The title for Chapter Five is quite lengthy: Refutation of the Objections Commonly Put Forward in Defence of Free Will. Reading it I wondered if these objections are still around today? After reading the chapter and thinking about the current church,"yes," was the answer to my question.
Before I list the summary points let’s remind ourselves what the will is. The will is simply the faculty by which we choose this or that. The will is that mode of the soul (of which understanding and conscience are a part), which self-determines, inclines, desires and chooses according to our human nature. The New Testament uses three Greek words to describe the activity of the will.
- Heart (Rom 1:24; 2:5; 10:9-10; Luke 1:17). When this word is used it refers to our inclinations. Therefore we choose according to our inclinations. Therefore the will is subject to our natural desires.
- Will (Philemon 1:14; Jn 7:17). In these passages the will is the will of desire and delight.
- Wanted, Decision, Counsel, Judge, Wished, Would like (2 Cor 1:15; Luke 23:52; Acts 18:15; 19:30; 25:22) These words denote the power to chose. Mankind has the ability of choice.
This is pretty philosophical but I hope you get the point. God created us as human beings not robots. We chose as perfect human beings in the Garden of Eden; we now choose as sinful human beings who were not made to choose evil but in their free will chose evil. Mystery? Yes, but thanks be to God in his freedom he came to save us.
Here is the summary of what Calvin tried to say in chapter 5.
1. Man’s will is enslaved to sin. Men object to this because it is said, common sense tells us that man is free to do good or evil. Is sin voluntary? Yes. Are men and women boys and girls forced to sin when they sin? No.
2. Because sin is voluntary, is it avoidable? No. Man’s nature is corrupt, therefore the sinner freely chooses what he cannot avoid, namely to act according to his depraved nature. Men are bound to sin, “not from creation but from corruption of nature that men are bound to sin and can will nothing but evil....He who sins of necessity sins no less voluntarily” (Pg., 317).
We cannot avoid sin. Man cannot not sin. We are sinful flesh (Jn 3:6; Rom 3:10-20; Rom 8:6-7). We are bad trees who bring forth nothing but bad fruit (Luke 6:40ff).
3. Because man is enslaved do reward and punishment lose their meaning? No.
4. Man is justly punished even though he is enslaved to sin! His sin “Is by voluntary desire - especially since man is proved a sinner because he is under the bondage of sin” (Pg., 318). Punishment, therefore, is justly executed upon sinners because the guilt of sin comes from their nature.
5. A sinner who is an object of God’s electing love receives rewards because of grace, not obligation or merit. As Augustine said, “God does not crown our merits but His own gifts; we call ‘rewards not what are due our merits, but what are rendered for graces already bestowed’” (Pg., 318). [See Augustine’s comments in this section. Pg., 318-319]
6. Because all men are born empty of free will, then would it not be reasonable to ask, “Will all men forever remain evil?” No. “Though all of us are by nature suffering from the same disease, only those whom it pleases the Lord to touch with His healing hand will get well. The others, whom He, in His righteous judgment, passes over, waste away in their own rottenness until they are consumed” (Pg., 320).
7. Because man sins of necessity is there any profit in preaching the gospel to them calling them to repent and believe in Jesus? Yes. God has decreed to use the preaching of the gospel to save all his elect in Christ. As Augustine aptly wrote, “God does not measure the precepts of His law according to human powers, but where He has commanded what is right, He freely gives to His elect the capacity to fulfill it” (Pg., 320).
8. God works in his elect in two ways. “Within, through His Spirit; without, through His Word. By His Spirit, illuminating their minds and forming their hearts to the love and cultivation of righteousness, He makes them a new creation. By His Word, He arouses them to desire, to seek after, and to attain that same renewal” (Pg., 322).
9. What of those not chosen in Christ? “When He addresses the same Word to the reprobate, though not to correct them, He makes it serve another use: today to press them with the witness of conscience, and in the Day of Judgment to render them the more inexcusable” (Pg., 322). [Jn 6:44-45; 2 Cor 2:15-16]
The Scriptures teach that man can understand truth, only when God teaches them. [ 1 Cor 3:7; Is 5:24; 24:5; Jer 9:13ff; 16:11ff; 14:10ff; Dan 6:11; Amos 2:4; Deut 10:16; Jer 4:4; Ezek 11:19; 36:26; Jer 31:33]
10. Pelagianism: They argue that man has free will, or God would not have given commandments, promises, or rebukes which are not attainable. Is this a valid argument? No, and Calvin explains why.
