It may be asked, How then is this new will, or new nature, imparted? It is the direct operation of the Spirit of God. How? “The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.” The word also is the seed imparted by the Spirit in the new birth. Water is a figure of the word. But do not think for a moment that this means a change of the flesh, or an improvement of our old nature. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh,” remains the same flesh; “that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”
Now would it not be absurd to say that the new nature was begotten by the free will of our old evil nature? But what saith the scripture: “Of HIS OWN WILL begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures.” (Jas. 1:18.) Do you see the difference? Then again, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” (1 Pet. 1:3.) “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.” (Ver. 23.)
But it is time we looked at a few illustrations as to man’s will. Take the great supper in Luke 14:16-24 God the giver, the provider of the supper, sends out the invitation to many. “Come; for all things are now ready.” On God’s part no hindrance—salvation as free as the air we breathe. But what of man’s free will—did one accept the invitation? Not one. “And they all with one consent began to make excuse.” Not one of those that were bidden came. Grace, free grace, had to go out and fetch the guests, compel them to come in.
Again as to free will, take the great picture of man’s condition: Israel, slaves in Egypt. Is a slave a free man to do his own will? Nay, he needs redemption. He cannot redeem himself, this must be the work of another. God came down to redeem Israel. God in the Son has come down to redeem the sinner. If the figure was the work of God, surely the reality is so also. If a man is free, he is not a slave—his state is not so bad as that—then it is also true, must be true, if he is a slave, he is not free. If man is free, he does not need redemption. Free will and the need of redemption cannot go together. A man is taken prisoner, and with a great chain round his leg, he is put in a dark dungeon. Would you talk to him through a hole in the iron door, and tell him he has a free will, and he may come out if he likes? And is not our state by nature far worse than that? We were not only in the dark dungeon with sin as a chain to the leg, but we liked it, the darkness and the chain of sin, rather than the light.
If a man knows his real condition as Satan’s captive, and knows that he is so vile, that he prefers the horrid slavery of Satan, to the holy liberty of Christ, he will know that he is as far from free will as light is from darkness. How can he be free and a captive to sin at the same time? He cannot be a slave, or a captive, and free at the same time. His very nature is sinful and prefers darkness to light, sin to holiness. Free, ah, he will prefer anything to Christ. No man can ever talk of free will if he knows and believes in the total ruin of man through sin.
And there is still a deeper thing yet. A slave really desiring to be free, hating slavery, and not delivered from it, is a slave still. Who is this? This is a quickened soul, like Israel when they believed God and longed to escape, but were slaves still. This is the very case described in Rom. 7 Here we have a quickened soul, a new will, an earnest desire to do the will of God—one who can say, “I delight in the law of God after the inward man.” Yet I am a slave, and how to perform that which is good “I find not.” Could you say that one, even born of God and under law, with the experience described from verses 8 to 23, can do that which he chooses? The law provokes sin in the flesh, and the more he struggles, the more he discovers that he is without power to do what he longs to do, and he is a slave to what he hates. Have you known deliverance from that state? If not, you may be in that very state, and not know it. Years you may have gone on in this state, under law, a complete helpless slave, and not have understood it. Can you say, When I was in the flesh, under law, trying to improve it, I found there was not a bit of good in me, that is in my flesh. You never can say this until you are delivered out of it. Is it not then folly to talk about free will while you are a slave? Now when your eyes are opened by the Spirit, you see how the “I” has been judged on the cross and set aside. It is no longer “I” but Christ. Then you can say, “I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Mark, you will not say, I thank my free will, I have chosen to be free. No, that will not do. It is all of God, I thank God. Not of him that willeth, but of God that showeth mercy, but all is through Jesus Christ.
Just one further scripture illustration of man’s condition as to free will. If you will read carefully with prayer Eph. 1 forty times, you will be surprised how all is of God; and in chapter 2 a still deeper description of our real condition, as God sees us. We may make mistakes, but He never can do so. There both Jews and Gentiles are viewed as dead in trespasses and sins, by nature children of wrath.
