Dale Partridge - Real Christianity #131： Do People Have Free Will To Choose or Reject Christ？

00:00:00.000 Welcome to this episode of Real Christianity. My name is Dale Partridge, where each week

00:00:12.640 I offer 15 to 20-minute answers to tough theological and pastoral questions. This show

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00:00:41.060 Well, it's my belief that in order to fully comprehend and appreciate the gospel,

00:00:47.880 we must first grasp the state of man prior to receiving that gospel.

00:00:53.380 Today's episode is unique, and it'll be a little bit longer than our regular 15 to 20-minute shows.

00:00:59.080 The questions I'm going to attempt to answer are, how fallen was I before I was saved?

00:01:05.720 And before I was a Christian, was I able to freely choose or reject Jesus Christ?

00:01:12.740 But before we dive in, I just want to make one quick announcement.

00:01:15.940 Are you struggling with the sin of pornography?

00:01:19.060 I know so many people are, and we have created as a ministry a course in which I filmed a

00:01:26.260 simple gospel-centered program. It's a three-week program for breaking free from the bondage of

00:01:32.020 pornography. And you can finish the course in one sitting. You can also do it over a three-week

00:01:38.540 period. It's very affordable. And we have just had so many testimonies from hundreds of people,

00:01:45.840 and we've actually had nearly 2,000 people go through the program and find freedom from the

00:01:54.440 sin of pornography. And so if you are struggling with that and are ready to break free, go to

00:02:01.220 standinvictory.org. Again, that's standinvictory.org. Okay, so we're not answering a question from the

00:02:10.760 audience today. We're answering a question that I have been studying for several months, and I'm

00:02:17.500 going to, you know, pose this question to the show today. And so basically it's this. According to

00:02:23.820 the Bible, do fallen human beings have a free will? That is, can they, on their own, choose

00:02:31.420 to accept or reject the Lord Jesus Christ? Now, let me begin by saying this is a massive topic.

00:02:40.240 A 200 to 300 page book could make a dent in the discussion, but a, you know, 20 to 35 minute

00:02:48.560 podcasts can't. And that's actually the problem with doing episodes on topics like this.

00:02:54.440 We're so flooded with the quantity of information that we never have the time or discipline to labor

00:03:00.520 over the entire discussion and gain the robust understanding of the issue that we really need.

00:03:07.300 For example, I mean, the study of the human will is it's kind of one of those issues that

00:03:12.600 takes several weeks to even grasp the glossary of terms required to have a deep and meaningful

00:03:19.140 discussion about it. But in this episode, I'm going to attempt to give you at least a snapshot

00:03:24.800 of the conversation in hopes that it might spur you on to a further study and further gratitude

00:03:31.340 for God's sovereignty over your life. And I'm going to share a few helpful resources at the

00:03:36.900 end of this episode to support further study on your own. Next, I want to just clarify that this

00:03:43.600 discussion is specifically about the issue of human free will as it pertains to choosing to

00:03:50.620 accept or reject the gospel. That's to say, this is not an episode about the overall discussion

00:03:56.540 regarding the interplay between God's sovereignty and man's responsibility. That's a much larger

00:04:01.880 discussion. And for the record, just so you know, if you're a theologian and you understand some of

00:04:06.260 these terms, I am what theological circles have identified as a compatibilist, meaning that I

00:04:13.200 believe that God's predetermination and meticulous sovereign providence is compatible. It's compatible

00:04:20.660 with voluntary choice of human beings. And this is, again, the standard Reformed position,

00:04:27.300 and you can find several helpful articles on that issue at monergism.com. That's M-O-N-E-R 1.00

00:04:35.520 g-i-s-m, monergism.com. But again, that is not the focus of today. Today's episode is

00:04:43.860 specifically focused on determining if fallen man can freely choose Christ.

