The Bondage and Freedom of the Will
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Intro
Intro
31 So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly My disciples;
32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
33 They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been enslaved to anyone; how is it that You say, ‘You will become free’ ?”
34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin.
35 Now the slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever.
36 So if the Son sets you free, you really will be free.
37 I know that you are Abraham’s descendants; yet you are seeking to kill Me, because My word has no place in you.
Title - The Bondage and Freedom of the Will
Background
Background
Definition
Definition
noun
1 the faculty by which a person decides on and initiates action.
1 a desire to act in a particular way or have a particular thing
Lexham Survey of Theology Human Will
The will is the human capacity to choose and to act responsibly.
Theological discussions on this subject
Theological discussions on this subject
Calvinistic view - man is totally depraved, dead in sin, that his will is enslaved by sin.
Arminian view - human will was never bound, and man remains free to choose right and wrong by himself
Key Questions
Key Questions
why are most people “unwilling” to believe the gospel and the Scripture?
what is the biblical concept of the human will?
what is the meaning of “free will”
Main Idea
Main Idea
The human will is both free and in bondage.
It is free by God’s design, and continues to exercise its freedom to a certain degree.
However, it is also in bondage because its ability to choose what truly good has been tainted and confined by the Fall.
Jesus’ offer of freedom encompasses the whole human person and includes his faculty of will.
The necessity of the freedom of the will
freedom of choice means responsibility
If the will is not free, then man cannot be held responsible for the outcome of his actions
The human will functions together with other human faculties
3 faculties of the soul
mind/intellect - the soul knowing
emotion - the soul feeling
will - the soul choosing
the will does not act independently from other faculties
the will is determined by what the mind thinks. and what the emotion feels, is best
the human will has natural and moral responsibilities
naturally, the will makes choices based on what nature provides
example - a lion will die of hunger even though there lots of plants around, because it will eat nothing but meat
naturally, man is able to make choices for His benefit
but spiritually, man does not choose God because his sinful nature does not approve of God
illustrations
4 And his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers; and so they hated him and could not speak to him on friendly terms.
Joseph’s brothers could not speak peacably to him because of their hatred
the will is the choice we make based on what we think is good, right and beneficial for us
Man’s present sinful condition
Man’s present sinful condition
10 as it is written: “There is no righteous person, not even one;
11 There is no one who understands, There is no one who seeks out God;
12 they have All turned aside, together they have become Corrupt; There is no one who does good, There is not even one.”
13 “Their throat is an open grave, With their tongues they keep deceiving,” “The venom of Asps is under their lips”;
14 “Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness”;
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood,
16 Destruction and misery are in their paths,
17 And they have not known the way of peace.”
18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
1 And you were dead in your offenses and sins,
2 in which you previously walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.
3 Among them we too all previously lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the rest.
man is “dead in his offenses and sin”
dead = means living in sin (separated from God)
The origin of man’s sinful condition
The origin of man’s sinful condition
The tree of the knowledge of good and evil
8 The Lord God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed.
9 Out of the ground the Lord God caused every tree to grow that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
“in the midst” - not created by God, but it was present in the garden
it was the only thing prohibited by God - they will DIE
it was not a natural tree, but symbolism
tree - meaning source (of life, of knowledge of good and evil)
Adam and Eve ate from the tree of knowledge…
1 Now the serpent was more cunning than any animal of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God really said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat;
3 but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’ ”
4 The serpent said to the woman, “You certainly will not die!
5 For God knows that on the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will become like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took some of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband with her, and he ate.
the serpent persuaded the woman with good things
the woman reasoned with herself before she made the decision
she was convinced that the risk outweighed the benefits she will get from the tree of knowledge of good and evil!
