Bright Wings

Because the Holy Ghost over the bent World broods with warm breast and with Ah! Bright Wings.

August 17, 2009

Do I Believe in Free Will?

A good question that is often posed to me: “Do you believe in free will, or is every action by man determined and controlled by God?”

I do not like using the term ‘free will’ in the context of a biblical discussion on this issue. The reason is that there is so much imprecision in the usage of such a term. But I do believe in some sort of ‘freedom’ when it comes to the actions and decisions men. Calvin says this,

“Man will then be spoken of as having this sort of free decision, not because he has free choice equally of good and evil, but because he acts wickedly by will, not by compulsion. Well put, indeed, but what purpose is served by labeling with a proud name such a slight thing…But how few men are there, I ask, who when they hear free will attributed to man do not immediately conceive him to be master of both his own mind and will, able of his own power to turn himself toward either good or evil…If anyone, then, can use this word without understanding it in a bad sense, I shall not trouble him on this account…I’d prefer not to use it myself, and I should like others, it they seek my advice, to avoid it.”

What Calvin is getting at is the fact that the term ‘will’ (either thelema, or boulomai in the NT Greek) is rarely used with reference to man. It almost always refers to the eternal and steadfast decrees and counsel of our sovereign God. When thelema (the common word for ‘will’) is used of men, it is used to speak of man’s ability to choose sin and wickedness and his inability to procure grace for himself. Look at Ephesians 1 and 2—in chapter one the word ‘will’ refers to the free and sovereign will of God (vv. 1, 5, 11) and the only description of the ‘will’ of men is in chapter where we find Paul describe man in his ‘gratifying the cravings (thelema- ‘will’) of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest we were by nature children of wrath.’ The testimony of Scripture by and large describes man’s ‘freedom’ as tragically hampered by his sinful nature and depravity. This is why, in describing the ‘will’ of men, Paul says this in Romans 9: 16, “It [‘it’ referring, I believe to vv.11-12 speaking of God’s purpose in election] does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort (boulomai), but on God’s mercy.” In this passage we find that man’s ‘will’ has nothing to do with the issue, all is based on God’s mercy.

This is not to say that man is not morally responsible or culpable- the Scriptures testify that he is and that he is subject to punishment and wrath because of his sin. And we must speak of man as being ‘free’ in some respect. Otherwise God is some sort of capricious master puppeteer and we are his robotic craftsmanship. This is not the case. We engage in moral decision making throughout the day, we are responsible to ‘choose’ good and to deny evil ‘choices’. But I never want to assert the will of man as separate and distinct from the omniscience and omnipotence of our sovereign God. Psalm 139 is for me a great testimony to the fact that God is one who knows all things, ordains all things, and sees all things. In that passage, this divine knowledge extends to even the minute details of our lives, he knows our words before they are on our lips. It is, I believe, a tragic flaw in one’s theology of God to assert that the God who has revealed himself in such a way does not have knowledge of who his people are- are that the exercise of his creatures’ will is outside of his control. To be honest, to say that our ‘will’ is totally free and incontingent is to deny the free and incontingent will of God. Basically, you can’t have a God who is sovereign and free and have a creature who is able to make completely ‘free’ choices outside the contingencies that bind him (such contingencies being: his own depravity, his inability and need for grace, his dependence upon God for all things).

So, to make a long answer even longer I would say this: I am careful to use words like ‘free will’ because the common conception of such a phrase usually is very loaded and is often not consistent with the testimony of Scripture. I will say that there must be a sense in which we are ‘free’ in that we are responsible- some call us ‘free moral agents’. Dr. Packer says that the testimony of Scripture presents us with an ‘antinomy’. An antinomy is the phenomenon in physics where we find seeming contradictions in the physical universe (light as both wave and particle, for example). In Scripture, we find a tension between God’s sovereignty (the omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent ruler of all he has created) and man’s responsibility. This is a ‘seeming’ contradiction from our limited and sin-stained perspective. But, in fact, from the divine perspective it is not a contradiction, such tensions are resolved in God’s divine and eternal counsel and will one day be revealed to us in glory. Ultimately, I will land on the shore of God’s power and purpose as free and sovereign, because I believe the burden of Scripture is on the shoulders of those who assert that man’s will is totally free and completely undetermined in any sense by God’s election, foreknowledge, and will.

Tags: Theology

posted by Erik Braun