00:04:50.600 So let's just first start by defining the term free will. Free will means that you have

00:04:58.600 the ability to exercise self-determination. This isn't autonomy, which means to have absolute

00:05:06.760 freedom. The only autonomous one is God. No, we're talking about human will and attempting

00:05:14.820 to determine if it's free to choose or reject Jesus Christ as Lord. More specifically, in regard

00:05:23.200 to the acceptance of the gospel, people who believe that humans have, quote, free will

00:05:31.300 believe that they ultimately have the unobstructed ability to make the decisive action to accept or

00:05:39.780 reject Jesus Christ. This is called libertarian free will theology. And these folks are not

00:05:46.020 compatibilists, and they are what's called incompatibilists, right? Meaning that they

00:05:50.500 believe God's predetermination and meticulous providence is incompatible with voluntary choice

00:05:56.960 of human beings. And this view is held by the Arminians and not the Calvinists. Now, guys,

00:06:03.100 we're going to just imagine we're walking into a deep pool, okay? Because this is going to get

00:06:06.880 deeper and deeper and deeper, but it's all going to wrap up at the end. So I know these terms might

00:06:11.300 be going, whoa, they're going way over my head. Stay with me here. Stay with me. You will see

00:06:16.760 what I'm talking about at the end. I know there's some terms that you're just not grasping, but just

00:06:20.220 stay here. So on the other hand of what I just mentioned, people who reject free will,

00:06:29.680 and that's me, meaning I'm rejecting free will, and we're going to actually define what that

00:06:34.180 means in a minute. You know, we believe that prior to Christ, people's will was enslaved to

00:06:44.560 sin and corrupted to such a degree that in their fallen state, they did not have the unobstructed

00:06:53.740 ability to make the decisive action to accept Jesus Christ. So, to be clear, both groups, 0.53

00:07:01.960 okay, the Compatibilists, the Incompatibilists, the Arminians, and the Calvinists, right?

00:07:06.300 Both groups believe that fallen man outside of Christ has a will, okay? But one group believes

00:07:14.280 fallen humans still had the capability to freely choose or reject Christ. These are the Arminians. 1.00

00:07:21.080 And the other group believes the will is enslaved to sin and unable to choose Christ. These are the

00:07:28.460 Calvinists. So you got a little bit of a landscape and a little background there. Now, the root of

00:07:33.280 this discussion really lays at the fallenness of man. Specifically, how fallen is fallen man,

00:07:40.580 Right? Since Adam's sin and the fall of mankind, of all mankind in Genesis chapter 3,

00:07:48.620 are humans so morally corrupted that they cannot willfully choose anything that is truly good.

00:07:58.600 Again, which would include choosing to repent and place their faith in Jesus Christ.

00:08:04.000 Well, first we need to define good. What is good?

00:08:09.040 Now, can a fallen man outside of Christ do a righteous deed?

00:08:15.040 Can he stop looking at pornography?

00:08:16.880 Can he feed the poor?

00:08:19.280 Can he donate money to a local hospital in need?

00:08:22.340 Yes, of course he can do these things.

00:08:24.160 But are these righteous deeds, according to Scripture, good?

00:08:29.520 So again, the central question is not what makes an action righteous according to the law,

00:08:37.440 But what makes an action good according to God?

00:08:42.380 Well, right out of the gate, we have to deal with what Romans 3.12 says.

00:08:49.100 It says, in speaking to fallen man, quote,

00:08:52.780 There is no one who does good. There is not even one. End quote.

00:08:59.520 So that's just, let's just lay that there on the floor for a second.

00:09:04.280 R.C. Sproul offered an example in a video series called Chosen by God that I believe is actually really helpful.

00:09:12.620 And I'll link it for you at the bottom of this, or at the end of this episode.

00:09:17.960 And he says, and I'm paraphrasing, quote,

00:09:20.520 We recall the story of Joseph being sold into slavery by his brothers.

00:09:26.180 When he has this reunion with his family many years later, and they repent of that former sin,

00:09:32.800 what does Joseph say to them? He says, you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.

00:09:41.060 That's Genesis 50, 20. He continues by saying, ultimately, we see an example of God making a

00:09:47.620 choice in the matter. God has chosen at least to allow this tragedy to happen and befall Joseph.

00:09:54.660 His brothers also made a choice about what to do with Joseph. Now, while the intention of his

00:10:01.340 brother's choice was wicked. The intention of God's choice was altogether holy and good.

00:10:09.740 So ultimately, what we learn here and what we will see here in a few minutes is that a choice

00:10:16.420 is not simply deemed good by what we choose, but also by our intention in making that choice.

