that he will not go into the light because he hates darkness.

"It is not the man who wills but God who has mercy" (Rom 9:16)

What this all really refers to is ma'n affections. Our affections drive our wills. Our affections are corrupted and thus our we are unable to exercise our wills to do ourselves any redemptive good.

Hope this helps
John

Hi John,
Great blog entry! It seems that even monergists (maybe I should speak for myself here)at times forget that it's not something we bring which makes us right with God, it's what Jesus did.

Meg:

What a great delight to have you stop by. Thank you for your comment -- right on target!!!!

Not what my hands have done can save my guilty soul;
Not what my toiling flesh has borne can make my spirit whole.
Not what I feel or do can give me peace with God;
Not all my prayers and sighs and tears can bear my awful load.

Your voice alone, O Lord, can speak to me of grace;
Your power alone, O Son of God, can all my sin erase.
No other work but Yours, no other blood will do;
No strength but that which is divine can bear me safely through.

Thy work alone, O Christ, can ease this weight of sin;
Thy blood alone, O Lamb of God, can give me peace within.
Thy love to me, O God, not mine, O Lord, to Thee,
Can rid me of this dark unrest, And set my spirit free.

I bless the Christ of God; I rest on love divine;
And with unfaltering lip and heart I call this Savior mine.
His cross dispels each doubt; I bury in His tomb
Each thought of unbelief and fear, each lingering shade of gloom.

I praise the God of grace; I trust His truth and might;
He calls me His, I call Him mine, My God, my joy and light.
’Tis He Who saveth me, and freely pardon gives;
I love because He loveth me, I live because He lives.

H. Bonar

John,

Very helpful. Thanks for your time and effort.

Those who add conditions, faith PLUS this and that, do always seem to add a 'this and that' which they feel sure (confident) they can supply. Never do they add something they feel uncertain they can supply. So, no confidence in the flesh would mean rejecting any added 'this and that' which you would hope to supply, by your own efforts, to attain justification.

Don

I heard this in a piper sermon: "What we need is not "free will" we need our will's made free!" thanks be to God who is rich in mercy and has purposed to demonstrate the riches of the glory of His grace in the salvation of His people by the finished works of the cross! I was once a hard nosed free willer. It is the air we breathe in the american evangelical church. Im sure many of you remember the devestation when upon many hours of laboring to prove this premise you found no ground by which to stand on biblically. It devistated me to tears.....but when the dust setteled and the wonderful doctrines of grace exploded in my heart I had the most overwhelming sense of treasuring Christ and His work salvation in a way I had never done before and it became the very fabric of my entire life!!! sola gratia

I've been a believer for almost 10 years, I remember growing in the faith and thinking that I would become more righteous as I went along , that self was getting better. It wasn't until the past year or two that i realized self needs to die, unless a seed is planted and dies it cannot bear fruit. Death is an ugly process,but unless it takes place, there can be no real beauty. Only when the life of christ is being lived thru us can we claim any beauty & righteousness.