In general the commands of God can be divided into three classes. When these classes are studied it will be understood that without grace we can do nothing.
First, the Lord commands sinners to seek and turn to Him. But the Bible says they will not and when they do it is a work of God’s grace fulfilling His covenant of grace. [Joel 2;12; Ezek 18:30-32; Hos 14:2ff; Jer 31:18-19; Deut 30:6; Ezek 18:31; 11:19; 36:26; Rom 3:10-19] Augustine said, “But what God promises, we ourselves do not do through choice or nature; but He Himself does through grace” (Pg., 325).
Secondly, we are commanded to honour God, to serve Him and trust only in Him. But holiness righteousness, piety, service are all gifts of God. [Eph 2:10; 1 Cor 1:30; 4:7; James 1:17; Jn 15:5, 2 Cor 1:12; 1 Cor 15:10; Josh 24:3; Neh 9:7]
Thirdly, believers are commanded to persevere in God’s grace; to be strong in the Lord [Eph 6:10]. This cannot be done by sheer human will. Only by the grace and sovereign mercy of God. [Matt 6:13; 2 Thess 1:11; 2 Cor 8;16; Hag 12:14; Is 42:1; Jer 50:9; Ezra 1:1; Pd 105:24; Phil 4:13; 2:12-13]
Fourthly, opponents of original sin conclude that God’s promises presuppose that man has free will to avail or not avail from them. They cite Amos 5:14; Is 1:19-20; Jer 4:1; Deut 28:1; Lev 26:3 etc.] However, promises originate from God’s heart of mercy and grace. They are not wages which the sinner earns. Therefore, if anyone receives them it is not by free will but by God’s grace.
Last of all, opponents of original sin conclude that the reproofs and exhortations of Scripture lose their meaning if man has no freewill. They quote the following passages [ Num 14:43; Jer 7:13-14, 28-29; Jer 19:15]. However, reproof and exhortation do their full job because man can do nothing without the mercy and grace of God. Reproof for evil tells a sinner what he actually is. [See Dan 9:4-19; Jer 7:27; Ps 78:8] Exhortation to righteousness tells a sinner that he can do nothing without grace. As Calvin says, “They are bidden to do God’s own work. By it He clearly intimates that believers act passively, so to speak, seeing that the capacity is supplied from heaven, that they may claim nothing at all for themselves” (Pg., 330). [ Ps 119:36; Phil 2:12-13; 2 Cor 7:1; 1 Jn 5:18; 3:9; 5:4; Jn 17:15; 1 Pet 1:22]
11. Arminianism: They say Scriptures proves human ability. Is this a valid argument? Calvin refutes arminianism too.
They marshal Deut 30:11-14. This passage speaks of the gospel (Rom 10:8), not the ability of man. Also, the sinful heart must be circumcised by God’s hand before we can love Him and be converted. The ability of Deut 30:11-14 is lodged, “not in the power of man, but in the help and protection of the Holy Spirit, who mightily carries out His work in our weakness” (Pg., 332). [see Calvin=s The Bondage & Liberation of the Will pg., 169]
They marshal Hosea 5:15. They suppose from this passage that God waits for man to do his part thus implying free will. The problem is solved by a question. Can sinful man or any other creation of God do anything apart from God’s power? [John 15:5; Acts 17:28].
They marshal Hebrews 6:10. They conjecture that such personal pronouns imply that these works are man’s works, chosen and performed by free will, without grace. Christians do these works, but not by self ability, rather they are gifts of God’s grace. “Because whatever God out of His loving-kindness does in us is ours, provided we understand that it is not of our doing; secondly, because ours is the mind, ours the will, ours the striving, which He directs toward the good” (Pg., 335). [1 Cor 15:10; 4:7; Eph 3:7; Matt 10:20; 2 Cor 3:5; Phil 2:13; 4:13; Col 1:29]
They marshal Genesis 4:7. This verse is in the imperative telling us what Cain ought to have done, not what he was able to do. What he ought to have done was beyond his power.
12. Man has no good will unless it be prepared by the Lord. Not that we ought not to will and to run; but because God accomplishes both in us” (Pg., 338).
13. Augustine: “To will is of nature, but to will aright is of grace. Unless God helps, we shall be able neither to conquer nor even to fight” (Pg., 335).
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