00:10:26.640 So an action that may be called righteous as it pertains to the law can only be called good

00:10:34.020 by examining the motivation behind that action.

00:10:38.360 So again, the question is, can fallen man outside of Christ do good or choose good?

00:10:46.820 Well, Paul tells us in Romans 14.23 that,

00:10:50.340 Now, this doesn't tell us what's good, but it does tell us that any action that doesn't come

00:11:03.560 from a place of faith in Christ is evil. It's sin. And that is that while fallen man can do

00:11:12.140 righteous deeds, think about the Pharisees, right? If they are not done to the glory of God through

00:11:19.240 faith in Jesus Christ, they are sinful. Okay, so did you catch that? I want you to catch this,

00:11:24.940 okay? In order for a choice or action to be truly good, it must not only be a righteous act,

00:11:32.320 but also be done from an intention to glorify God in Jesus Christ. That is key. Now,

00:11:40.120 if we look at the husband, for example, who doesn't believe in Christ but quits looking

00:11:45.660 that pornography. Is his motivation behind this decision to glorify God or to glorify self?

00:11:54.380 That is, does he quit porn because of the conviction of the Holy Spirit and the desire

00:12:00.120 to be obedient to his Lord who redeemed him? Or does he quit porn because he sees that quitting

00:12:08.080 or that by quitting, he'll cause less pain to his wife and experience less pain, sorrow,

00:12:14.560 and guilt as a result. In other words, is his action motivated by the magnification of God's

00:12:20.440 glory, or is it motivated by the preservation of his own comfort? Well, surely it's the latter.

00:12:26.440 It's definitely the latter. Any righteous act that's not motivated by faith in Christ

00:12:35.000 to the glory of God is sinful. It's self-righteousness if it's not done to the

00:12:41.980 glory of God, and it's not good. I'll put it another way. Is it possible for a fallen person,

00:12:50.680 someone who doesn't know Jesus, to perform a truly good deed without faith in Christ?

00:12:58.440 Again, the Bible tells us unequivocally, no, fallen man cannot do good deeds. Fallen man

00:13:08.180 cannot make choices from a place of faith in Christ to the glory of God. And we know this

00:13:14.500 because the Bible tells us about the state of the heart and the will of man. I'm going to read

00:13:21.180 several scriptures to you. Pay attention here, please. Jeremiah 17, 9, the heart is deceitful

00:13:28.780 above all things and desperately sick. Genesis 6, 5, the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was

00:13:36.780 great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil

00:13:43.820 continually. Now, you've got two passages that I just read about the heart. In Hebrew, and in

00:13:50.700 Hebrew culture, the heart is the seat of a person's will. So it's saying that the heart, the will of

00:13:57.900 man, is deceitful, and it's desperately sick. Okay, just so you have that context there. Isaiah 64 6

00:14:04.980 tells us, for all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our good deeds are like a

00:14:15.180 filthy garment. All of our good deeds are like a filthy garment. In the New Testament, Jesus says

00:14:21.340 in John 3.19, the light has come into the world and people loved the darkness rather than the

00:14:28.280 light because their works were evil. Second Corinthians 4.4 tells us, the God of this world

00:14:34.320 has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the

00:14:41.900 glory of Christ, who is the image of God. Romans 3.10, none is righteous. No, not one. No one

00:14:50.400 understands. No one seeks for God. Ephesians 2.1-3, and you were dead in the trespasses and

00:14:59.360 sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of

00:15:04.260 the power of the air, that's Satan, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience,

00:15:09.760 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body

00:15:16.180 and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. And the last one,

00:15:23.600 1 Corinthians 2.14, the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God,

00:15:31.480 for they are foolish to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually

00:15:39.540 discerned. Okay, the answer, people, is no. Fallen man cannot make truly good decisions 0.98

00:15:48.640 because he cannot even see what true goodness is.

00:15:53.980 And this is why Jesus says in John 3, 3,

00:15:56.220 truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again,

00:15:59.180 he cannot even see the kingdom of God.

00:16:02.920 Okay, you definitely can't get somewhere that you can't see.

00:16:05.300 He can't even see it until he's born again.

00:16:08.400 Ultimately, fallen man has a will,

00:16:12.420 but he can only choose greater or lesser forms of evil with that will.

