Free Grace will Fix

 Free grace will fix those, whom free will shook down into a gulph of misery.

- Thomas Boston

Isolating the Will

 Stop Affirming “Libertarian Free Will” – It’s a Bait-and-Switch Heresy:

If you're committed to a biblically consistent view of reality, it's time to drop the phrase "Libertarian free Will" like a hot heresy. Why? Because it's not just bad theology—it’s a sneaky, misleading label designed for confusion. Let’s break it down: “Libertarian free Will” is not about the Person—it’s isolating the Will from everything else that makes you, You. Your character. Your personality. Your desires. Your nature. This phrase pits "Will" against the very things that determine how the will functions. Provisionists love this trick. They use it to suggest that “freedom” means Will can choose against Your own nature, desires, and character—as if Will floats in a vacuum, free from even You, and definitely free from God's determined reality. That’s not just unbiblical. That’s nonsense. Nobody—including God—has that kind of "Will". God’s will is not “free” to act in contradiction to His own character, personality, preferences, or nature. That’s not a limitation—it’s consistency. Holiness isn’t random. Adam pre-Fall didn’t have a “Will” that was pitted against every other thing that made Adam who Adam was. Even a sinner today chooses based on what they want most in the moment—which is always in line with their nature, preferences, and character. So here's the deal: If someone wants to say we are “Free Person”, in refrence to other Created "Free Persons"—fine. That at least acknowledges the person is “free” from being externally forced by other created beings. But the will itself? It’s never independent of the person it belongs to. And the person is never independent of God's determined reality. So stop acting like it is. Stop giving "Libertarian Free Will" a platform. The real issue isn’t “can we choose?” It’s why we choose what we do. And Scripture is clear: “The heart is deceitful above all things” (Jer. 17:9), and the unregenerate mind “cannot submit to God” (Rom. 8:7-8). So let’s call it what it is: Libertarian free Will is a label that exists only to smuggle in irrationality. It’s theological make-believe that lets people pretend they’re upholding “freedom” while ignoring God's sovereignty AND HUMAN NATURE. Bottom line? Don't affirm that phrase. Expose it. Correct it. Replace it. Because a “Will” that’s free from everything, including God and your own nature, is a lie—and a heretical one at that. Let’s put "Will" back in its proper place—as the result of a chain of reasoning, NOT above the chain pretending to create it out of nothing like a god it never was.

Freewill Post

 Jonathan Edwards: "God did not choose us because He foresaw we would come to Christ. Faith is the consequence of election, not the cause of it. You contribute nothing to salvation except the sin that made it necessary."

"The greatest judgment which God himself can, in the present life, inflict upon a man is to leave him in the hand of his own boasted 'free'-will." Augustus Toplady

Martin Luther: "If any man describes anything of salvation, even the very least thing, to the free will of man, he knows nothing of grace, and he has not learned Jesus Christ rightly."

John MacArthur: "You and I believed the gospel, not because we were wiser or more righteous than anyone else, but because God graciously intervened, opening our hearts to heed His Word and believe."

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God must miraculously change a sinner's heart before he will choose to repent and believe in Christ. The sinner does not have a completely free will. His will is in bondage to sin. Yes, he freely chooses to do what he wants to do, but he cannot and will not do what he should do apart from God's enabling grace.

"Free will is not...

1. Free will is not what many think it is. The bible clearly teaches that unregenerate people cannot freely choose to do what they should do. Unregenerate sinners will not and cannot choose by their own willpower to repent and to be truly righteous, but, according to the Scriptures, people always choose to do what they want to do and make decisions according to their natures -- their hearts. So even though all people freely choose to do what they want to do, they cannot all choose to do what they ought to do.

2. Free will is not what saves sinners. The wills of unregenerate sinners are in bondage to sin. Unregenerate sinners have sinful, rebellious hearts and therefore cannot and will not choose to surrender to the Lord and trust in Christ unless the Lord changes their hearts. And if God grants repentance to a sinner, if God regenerates a sinner, that person will freely and immediately repent, love and trust Jesus.

3. Free will is not the ultimate determining will in the universe. Even though people are fully responsible for their choices, and even though their choices result in certain consequences, God's sovereign will is the final determining will in all instances. God's sovereign will trumps the wills of human beings. Ultimately God is the one who determines what will happen. He causes all that is good and permits those things that are evil, but is He alone is the Architect of a plan that cannot be thwarted by humans or Satan, and a foreordained plan that will most certainly happen.

No one has ever been saved by exercising his or her free will. The sinner's will is in bondage and it refuses to surrender.

Keep in mind that God is dealing with sinners who deserve hell. No one has ever deserved to be saved. No one will repent, no one will believe in Christ, unless God first changes his heart. Justice would leave sinners under the wrath of God. Mercy and grace is shown to those who were appointed for salvation.

Acts 13:48 "All who were appointed for eternal life believed."

