Eric W. King ~ TSW, "The Shepherds Way": What "free will"?

Above: Presbyter Eric William King explains Biblical "free-will".

What "free will"?

By Eric William King

As Christians we understand that in this world there is evil and good. Above both of these is Jesus Christ and God's good. Nobody who is "good" has the good of God. The Bible declares that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God". Nobody who is "born of sin" has free-will. They have the will to sin, and that’s about it.

St. Martin Luther understood this. Our Augsburg Confession confesses this in agreement with the Bible, God's word. Some people are teaching that humans have "just enough good in them" to choose and love God. The Bible does not teach this. The Bible student must read and study carefully. To truly accept God's word goes against human thinking, reason, and logic. True belief involves Biblical faith, and faith itself is a gift from God.

Our so called “free will” does not merit any grace or justification in our relationship with God. If it could, why would we need Jesus Christ? Couldn’t we perform enough “good” to impress God on our own? Many so called “Christian” churches are teaching this kind of nonsense, that we secure our salvation by “good works” such as “day keeping” and “dietary laws”. This is simple and plain modern-day Judaism.

The Mosaic Covenant was a covenant of merit, a covenant of “works” and was a Conditional Covenant, based on performance. The New Covenant is not of works (un-conditional), we do not merit it in any way shape or form. The New Covenant is a gift from God to His elect children and is accepted by “faith through grace” from God Himself.

Limited Free-will

When a person truly accepts Jesus Christ through “hearing the word” of God, because true faith is activated (comes) through hearing, then he or she truly becomes FREE. Christ Jesus came to “set us free” from the “law of sin and death”. So, we could say that true Christians have a limited free-will. This does not mean that they can do whatever they want. It means that God has placed them in His “sheep pen” and given them space to grow.

Ultimately nobody, not even the saints, has free will. God has already seen the beginning to the end and nobody can alter are change what He has decreed. As Christians we accept this by faith, for what else can we do? We serve a Sovereign God.

The ancient Pelagian Christians along with the Manichaeans and Arminians did not understand this important Truth. Even today many cults hold on to the false ideas of free-will and God’s sovereignty. So, man has so called “free-will” in regards to the things of fallen man but not in regards to choosing and loving God. One must be called by the “Word of God” and true “faith” by the supernatural act of the Holy Spirit to become a saved child of God.

Saint Martin Luther along with St. Augustine have righty claimed that the human will of its own power cannot do anything but fail and fall. The modern Sophists (term for many modern Theologians) have used their human reason and logic to invent Christian Humanism, treating theological arguments as some sort of philosophical hocus-pocus. So, concerning theological questions (loci theologici) it is better to refer to the factual statements of God himself (Sola Scriptura) rather than to some liberal-scholastic.

You are invited to stay with us here at, “The Shepherds Way” & “Nugget of Truth” to continue proper studies in the Word of God.

By Eric William King (July 9^th 2024)