I’ve been reading a lot of Lutheran theology lately (meaning the theology of Martin Luther) and I think that he came up with the best explanation for what it scripturally means to be without free will. It has nothing to do with being a puppet as many believe. It does not make God some kind of evil dictator playing with rag dolls in this world. It is just an honest assessment of scripture and human nature.
Here it is in brief (and a lot of this is owed to the explanation of the idea by Gerhard Forde) – We want what we want. Yep. It’s not that we are manipulated and cannot choose what we want – it’s that we are bound to want exactly what we want. We are bound by our desires.
This plays out in real life if you think about it. Say I want a Porsche. Now I still have to get up in the morning and get dressed and work and eat and all of that, but in the back of my mind, I want that Porsche. I have ‘my heart set on it’ as we might say. It becomes for me the motivation for my actions. I might work more overtime to get it. I might shop and read reviews online about Porsche all the time. I might even check with my insurance agent to see what it would cost to insure it. I chose at one point to want a Porsche, but now my will is bound by my choice.
Now there are only two things that can change my will for a Porsche. One is external force. If I lose my job and my house and I am begging for my next meal, the desire for a Porsche will be supplanted by my desire to survive and my will is changed as a result of an external force. The second is if I find something I desire more. If, while shopping for a Porsche, I happen to drive a Ferrari and decide it is better than a Porsche, my internal desire for the Porsche is dislodged and replaced by my desire for the Ferrari.
So if we are bound to want what we want then the question becomes, as unsaved sons of Adam, what do we want? I don’t think I even need to answer that. Clearly we don’t want God because God won’t share his glory. As sons of Adam, we will not share our glory either. The mind of a person bound as he is by his Adamic nature to desire what is for his own glory cannot submit to God, nor will he. Hence Romans 7 & 8: “For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” (Romans 8:7-8 ESV)
Now at this point, one might argue that the gospel falls under the second category of desire change: that it is a more desirous alternative. And that would be correct if one responds to a false gospel. This happens all the time, where people respond to a gospel that does not call for a clear death of Adam and crawl down off the cross to embrace Christianity as a superior desire. Unfortunately that only lasts until they become distracted by another squirrel. Then their bondage to their Adamic desire carries them away. The true gospel is an offense because it calls for the absolute death of our glory pursuit.
The gospel actually falls under the first category of desire change: applied external force. Through the proper use of the law and gospel, God breaks into our world shockingly and knocks us from our high horse. He does not become the ultimate desire by being ultimately desirous, but by decimating all other desires and leaving us with no other hope. Death is the ultimate external force that ends our Adamic desire, so God kills us, and dead men don’t want for anything.
But he does not leave us dead. That which is found dead in Christ is raised with Christ by the same Spirit that raised him. To what? Newness of life. Our desires are changed. We are still bound to want what we want, but (as Pastor Roger is wont to say) our ‘want tos’ have changed. Now the body is still prone to be aroused to desire the things that Adam desires (the quest for our own glory) but the mind is no longer bound by the same desires. And “to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.” (Romans 8:6 ESV)
I hope this is helpful. It has been for me. In fact, in the span of this half hour God has really opened my eyes, and I have some apologies to make.
God Bless
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