Freewill

Dr. Couch, does man have a will so that he can choose salvation for himself? ANSWER:  Man has a will but it is not free. It is bound by sin and it runs from God. The great old English Calvinist John Gill writes:    "The efficient cause of salvation is not of man but of God. Not man, it is neither by the power nor will of man. Men are dead in a moral sense while unconverted, they are dead in trespasses and sins, which are the cause of their death. They are only weak through the flesh, the corruption of nature, they are without strength, without strength to perform that which is good, and much less a work of so great importance as their own conversion.    "Christ said that no one can come to Him except by the Father, which has sent Me, draws him (John 6:43). Nor is conversion owing to the will of men; the will of man, before conversion, is in a bad state, it chooses its own ways, and delights in its abominations; it is in high pursuit after the desires of the flesh and of the mind. Man can freely will natural things as to eat or drink, sit, or stand, or walk, but it cannot freely will spiritual things, such as conversion. Man has no will to that which is good till God works it in him, an of unwilling makes him will in the day of his power; he has no will to come to Christ, to be saved by Him; nor to submit to His righteousness. Salvation is not of  him that wills, so this part of it in particular, regeneration, with which conversion, in the first moment of it, agrees, is not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God (Rom. 9:16; John 1:13). It may be said that conversion is not in the power of the will of man, to which purpose are such exhortations as these.    "Only God can remove the stubbornness of the will, and bend it at His pleasure, and make it pliable and conformable to His own will. He can take away the hardness of the heart, to give a heart of flesh. Man has no will nor inclination toward God!    "Conversion is according to the will of God, His will of purpose which can never be frustrated; 'Who has resisted His will?' God's counsel shall stand; and He will do all His pleasure. 'Who makes you to differ one from another?' (2 Cor. 3:4-5). 'Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made is adequate as servants …'"    "As many as had been appointed (ordained) to eternal life, believed" (Acts 13:48). Which came first, God's choosing or our believing? God chose us on what basis from the beginning for salvation? (1) Through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, and then (2) by faith in the truth (2 Thess. 2:13). In other words, the work of the Spirit came first. This initiated the work of salvation, then the response of faith followed because of the work of the Holy Spirit. His work is the prime cause of our salvation. I wrote in my nationally published Greek commentary on 1 & 2 Thessalonians:    "The verb sozo (to save) is used six times in the Thessalonian letters. God's choosing is the cause of salvation, but the means comes about by the sanctifying work of the Spirit and the verbal proclamation of faith in the truth. The work of the Holy Spirit, that is, through sanctification—a process of causing you to become increasingly detached from the world and attached to Christ. Divine election is proclaimed throughout the Scriptures.    "The Spirit of God is the agent for this sovereign calling and redemption (John 3:5; Titus 3:5). Faith is exercised in time by the one who has been awakened by the Spirit. Faith itself is not self-generated. All humans are said to be dead in sin and children of wrath by nature (Eph. 2:1, 3) and cannot come to salvation without faith that in itself is a gift of God (2:8). The Spirit must first set the elect apart for God, awaken those initial faith desires after God, convict of sin, lead to Christ, bring faith to the heart. Being under the influence of the world, the flesh and the devil, the natural man needs as an essential prerequisite in the new birth, this action of the Holy Spirit; without it there would be no salvation."     --Dr. Mal Couch (10/10)