The evangelical church today has their roots in the protestant reformation. In centuries past, protesters protested various doctrines of the Catholic church. Many, through the centuries, have been put to death by the church at Rome, and/or branded as heretics for their doctrinal convictions. Much of the protesting centered around the teaching of how a person receives God’s forgiveness. Men like John Wycliffe, branded as a heretic, died in 1384. John Huss, branded as a heretic by the Roman church, was put to death in 1415. William White was burned to death in 1424 for his beliefs.
A change point in history would begin in 1483. A man named Martin Luther was born in Isleben, Saxony. In 1507 Luther was ordained to the priesthood. In 1512 he received his Doctor’s degree in theology, where he chaired Biblical Theology at the University of Wittenberg, which Luther held for the rest of his life. Through his study of the Word of God, Luther also protested the church’s teaching that man’s will has the ability to choose his eternal destiny. “At the heart of Luther’s theology was a total dependence on the freedom of God’s omnipotent grace rescuing powerless man from the bondage of the will.” [1] “Luther saw this bondage of the will as the root issue in the fight with Rome and its most discerning spokesman, Erasmus.”[2] The protestant movement was born over this issue.
The church in our era has made the claim, correctly so, that man is saved by God's grace alone. A work of His favor which is completely unmerited. We're not saved by deciding to be baptized, eating a wafer and drinking the cup, or deciding to confess our sins to a man, or by choosing the correct church. But by teaching the will of unsaved man must decide about Jesus, and make the correct choice, makes grace merited. Is the unsaved will of man in bondage? Can unsaved man choose to do anything that pleases God, including the choice of his own salvation? Much of the evangelical church today teaches that man has the responsibility to choose his own eternal destiny. Concerning unsaved man, J.I. Packer and O.R. Johnston, state in the introduction of the translation of Martin Luther's greatest work, "The Bondage of the Will,"
“He has no power to please God. He is unable to do anything but continue in sin. His salvation, therefore, must be wholly of Divine grace, for he himself can contribute nothing to it; and any formulation of the gospel which amounts to saying that God shows grace, not in saving man, but in making it possible for man to save himself, is to be rejected as a lie. The whole work of man’s salvation, first to last, is God’s; and all the glory for it must be God’s also.”[3]
An example of a gospel presentation in which man’s will is given the responsibility to choose is found in the gospel tract, Steps to Peace With God, published by World Wide Publications, a ministry of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. The following is stated in Step 2:
“God created us in His own image to have an abundant life. He did not make us as robots to automatically love and obey Him. God gave us a will and freedom of choice. We chose to disobey God and go our own willful way. We still make this choice today. This results in separation from God.”
The teaching of the freedom of the will of the unsaved man is very prevalent in today’s churches. When I became a Christian in 1974, the teaching was echoed in the Gospel tract written by Bill Bright called “The Four Spiritual Laws” where he writes under Law Four, “We receive Jesus Christ by faith, as an act of the will.” Why do we need a re-reformation? Because the teaching of many Christians today concerning how men, women, and children are saved is not Scriptural when it comes to the will of man, presently in bondage to sin and death. What does the Bible say? I present the following principles.
1. Understanding biblical truth (including the gospel) can only occur if God gives to you the ability (grace) to understand and discern it.
Therefore, an unsaved man cannot will, or choose to understand the Gospel. It’s not by an act of the will that a man is saved.
The Bible says: The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned (1 Corinthians 2:14).
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing (1 Corinthians 1:18).
Only the Holy Spirit can make God's Word understandable to the human mind and heart. Because the unbeliever is spiritually dead (Eph. 2:1; Col 2:13), no amount of eloquence on the part of the speaker is able to grant him life. Because he is spiritually blind (2 Cor. 4:4), no amount of human logic or reason is able to open his eyes to the truth. And because he is spiritually enslaved to sin (John 8:34), no amount of persuasion is able to free him from his unbelief. It's from hearing the message of the gospel that God removes the blinders from the unbeliever's mind and gives a person the grace and faith to believe in Jesus.
So faith (to believe) comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ (Rom 10:17).
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith; and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- (Eph. 2:8)
The “gift of God” is both the extension of His grace and the faith to believe the impossible gospel. God allows a person to discern it. And the result is salvation and forgiveness. This new heart supernaturally comes to a man by a sovereign act of God’s will, not by a sovereign act of man’s will.
"No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” (John 6:44)
“...no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him." (John 6:65)
For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thess. 5:9)
If God has not destined us for wrath, we have but one conclusion. He, then, has destined us for salvation. These first century believers were not destined for eternal separation in hell. But God destined them for obtaining eternal salvation.
Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him (Rom 5:9).
But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation
(2 Thess. 2:13).
In love 5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will (Eph. 1:4-5)
When the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord; and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed
(Acts 13:48).
If God pre-determines the believer’s destiny, it follows that He, therefore, must also pre-determine the unbeliever’s destiny. Herein lies the emotional difficulty with many believers who do not believe the Scripture concerning this sobering truth. This will actually cause some to ignore, or re-define the passages, such as those above, that teach us about God’s work of choosing, electing, appointing, drawing, enabling, and destining sinners to salvation.
7 What then? What Israel is seeking, it has not obtained, but those who were chosen obtained it, and the rest were hardened; 8 just as it is written,
"GOD GAVE THEM A SPIRIT OF STUPOR, EYES TO SEE NOT AND EARS TO HEAR NOT, DOWN TO THIS VERY DAY" (Rom 11:7-8).
for they stumble because they are disobedient to the word, and to this doom they were also appointed. 9 But you are A CHOSEN RACE (1 Peter 2:8-9)
These people from the nation of Israel were hardened by God and appointed by God for doom…The word “appointed” is the same word “destined” in 1Thess. 5:9. They had no choice. God gave them eyes to see not and ears to hear not. This is what it means that God is sovereign in salvation.
Romans 9:18-24
18 So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.
As emotionally difficult as this is, God desires to not have mercy on some, and it also means He desires, and has mercy on others. Many of us will say, “That’s not fair. How then can God, on judgment day, find fault and judge those who are lost? He never gave them a chance. They can’t resist His will. That's just not fair." This is exactly the next argument Paul raises.
19 You will say to me then, "Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?"
The argument is, “God, you can’t fault them, or judge those who are not chosen.” Here's the authoritative answer.
20 On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, "Why did you make me like this, "will it?
21 Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?
In other words, God will do what He wants. He has the right to make a vessel for honorable use (saved), and to make another for common use (unsaved). The will of man does not determine how God will make each vessel.
22 What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?
God has had much patience with the vessels of wrath He prepared for destruction. The following verse explains why.
23 And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, 24 even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.
I certainly don’t understand all of God’s ways. Some of His ways are not fair according to our standards. His ways and thoughts are high above mine. But we must never ignore, or change God’s Word to make Him line up with our ways and our thoughts. I see this occurring in many churches today. It's dangerous. I believe it leads to the justification to change other doctrines that don't align with our thoughts and emotions. I believe it has a water-shed effect of watering down the purity and even questioning the need for the study and adhearning to the doctrines of the faith. Therefore, my prayer is for a re-reformation in the church today. We desperately need it.
Giving glory to God, the author and finisher of our salvation.
Dave Rusco
[1] John Piper, the Legacy of Sovereign Joy, p. 108.
[2] Ibid., p. 109.
[3] Martin Luther, The Bondage of the Will, translated by J.I. Packer and O.R. Johnston, p. 48.
[4] John Piper, the Legacy of Sovereign Joy, p. 109.
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