00:16:18.640 He cannot do good or choose good in his current state

00:16:22.940 because he's blind to true goodness in his current state.

00:16:28.080 Okay, Dr. Bentner of Princeton Seminary in the early 1930s,

00:16:31.780 he explained this when he said this, and I quote,

00:16:34.760 Horses and cattle may see the same beautiful sunset

00:16:38.820 and other phenomenon in nature that men see,

00:16:41.880 but they are blind to all of the artistic beauty.

00:16:45.920 So in a sense, fallen man has a, quote, free will, but it's not really free because it's

00:17:14.360 limited only to sin. So Augustine once said, fallen man has free will, but he has not liberty.

00:17:22.680 Okay, so to put it another way, fallen man has a free natural will. He can do things with his body,

00:17:30.860 you know, without being forced or coerced, but he does not have a free moral will, meaning he cannot

00:17:37.400 do things that approve himself to God. Because the only way to do or to choose

00:17:44.120 anything truly good is to do that thing from a place of faith in Jesus Christ

00:17:50.900 alone. So ultimately, fallen man is stuck in a fallen paradigm. Okay, so I want you

00:17:58.020 to grasp that. Fallen man is stuck in a fallen paradigm. Now, if you can imagine

00:18:04.460 two giant circles side by side. The one on the left is the paradigm of fallen man, and the one

00:18:13.420 on the right is the paradigm of redeemed man. Okay, every expression of the will that fallen man does

00:18:20.480 is done within that fallen circle. And to say that just a little differently so you guys can

00:18:26.440 maybe grasp this, everything he does is done in sin because he cannot glorify God, because he will

00:18:34.500 not glorify God, because he hates God, because of the moral corruption of the fall. He is morally

00:18:42.440 unable and spiritually sick. That's how fallen he is. He's infected and enslaved to sin. He's

00:18:49.480 defiant toward God. He loves himself. He's blind to his need of repentance. He sees no value

00:18:56.320 or beauty in Christ. So if you want to call what he has free will, you can, but it's like calling

00:19:03.660 a prisoner free while they're locked in a dungeon. Like, sure, they can do push-ups and use the

00:19:10.160 toilet, but that's kind of a gross misuse of the word free. I think a better and more accurate term

00:19:16.160 is to say that fallen man has free agency in a fallen state, but he does not have free will.

00:19:24.080 And he does not have free will because he is not free to choose Christ.

00:19:31.860 Meaning that since the fall, and because of our moral and spiritual inability,

00:19:37.380 every human being is 100% dependent upon God for salvation.

00:19:42.700 I'm just going to say that one more time.

00:19:44.540 What's going on here is this.

00:19:46.400 Since the fall, and because of our moral inability and spiritual inability,

00:19:52.720 Every human being is 100% dependent upon God for their salvation.

00:19:59.520 Okay, so how does a fallen person who is in that paradigm, enslaved to sin,

00:20:05.840 a person who loves evil deeds, who is darkened in their conscience,

00:20:09.980 who has a hardened heart of stone, who is blinded to the light of Christ by Satan,

00:20:15.620 who is deaf to the truth, who is dead in their trespasses,

00:20:18.880 and who is unable to discern spiritual things?

00:20:21.720 How is this person able to come to a place of genuine repentance, the giving up of their

00:20:29.360 self-glorifying life, and casting all of their hope and trust on Jesus Christ?

00:20:34.260 How does that happen?

00:20:36.460 Well, I'll tell you what, it's not because they just had the free will to decide to do

00:20:41.660 so, okay?

00:20:42.740 It's not because some evangelists offered a highly persuasive presentation of the gospel

00:20:47.520 and they were finally intellectually convinced that Jesus's way of life was better than their

00:20:52.420 own. It's not because they were, you know, tired of their sinful lifestyle and they were fed up

00:20:57.420 with the guilt and the shame of their morality or immorality and they decided to make Jesus their

00:21:02.660 God. That's not what happened. Something miraculous happened. Something moved them, moved you

00:21:11.940 from the fallen paradigm of actions that are done in sin to the glory of self,

00:21:17.480 that's the circle on the left,

00:21:18.980 to the redeemed paradigm of actions that are done in Christ to the glory of God,

00:21:24.360 that's the circle on the right.

