FREE WILL VS FREE GRACE (Selected Scriptures) By Lasaro Flores - All of Grace Ministries allofgraceministries.net/ (Continued from June 22) PART 2 As we continue with our study, at this time we will deal with the subject of "Free Will." Of course, our main focus has to do with respect to salvation, i.e. what "free will" has to do with it. As we stated previously, there are many that believe God has given Man a "free will" in order to "make a decision on their own for salvation" by either accepting Christ Jesus as their Savior or not. They further claim that God CAN NOT do anything about it since He is the One Who gave Man that "free will." So therefore, it is up to Man as a sinner to determine whether they want to be saved from their sins or not. Now, if this is true what those that believe on Free Will teach, a question raises its head: What has happened to the Grace of God that He in His Word claims is what saves sinners? If Free Will is the Savior, then there is no place for Free Grace, according to them! Think about that! But before continuing, let me interject something here in order not to misunderstand what I’m writing about: I’m not saying that man does not have a “will;” of course, he has a “will.” And also I’m not saying that it is not “free!” Man makes decisions according to his nature and he wills to do or wills not to do. Another thing about man’s will is that it is “free” according to his nature. In other words, when man “wills” he does it “freely” according to his sinful nature; for that is what he has since the Fall, nothing but a sinful nature. That being true, then God is not the Author of his sin; or He doesn’t force man to sin. All that God does is either stop him from sinning, which man will do naturally; or just let him continue to sin without interfering with his sinful nature. Having said that, let us consider what "free will" would mean. "Free Will" means that there is absolutely nothing or anybody that can either force or influence that "will" to determine to do anything against itself. To be ":free" implies that that "will" is APART from anything and everything outside of itself that will make it do “something,” whatever that “something” might be. That is the ONLY definition of Free Will to be true. Otherwise, it is not “free.” Consider one particular person who really had a “free will” to make a decision of his own will; and that is, Adam. You see, Adam was created without a sinful nature; and therefore, all of his faculties were not under the power of sin and had not been corrupted by sin. So, any “decision” that Adam made was “freely” made by him. It’s true that Adam was obligated to obey, since he was a creature of God, his Creator; but at the same time, he was not influenced by a sinful nature to do it or not. As He was “free” to “will” to obey God; also he was “free” to disobey” God if he “willed” to do so. (Read Romans 5:12ff. to see how Adam’s sin affected the human race with respect to sin and because of it why they are in the condition they are in.) This, of course, is no longer true for man because now he has a sinful nature with which he is born. That being the case of every individual human being ALL of his faculties are NOW under the power of sin; in fact, his whole constitution has been corrupted by sin and is under its power. Now his “will” is under the power and influence of his sinful nature; and therefore, anything that man “wills” is determined by his sinful nature. In other words, man’s will is no longer as Adam’s was when created by God; and for sure, it is NOT like God’s who ALONE has a free will so that He “worketh all things after the counsel of his own will” (Ephesians 1:11). Now, that is a FREE WILL; and for sure, Man in his sinful nature DOES NOT have that, i.e. whereby he can do and make decisions after the counsel of his own will! Those that believe that man has a “free will” most certainly will deny that this what they mean by “free will;” but in what other way can they define “free will” if it is not one that does and decides after the counsel of his own will? So you can see, then, that this doctrine of the Free Will of Man is a heretical teaching that is deceitful and sends man to hell because there are multitudes that depend on the power of their “free will” to ‘make a decision for Christ’ to be saved! Having said that, let us look at some Scriptures with reference to what sin has caused man to be and why ALL of their faculties are under the power of sin and why they are not “free” to do anything apart from their sinful nature so that it can be said of ALL of us: “For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not” (Ecclesiastes 7:20). This Scripture covers all that Man is since the Fall of Adam (man) in the Garden of Eden. Every individual person is included in this tragic act of disobedience, (except the Lord Jesus Christ, even though He “was made of the seed of David according to the flesh” [Romans 1:3] and “as the children [given to Him by the Father] are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same” [Hebrews 2:14]). All the Scriptures that refer to the sin of Man and ALL that he does as a sinner makes it very clear that it is proven that “both Jews and Gentiles...are all under sin” (Romans 3:9) and it has affected the WHOLE constitution of Man: There is absolutely NOT one part of man that is “free” from sin! Remember that God told Adam in Genesis 2:17: “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” The thing that is very important to understand is what is it the meaning of “thou shalt surely die.” What happen when Adam died? Look at chapter 3 and see what when Adam disobeyed God in eating of the fruit “of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (2:17). Note that as soon as Adam ate: “And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons” (3:7). It is not that they had been physically blind, but now they saw themselves as transgressors of God’s commandment not to eat of this tree in particular. Next, they knew they were exposed to the guilt of their disobedience before the just sentence of God, i.e. condemned to death; “Thou shalt surely die.” It followed, then, that they tried to cover up their crime; or perhaps try to justify themselves with their own works when “they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons” (v.7). Nevertheless, at the moment of “deciding” to eat of the fruit prohibited, they “surely died;” first, they died “spiritually;” then secondarily, they died “physically.” Now, you can tell that they first died spiritually in that they had lost the life of God in them, which now “being alienated from the life of God” (Ephesians 4:18), they became afraid of God and wanted to hide from Him (Genesis 3:8). This is in essence is true of the human race in that we are all “dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1); and this is associated with Adam as Romans 5:12 tells us: “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned;” or as it has been commented that the last phrase, for that all have sinned may be translated, for in him (i.e. Adam) all (the human race) have sinned. Yes, now sin had caused guilt, fear of punishment, an aversion of God by trying to hide from Him, blaming someone else for their sin, etc., which caused a separation from God. This is the essence of dying spiritually; to be “separated from God!” Sinful man no longer desires communion with God; and from the sinner’s side there is no love for his Maker but have become “haters of God” (Romans 1:30). Because sin has caused a wall between God and the sinner, it’s an inseparable wall between the two, unless God of His “amazing grace” tears it down to bring reconciliation between the two. But since MAN is SPIRITUALLY DEAD, not only they don’t want to do anything, but neither do they want to do anything since they are content in their SPIRITUAL DEATH. As we consider the following Scriptures we will see that if we are left to ourselves there is absolutely no hope whatsoever for our salvation because SIN has literally “killed” us; and unless Life is given to us so that we can be raised from the dead, you and I will enter an eternity to suffer “the second death” for our names will NOT be found written in the book of life and will be cast into the lake of fire, which is the second death (Revelation 20:14,15). In considering these Scriptures, may it pleased our God to show us where we’re at and how utterly hopeless we are if our God doesn’t intervene on our behalf to save us by His Free Grace and that we be not deceived by the abominable so-called Free Will of Man. Amen. (To Be Continued)
Posted on: Wed, 26 Jun 2013 19:50:48 +0000
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