Eve’s will decided freely based on what he knew and felt from the serpent!
so the woman was deceived but still freely made the choice
Adam freely decided to join her wife in the disobedience based on what he knows and feels for his wife
so the man committed willful disobedience
God’s Solution to man’s bondage
God’s Solution to man’s bondage
Since the Fall in the Garden, man’s moral choice has been greatly incapacitated by multiple factors -
Since the Fall in the Garden, man’s moral choice has been greatly incapacitated by multiple factors -
man’s sinful nature - the original sin
man’s sinful nature - the original sin
it made him a slave of sin
31 So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly My disciples;
32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
33 They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been enslaved to anyone; how is it that You say, ‘You will become free’ ?”
34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin.
it condemned him to eternal judgment
it made him a child of wrath
37 I know that you are Abraham’s descendants; yet you are seeking to kill Me, because My word has no place in you.
38 I speak of the things which I have seen with My Father; therefore you also do the things which you heard from your father.”
39 They answered and said to Him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you are Abraham’s children, do the deeds of Abraham.
40 But as it is, you are seeking to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God; this Abraham did not do.
41 You are doing the deeds of your father.” They said to Him, “We were not born as a result of sexual immorality; we have one Father: God.”
42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I came forth from God and am here; for I have not even come on My own, but He sent Me.
43 Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot listen to My word.
44 You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies.
45 But because I say the truth, you do not believe Me.
46 Which one of you convicts Me of sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me?
47 The one who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God.”
9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from a trial, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment,
10 and especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt passion, and despise authority. Reckless, self-centered, they speak abusively of angelic majesties without trembling,
man’s knowledge of good and evil
man’s knowledge of good and evil
it produced evil desires through the body
3 Among them we too all previously lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the rest.
man’s ignorance of God’s righteousness
man’s ignorance of God’s righteousness
it prevented him from learning and recognizing the will of God
39 “You examine the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is those very Scriptures that testify about Me;
40 and yet you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life.
2 For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge.
3 For not knowing about God’s righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God.
Jesus came to set man free from sin
Jesus came to set man free from sin
35 Now the slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever.
36 So if the Son sets you free, you really will be free.
Threefold freedom in relation to sin
Jesus sets us free from the penalty of sin
Jesus sets us free from the guilt of sin
Jesus sets us free from the controlling power of sin
Free from the penalty of sin!
Free from the penalty of sin!
8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.
10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
Free from the guilt of sin!
Free from the guilt of sin!
13 For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
1 Therefore there is now no condemnation at all for those who are in Christ Jesus.
2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.
3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,
4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Free from the controlling power of sin!
Free from the controlling power of sin!
5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,
6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;
7 for the one who has died is freed from sin.
8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,
9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.
10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all time; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.
11 So you too, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
12 Therefore sin is not to reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts,
Conclusion
Conclusion
The tree of knowledge of good and evil brought sin and death to humanity.
Christ came to offer freedom and life through the knowledge of the truth! - John 8.31-32
Christ came to offer freedom and life through the knowledge of the truth! - John 8.31-32
31 So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly My disciples;
32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Knowledge of the Truth/Jesus equips the will so that it can make the right choices!
Knowledge of the Truth/Jesus equips the will so that it can make the right choices!
we choose God because we have been enlightened by the truth!
2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
we choose God and His will because our minds have been renewed!
17 So I say this, and affirm in the Lord, that you are to no longer walk just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their minds,
18 being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart;
19 and they, having become callous, have given themselves up to indecent behavior for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.
20 But you did not learn Christ in this way,
21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus,
22 that, in reference to your former way of life, you are to rid yourselves of the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit,
23 and that you are to be renewed in the spirit of your minds,
24 and to put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.
Knowledge of the truth has taught us that the best way to exercise our free will is to SUBMIT it to the Father’s Will!
Knowledge of the truth has taught us that the best way to exercise our free will is to SUBMIT it to the Father’s Will!
“Your will be done…”
“Not my will, but Your will be done…”
“Understand the Lord’s will…”
16 Do you not know that the one to whom you present yourselves as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of that same one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?
17 But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were entrusted,
18 and after being freed from sin, you became slaves to righteousness.
Why submit to the “form of teaching” - because of the weakness of the “flesh”
19 I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented the parts of your body as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your body’s parts as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.
Song
Turn your Eyes upon Jesus
I Need You More
