You don’t have to teach a fish to swim or a squirrel to climb a tree. Spiders don’t go to engineering school to learn how to build their astounding webs, they just do it. It is natural. Not exactly a profound observation, I know. But why do we deny the same self-evident truths about our own nature? When a child is born, people gather around to look at the precious little babe, and say things like “What a perfect little angel; so innocent and pure”. But new parents soon realize that the “innocent” child is a little bundle of sin. No one teaches the child to lie, or to be selfish, or dishonor their parents, they just do it. It is natural. It’s the default human position. They are called the “terrible two’s” and not the “innocent and tranquil two’s” for a reason. We sin, because we are natural born sinners.
The theological issue is not about whether men have a will; the problem is that man’s will is broken and bound. We cannot and will not choose the God of the Bible. Our will is in bondage to sin and we are, by nature, the children of wrath (Ephesians 2:3). Our hearts and minds are naturally contrary to the glory of God and is not “subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be” (Romans 8:7). The heart of man is not naturally seeking God, or praising God, or serving God, because no one seeks God (Romans 3:11).
Why do people choose one thing over another? Because they want to. But that brings us back to what the Bible says about our nature. We naturally want to fulfill the desires of our hearts, but our hearts are corrupted (Jeremiah 17:9; Ephesians 2:3) which makes us unwilling to come to Christ. Spiritually, it is worse than that. We are born dead in trespasses and sins. We don’t need to make a choice, we need to be born again. We need the life giving grace of God.
Martin Luther once said “It is one thing to say that a thing was done by free-will and another to prove it.” We can say that we freely chose God, but it’s quite another thing to take the Bible and show that man is in a neutral state and that salvation hinges upon the choice that he makes outside of the grace and mercy of God. We just don’t understand the clear Biblical teaching on how bad our situation is and how hopelessly lost we really are. The Bible tells us that we of ourselves will not come to Christ that we might have eternal life. Our only hope is that God comes to us in full, free, sovereign Grace. What is required is not a decision, but a miracle of regeneration. When you realize that you cannot save yourself and will yourself to love God, only then will you see your desperate need of a Saviour.
