The Preacher » regeneration http://thepreacher.cac2.net Fear God and keep His commandments; for this is the whole duty of man - Ecclesiastes 12:13 Tue, 23 Feb 2010 21:20:19 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 A few thoughts about free will http://thepreacher.cac2.net/2010/02/15/a-few-thoughts-about-free-will/ http://thepreacher.cac2.net/2010/02/15/a-few-thoughts-about-free-will/#comments Mon, 15 Feb 2010 18:03:59 +0000 Charles Churchill http://thepreacher.cac2.net/2010/02/15/a-few-thoughts-about-free-will/ When we think about will, it’s helpful to think about it in the context of desire. To will to do a certain thing, the person who wills it, must desire that thing. Granted, this desire can be because of a gun to the head, or because of the influence of drugs, etc. but regardless of the reason, the person who is willing, must desire to do the thing he does.

This is useful when we think about free will in the context of salvation. Before a man’s heart has been changed by the Spirit of God, I would hold that he has free will, in that he may try to achieve anything he desires. The point of difference between a man before his heart has been so changed and after, is what he is capable of desiring.
Before a man has been regenerated by God, he is unable to truly desire God and he is completely free to do the things he does desire, which is to sin. It is only when God begins to change his heart, that a man has the capability to seek after God.

And this is consistent with how the Scripture describes a man moving between an unregenerate and a regenerate state. Before we are saved we are dead to the things of God, and a dead man is of another world from the living. The dead man cannot desire or will to do those things that are of God, he is dead to them. But then the Spirit comes and puts flesh and blood upon the dead bones and breathes new life into them, he is made alive unto God.
The other way that scripture talks about salvation is being born again. Before birth, a child cannot desire anything in the living world. It is not something he can even conceive. But when he is born into the world of the Spirit, when He is brought kicking and screaming into the world of light, he can know and desire the things of that world.

Does this make sense?

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