God both saves some sinners and damns other sinners as He manifests his various attributes. He does what He does for his own glory. His justice, power and wrath are demonstrated with those who are condemned and his mercy, grace and compassion are demonstrated with those who are saved. God's supreme commitment is not to the welfare of mankind, but to his own glory." (Exodus 9:16; 14:4, 17-18) hfd

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Scriptures

Romans 3:10 "There is no one righteous, not even one. 11 There is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. 12 All have turned away; all alike have become worthless. There is no one who does what is good, not even one.

Romans 8:7 "The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8 Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God."

Genesis 8:21 "The Lord said...Every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood."

1 Corinthians 2:14 "The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit."

Romans 9:16 "So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy."

2 Thessalonians 2:10 "They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 12 ...All will be condemned — those who did not believe the truth but delighted in unrighteousness."

2 Timothy 2:24 "The Lord’s servant must not quarrel, but must be gentle to everyone, able to teach, and patient, 25 instructing his opponents with gentleness. Perhaps God will grant them repentance leading them to the knowledge of the truth. 26 Then they may come to their senses and escape the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will."

Ephesians 2:1 "And you were dead in your trespasses and sins 2 in which you previously lived according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient. 3 We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also. 4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us, 5 made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace!"

Ezekiel 36:26 "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh."

John 6:37 "Everyone the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will never cast out. 44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day. 65 He said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted to him by the Father."

Romans 6:22 "But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life."

Philippians 2:13 "It is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose."

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Quotes

Kevin DeYoung: "God does not turn anyone away who genuinely comes to him in faith. But if you come, it is only because God has supernaturally, unilaterally, sovereignly, and effectually enabled you to come."

J.I. Packer: "Evangelism is man's work, but the giving of faith is God's."

R.C. Sproul: "The greatest act of mercy that God performs is giving the gift of faith. Faith is the fruit of regeneration, not the cause of it."

Louis Berkhof: "Election does not in any way depend on the foreseen faith or good works of man, as the Arminians teach, but exclusively on the sovereign good pleasure of God, who is also the originator of faith and good works.

Dr. MacArthur: "...Well, the doctrine of election simply means that God, uninfluenced and before creation, predetermined certain people to be saved..."

Alistair Begg: "Faith is not ultimately a condition of salvation; faith is really an evidence of salvation. The very faith by which we believe is a gift from God Himself."

C.H. Spurgeon: “Free will has carried many souls to hell, but yet never a soul to heaven.”

C.H. Spurgeon: “I do not come into this pulpit hoping that perhaps somebody will of his own free will return to Christ. My hope lies in another quarter. I hope that my Master will lay hold of some of them and say, “You are mine, and you shall be mine. I claim you for myself.” My hope arises from the freeness of grace, and not from the freedom of the will.”

DESPERATELY SET AGAINST GOD

“The great destroyer of man is the will of man. I do not believe that man’s free will has ever saved a soul, but man’s free will has been the ruin of multitudes. 

‘You would not,’ is still the solemn accusation of Christ against guilty men. Did He not say, at another time, ‘You will not come unto Me, that you might have life’? 

The human will is desperately set against God and is the great devourer and destroyer of thousands of good intentions and emotions which never come to anything permanent because the will is acting in opposition to that which is right and true.”— 1894, Sermon #2381~~Charles H. Spurgeon~~

REBUKE AND GRACE

How is it then that miserable men dare to be proud, either of their free will, before they are freed, or of their own strength, if they have been freed? They do not observe that in the very mention of free will they pronounce the name of liberty. But “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. ” If, therefore, they are the slaves of sin, why do they boast of free will? For by what a man is overcome, to the same is he delivered as a slave. But if they have been freed, why do they vaunt themselves as if it were by their own doing, and boast, as if they had not received? Or are they free in such sort that they do not choose to have Him for their Lord who says to them: “Without me ye can do nothing;” and “If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed?” 

– Augustine, On Rebuke and Grace, Chp. 52

ULTIMATE TRAGEDY

"The ultimate tragedy of man's self-understanding is that he believes himself to be free, has all the feelings of a free agent, but does not realize that he is a slave to sin and serves the will of Satan." ~Sinclair Ferguson

HEART OF FLESH

He doesn't say, "I will remove their will of stone from their flesh and give them a will of flesh," but rather, Ezekiel 19 And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh;

The will in a heart of stone is bound by the nature of stone, the will in a heart of flesh is bound by the nature of flesh

VIOLATION AND CAUSATION

The erroneous doctrine of "prevenient grace" as it is, would ALSO violate the supposed, "free-will" of man by turning it from "unable to trust" to "enabled to the possibility to trust" without the consent of the individual's will. So they teach an "irresistable-effectual prevenient grace" which is forced on a man's will who otherwise had no desire for this prevenient grace to be given him; So they laud, "violation and causation" upon the sinner's will when it comes to the "prevenient grace" but decry, "violation and causation" when it comes to saving grace; [yes, I know, God owns His creation, and thus in either case it is never a violation when He has Sovereign rights over it.]

