Der Pilger
Puritan Board Freshman
A small group I'm in had a discussion about free will last night. The big problem with such discussions, as I've found, is that people tend to jump right in without first defining what "free will" is. In what sense is the will "free"? I did some searching in PB for threads that would answer this question, and while I found some helpful results, I am still wondering about it. Correct me if I'm wrong on this. My understanding of free will has been for some time as follows:
The will is both free and bound. It is externally free in that there are no external constraints placed upon the will to do anything. Nobody ties us down and keeps us from going to church, neither does anyone hold a gun to our heads to make us sin.
On the other hand, the will is internally bound because the sinful nature makes it go in one direction--away from God. Our desires cannot rise above our sinful nature apart from grace. We cannot arbitrarily desire one day to change our desires and start seeking God unless God first regenerates us. This very inability to change our desires indicates the will is in bondage to sin.
Hopefully I articulated it well. Does that make sense?
The will is both free and bound. It is externally free in that there are no external constraints placed upon the will to do anything. Nobody ties us down and keeps us from going to church, neither does anyone hold a gun to our heads to make us sin.
On the other hand, the will is internally bound because the sinful nature makes it go in one direction--away from God. Our desires cannot rise above our sinful nature apart from grace. We cannot arbitrarily desire one day to change our desires and start seeking God unless God first regenerates us. This very inability to change our desires indicates the will is in bondage to sin.
Hopefully I articulated it well. Does that make sense?