The 39 Articles of Religion: Article XVII Continued

Our wills were not obliterated in the Fall but corrupted. All people have the capacity to choose what to eat for breakfast. We make decisions of what to wear, where to apply to college, and what car we want to buy. In the US we even get to decide whom to vote for as our leaders. We do have wills, just not “free will”, that is, a will that has in it the natural capacity to do righteous things from the heart, including choosing Christ as Savior. Scripture tells us that salvation/justification is by faith alone.  We are mistaken if we assume that faith = choice, that if we choose Christ we have faith. This position is completely untenable from Scripture. Nowhere is it taught that faith is a choice. Rather, it is repeatedly taught that faith is a gift. If faith is not a gift then it is a work, which would lead one to mistakenly conclude: I chose to have faith, therefore God will save me. Faith, however, is a gift given by God’s grace to those whom he has chosen (Article XVII). If left to their own devices, sinners would run from God just like Adam and Eve did in the Garden, rather than turn and say, “Yes, I believe.” 

As we look back on our own conversions, we all had in some way a moment when it became clear that, “Yes, I do believe in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.”  This is perfectly good, only we ought to give the credit to God for granting us faith and the ability to say, “Yes, I do believe” and not chalk the credit up to our own free will. In the end, our wills are only capable of choosing “freely” what our nature dictates. If our nature is sinful and broken, then our wills will freely choose sinful things and gratify the cravings of the flesh (Gal 5:19-21). If God in his mercy raises us with Christ and grants us his own Spirit, then, and only then, through the Holy Spirit can a fallen human will begin to delight in God’s law and begin to obey from the heart. Thus the will is changed. Our wills will only be truly free when we die and are raised to new life—what Jesus declares to Nicodemus as being born again (John 3:1-8). Proponents of free will posit that we have free will and choose God and thus will be saved. Scripture teaches that sinners can’t choose God, but to them he graciously grants faith by which the will is then amended. A changed will is the fruit of salvation, not the cause of it.