Enemies

"The friends of free-will are the enemies of free-grace." - John Trapp

THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE OF SCRIPTURE

"Concerning that this clown babbleth of free will, it is sufficiently rejected throughout the whole scripture." ~John Calvin

FIRST PRINCIPLES

It may seem a harsh sentiment; but he who in his soul believes that man does of his own free-will turn to God, cannot have been taught of God, for that is one of the first principles taught us when God begins with us,..

..Charles H. Spurgeon....

CANNOT OBEY

"Sinners cannot obey the gospel, any more than the law, without renewal of heart."
- J.I. Packer

SPURGEON ON FREE-WILL

Free will doctrine – what does it? It magnifies man into God; it declares God’s purposes a nullity, since they cannot be carried out unless men are willing. It makes God’s will a waiting servant to the will of man, and the whole covenant of grace dependent upon human action. Denying election on the ground of injustice it holds God to be a debtor to sinners, so that if He gives grace to one He is b......ound to do so to all. It teaches that the blood of Christ was shed equally for all men and since some are lost, this doctrine ascribes the difference to man’s own will, thus making the atonement itself a powerless thing until the will of man gives it efficacy. Those sentiments dilute the scriptural description of man’s depravity, and by imputing strength to fallen humanity, rob the Spirit of the glory of His effectual grace: this theory says in effect that it is of him that willeth, and of him that runneth, and not of God that showeth mercy

- C.H. Spurgeon "A Jealous God"

THE HEART IS THE ROOT

Man is like a tree. His heart, not his will alone, is the root. There is no possible way by which the will can choose to produce fruit contrary to the character of the root. If the root is bad, the tree is bound by its very nature to produce evil fruit.  Man is like a person standing alongside his treasure chest. There is no possibility of bringing pure gold out of a box filled only with rusty steel. The contents of the heart determine what words and deeds may be brought out. Far from being neutral, the will must reach into the heart for its choices. Every thought, word and deed will partake of the nature of the treasure within.   Man is like a stream which cannot rise above its source. If the fountain is polluted, the outflow will be evil. If the source be sweet, the stream will not be bitter and cannot choose to be so.  These three illustrations alike contain the same lesson. What a man is determines what he chooses. Choices of the will always reveal the character of the heart, because the heart determines the choices. ~  Walter J. Chantry

THIS THUNDERBOLT

THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD.

THIS, therefore, is also essentially necessary and wholesome for Christians to know: That God foreknows nothing by contingency, but that He foresees, purposes, and does all things according to His immutable, eternal, and infallible will....Martin Luther......By this thunderbolt, "Free-will" is thrown prostrate, and utterly dashed to pieces. Those, therefore, who would assert "Free-will," must either deny this thunderbolt, or pretend not to see it, or push it from them. But, however, before I establish this point by any arguments of my own, and by the authority of Scripture, I will first set it forth in your words....Martin Luther...(thanks Victor C.)

Heathen Philosophers

"They go and set up free-will with the heathen philosophers and say that a man's free will is the cause why God chooseth and not another, contrary to all the scriptures."

- William Tyndale (c. 1494-1536)

VERY HINGE

“[It is] essentially wholesome and necessary, for a Christian to know, whether or not the will does any thing in those things which pertain unto Salvation. Nay, let me tell you, this is the very hinge upon which our discussion turns. It is the very heart of the subject” - Martin Luther

THROUGH THE LOVE OF GOD

"The love and hate of God towards men is immutable and eternal, existing, not merely before there was any merit or work of ‘free-will,’ but before the world was made; [so] all things take place in us of necessity, according as He has from eternity loved or not loved ... faith and unbelief come to us by no work of our own, but through the love and hatred of God."


~ Martin Luther (1483-1546): (The Bondage of the Will)

FREEWILL RELIGION

"Freewillism is that doctrine that says, “God loves you, Christ died for you, and the Holy Spirit is calling you; but it will all be vain unless you choose to be saved.” Freewillism makes the determining factor in salvation to be the will of man. It makes the work of the Triune God and the grace of God to be impotent without the consent of man’s “freewill.” Freewill religion is in direct opposition to the gospel of the free grace of God. The Bible declares that salvation is not accomplished, determined by, or dependent upon the will of man, but by the will of God (John 1:12-13; Rom. 9:16). The word “freewill”, when used with reference to salvation is a blasphemous obscenity!"

- Don Fortner taken from, "Damnable Heresies."

THE LATTER IS THE GOSPEL

Either your Christianity will focus primarily on what you do and the power of your choices and will or else it will focus on what Christ has already done for you. The former is humanism, the latter is the Gospel. ~ Andrew Taylor