Human free agency or the human will has been in history a topic of great debate amongst theologians. Throughout the history of the church, views held by theologians regarding sin and grace depended largely on their view of human liberty.
The human will is not determined by some previously established physical law of sequence, independent of the human mind and soul or in some way indifferent in its actions. Human beings are free agents with a free will who act not based on some predetermined law of sequence or from indifference. His or her acts are always determined by their preceding state of mind so long as their volitional acts are free as a conscious expression of their own mind and controlled by their reasons and feelings.[1]
We deal here with the human will in the more restricted sense of the word which involves only purposes and volitional acts of the will that flow from those purposes.
The view of the human will that is most consistent with the Bible, certainly at least amongst the Reformed Theology understanding of Scripture, speaks of free will as certain. Charles Hodge explains it this way:
It teaches that a man is free not only when his outward acts are determined by his will, but when his volitions are truly and properly his own, determined by nothing out of himself but proceeding from his own views, feelings, and immanent dispositions, so that they are the real, intelligent, and conscious expression of his character, or of what is in his mind.[2]
Scripture implies that every volitional act of the will includes elements of both rationality and spontaneous action (see Rom. 8:5).
In lower animals (i.e., non-humans) spontaneity is present without reason. Although Charles Darwin and many evolutionary scientists believe that the cognitive abilities of human beings differ from those of other animals merely in degree, the truth is that evidence indicates that a profound gap separates our intellect from the animal intellect. We believe that lower animals are not capable of rational thought. They don’t have the capability to know why they’re doing something or what state they are in or why or that they even exist. They act and react but they cannot rationalize and therefore lower animals are not free agents.
Human beings on the other hand possess both reason and the power of self-determination and therefore they are free to make and are responsible for their thoughts and outward volitional acts. In short, they have moral liberty. And the human will is not violated by God’s foreordination and predestination. God, in eternity, foreordained everything that shall come to pass and His divine decree shall not impose compulsion or obligation on the wills of human beings. The Bible confirms that God’s divine decree of foreordination of all things is consistent with the free agency of human beings. Scripture reveals that God has decreed the free acts of man, but also that the actors are nonetheless free and therefore responsible for their acts (Gen. 50:19, 20; Acts 2:23; 4:27, 28). God, by His decree of predestination, makes it certain that these foreordained things will happen but this does not mean that God Himself directly effectuates the application of all things in His decree.
FREE WILL IN SCRIPTURE
When God created the first human beings, Adam and Eve, He gave them a will that is free to choose to either sin or not sin. Their will is not forced toward good or evil nor is there an inclination either toward good or evil. God provided them with a place to live in paradise in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it (Gen. 2:15). He also gave them one law to obey which was that they should not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:16).
In the Garden, Adam and Eve were in a state of innocence and God gave them the complete freedom and natural ability to will to and to practice what was pleasing to Him (Rom. 8:5 “but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit”),[3] although they could lose that liberty (Eccl. 7:29; Gen. 1:26; Gen. 2:16-17, 3:6). After being tempted by Satan in the Garden, Adam and Eve ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in violation of God’s law (Gen. 3:1-6).
Once God’s law was violated, Adam and Eve deserved death and fell into a state of sin making them absolutely incapable of doing anything regarding their spiritual salvation (Rom. 5:6, 8:7; Jn. 15.5). Because of this first sin, Adam and Eve and all their descendants fell into a state in which they were absolutely incapable of doing spiritual good (Rom. 3:9-10, 12, 23, 8:7) and they were as a result dead to sin (Eph. 2:1, 5). Consequently all human beings have a fallen nature in their natural state and can do nothing on their own toward their spiritual salvation (Jn. 6:44, 65; 1 Cor. 2:14; Eph. 2:2-5; Tit. 3:3-5; Rom. 8:8).
In the fullness of time according to God’s will, He selects individuals from among the elect and regenerates them by reformatting their spirits from their fallen state of corruption and sinfulness to one that has the ability and will to either sin or not sin. Prior to this regeneration, human beings only had the will to sin.
The spiritual re-birth through the instrumentality of the Holy Spirit begins the process of conversion which concludes with belief by faith. And the regenerate believer is brought into a state of grace which frees the re-born Christian from his or her natural fallen state of sin and corruption. It is at this point that by the free gift of God’s grace only, the fallen person is now able both to will and to work for God’s good pleasure, having become slaves of God (Rom. 6:18,22; Col. 1:13, Jn. 8:34,36, Phil. 2:13,). Nevertheless, this new person in Christ retains an inclination for sin due to his or her imputed guilt from Adam and Eve’s first sin and thus does not perfectly will to do good but sometimes wills and does evil (Gal 5:17, Rom 7:15,18-19,21-23; 1 Jn. 1:8-10).
At the end of the age, Jesus Christ will return when the general resurrection of all and the judgment of the wicked will occur. Then the salvation of the elect will be finally consummated and the elect will be ushered into their perfectly glorified state in the New Heaven and the New Earth and will remain in a state of glory for eternity (1 Jn. 3:2; Jude 24;, 2:1-6, Ps. 17:15). From then on, the will of man is perfectly free and permanently inclined to do good alone in a state of glory forever (Heb. 12:23; Rev. 22:3-4).
[1] Hodge, Charles, A., Systematic Theology, vol.2, Hendrickson (2016), 288.
[2] Hodge, 285.
[3] Romans 8:5 uses the phrase “set their minds on” which is referring to the human will. The phrase those who live according to the Spirit earlier in v. 5 speaks of the action that results from the will.