Now where is free will? As to all good, man is dead. Have you seen a corpse laid in the coffin, screwed down, laid eight feet deep in the ground? Has that dead body a free will and power to break the coffin-lid and rise out of the grave? If it has, it is very far from being dead. Talk not then of free will.
How then is man to be raised, either from the literal grave at the resurrection, or now, from the grave of sin and death? God—it must be God. It is not the free will of man, “But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ: by grace ye are saved.” Read Eph. 2:1-10. Thus man, with his boasted free will, disappears, and God is all, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Objections.
“If all that is true: if man has no free will, and no power to do what is right even if he desires to do so, then there is no such a thing as responsibility.”
Let us try two cases. A man has stolen a sheep, and he has no free will, no desire even to restore it; his will is to keep it, and eat it; or he has killed it and eaten one half, and means to eat and enjoy the other half. A policeman raps at the door. The man is eating a leg of the mutton, and half the sheep is in the cellar. The representative of the law is about to apprehend the man. “Oh, dear, no,” says the man, “I admit I stole the sheep, and do you not see I have killed it, and eaten one half, and I have no will to give up what is left even; indeed plainly I have no desire to do so.” Can you tell me of a policeman who would say, “Oh, I see, then as you have no will and no desire to restore the sheep, of course there is no responsibility?”
Take another case. A man borrows a hundred pounds from the Bank at five per cent. But instead of paying the interest he spends the hundred pounds in bad ways. What bank is that where the directors would say: “You have spent the hundred pounds in drink and evil ways, have you? Very well, the principle of this bank is, that where the money is spent, and there is neither free will nor power to pay what is spent, that man has no responsibility to pay his debts?” Could there then be greater folly than to say, because man, the sinner before God, has spent all in sin, and has neither free will nor power to make good what he has done, that therefore there is no responsibility?
Another objection. A local preacher says:
“If I thought that man had not a free will and power to accept, I never could preach again. I could not say, ‘Whosoever will, let him come.’ What’s the use of doing so?”
As this is a very common objection let us look at it carefully. We have seen that the Lord and His apostles held distinctly, that it was not of him that willeth but of God that showeth mercy, that they that are born again are born of water and of the Spirit; not of man’s will in the least. And they were not discouraged. They did not say, if it is not of man’s free will but of God, we can never preach again. Now, dear local preacher, if you say so, you miss good company. But you ask, “What is the use of preaching?” Well, just read through the Acts of the Apostles and you will see the truth of that word, “It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” (1 Cor. 1:21.) And again, “How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?” &c. (Rom. 10:14.) “For by grace [the free favor of God] are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.” (Eph. 2:8.) God gives you the high privilege of proclaiming free forgiveness of sins, and justification from all things, through Jesus. And He gives faith by the Spirit using the water, that is the word, He gives by you. It is by the word of Him who said, “Let there be light.” that light and life is given—this new creation power. What a privilege to be an instrument in His hands.
Consequences.
Ah, this would take a volume to tell. If salvation has its spring and beginning in man’s free will; then (as we know is held by such as believe this) salvation all the journey through will depend, not on God, but on man’s continued free will. All safety ever depends on himself, not on God: and if so now, why not in eternity? Such a one can never on such ground have true peace here or hereafter. This is a most distressing aspect of free will, and brings many a poor soul to despair. But if the new will and power, and new birth and salvation, be of God from eternity to eternity, then my soul rests on the Rock of ages. He changes not.
And yet remember that on God’s part His salvation is as free as the air. Only open the window and the air comes in. The question is, who opens the window? Man will not; but God hath mercy on whom He will have mercy.
As this paper is very condensed, perhaps you will read it again, and especially the scriptures. The Lord use it for help to those for whom I was requested to write it; and I believe the request was of the Lord. C. S.