Who said you do not have a choice? Whether one is a slave to sin or slave to righteousness, we all make choices. The question becomes one of, which nature are you making choices out of? Men know God exists. The heavens declare His glory and men are without excuse. The natural man is a slave to sin, the bad tree that is as incapable of producing good fruit as a leopard is incapable of changing its spots. How do people get so confused about these Biblical principles? Oh, yes, we do have those who deny what Jesus said about none being good but God. To them the natural man is a good guy even against the very words of Jesus Who said otherwise.
The Bible teaches that we sin because we are sinners. Of the natural man:
- all our righteous acts are like filthy rags
- there are NONE righteous
- a bad tree cannot produce good fruit
- all (the world) are under the control of the evil one
- we need to be rescued
- man’s heart is deceitful and desperately wicked
- man is born dead in transgression and sin
- is held captive by a love for sin
- will not seek God
- he loves the darkness
- does not understand the things of God
- suppress the truth of God in unrighteousness
- continues to wilfully live in sin
- sinful lifestyle seems right to men
- rejects the gospel of Christ as foolishness
- hostile toward God in their mind
- does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is unable to do so
The issue of free will at its crux is comprised of two main factors: can the natural man, with no help from God, choose to believe that which he can neither receive nor comprehend when he neither seeks after God and does not possess the heart or mind to do so? If you believe what the Bible teaches on this matter, then you accept that only the spiritual man can do so, one made alive in Christ, and whose heart has been circumcised (with the heart one believes). The second factor is the order of events involved in salvation. Free will is not about whether or not you choose to tip your waitress. Those who believe the will of the natural man is free to choose God against all the Scriptures that speak against such a certainty subscribe to a heresy known as Pelagianism.
The Bible teaches that we sin because we are sinners. Of the natural man:
- all our righteous acts are like filthy rags
- there are NONE righteous
- a bad tree cannot produce good fruit
- all (the world) are under the control of the evil one
- we need to be rescued
- man’s heart is deceitful and desperately wicked
- man is born dead in transgression and sin
- is held captive by a love for sin
- will not seek God
- he loves the darkness
- does not understand the things of God
- suppress the truth of God in unrighteousness
- continues to wilfully live in sin
- sinful lifestyle seems right to men
- rejects the gospel of Christ as foolishness
- hostile toward God in their mind
- does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is unable to do so
The issue of free will at its crux is comprised of two main factors: can the natural man, with no help from God, choose to believe that which he can neither receive nor comprehend when he neither seeks after God and does not possess the heart or mind to do so? If you believe what the Bible teaches on this matter, then you accept that only the spiritual man can do so, one made alive in Christ, and whose heart has been circumcised (with the heart one believes). The second factor is the order of events involved in salvation. Free will is not about whether or not you choose to tip your waitress. Those who believe the will of the natural man is free to choose God against all the Scriptures that speak against such a certainty subscribe to a heresy known as Pelagianism.
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