00:21:26.560 Okay, the Bible teaches us that we need something.

00:21:31.040 We're so fallen, and we're so blind, and we're so darkened, and we're so lost,

00:21:36.580 and we're so dead.

00:21:38.160 We need something to interject into our fallen paradigm.

00:21:41.940 and overcome the effects of our moral depravity and spiritual death.

00:21:47.200 That's what the Bible teaches.

00:21:48.620 And I think Ephesians 2, 4 through 5 says it great.

00:21:52.120 It says,

00:21:52.560 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he has loved us,

00:22:01.320 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.

00:22:07.500 By grace you have been saved.

00:22:09.320 End quote.

00:22:10.560 I also think that James 1.18 says it well.

00:22:14.620 It says,

00:22:15.820 In other words, in order to go from the fallen paradigm of only sinful choices in spiritual death

00:22:30.560 to the redeemed paradigm of enabled good choices in spiritual life,

00:22:35.300 we need to be spiritually resurrected.

00:22:38.040 That is that we need to be born again.

00:22:42.020 We need what the Lord had said to his chosen people in Ezekiel 36, 26.

00:22:49.360 He says, and I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you.

00:22:56.100 And I will remove the heart of stone from the flesh.

00:22:59.520 And I will give you a heart of flesh.

00:23:02.460 Essentially, because we cannot save ourselves, we're so blind, we're so fallen, we need Christ

00:23:10.800 to save us. Okay, basically, in the same way that Jesus resurrected Lazarus from the dead,

00:23:19.020 mind you, without his permission, we need Jesus to resurrect us from spiritual death.

00:23:25.980 And again, he does this without our permission.

00:23:28.900 This is a completely sovereign act.

00:23:32.920 It's not something that we participate in.

00:23:35.000 In fact, we have just as much involvement in our spiritual birth as we did with our physical birth, which is none.

00:23:44.940 And this is why Jesus says in John 3, 7 through 8,

00:23:48.020 Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again.

00:23:50.680 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear it sound, but you do not know where it comes from

00:23:57.260 or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. End quote. Jesus is saying,

00:24:05.000 basically, just like you can't control the wind or see where it's going or where it came from,

00:24:11.060 you don't know who the Spirit will resurrect or who he will pass over. He comes and goes where

00:24:18.280 he wishes, and humans have no way of controlling his life-giving work. Okay, Titus 3.5 says,

00:24:26.680 he saved us, comma, not because of the works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own

00:24:34.580 mercy. Okay, mercy requires inability on behalf of the receiving party. Okay, by the washing,

00:24:42.440 it continues on, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit. Okay, he does this,

00:24:50.920 the Holy Spirit comes and he does this not by violating our will, but by making us willing

00:24:57.640 through regeneration. This is essentially the doctrine of irresistible grace. It's the eye

00:25:03.840 in Calvinism's tulip. Okay, through regeneration, he gives us a new heart that allows us to see

00:25:11.340 and hear the truth. He gives us the gift of repentance and faith by which we are justified.

00:25:17.920 And he frees us from the bondage of sin to the giving of the Holy Spirit. And this is why Paul

00:25:23.500 says in Ephesians 2, 8, 8, 9, it says, for by grace, you have been saved through faith. And

00:25:31.200 this, the, this is that this is the grace and the faith, right? For by grace, you have been

00:25:37.020 saved through faith, and this is not of your own doing. It is the gift of God. The grace and the

00:25:43.860 faith is the gift of God. Jesus is the author and finisher of your faith, not a result of works so

00:25:49.500 that no one may boast. I'm going to read that one more time. For by grace you have been saved through

00:25:53.180 faith, and this, the grace and the faith, is not of your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result

00:26:01.280 of works so that no one may boast. So let me just kind of offer you a quick summary of what we've

00:26:07.920 learned, and then I'll close with a brief explanation of the state of your will as a

00:26:14.720 result of redemption, meaning the state of your will as a believer. So in a fallen state,

00:26:20.180 you have a will, but it's not free. And again, we're going with the definitions that I defined

00:26:27.400 earlier. You're able to make choices without regeneration by the Holy Spirit. You're unable

00:26:35.480 to make those choices to the glory of God through faith in Jesus Christ. It's this reason that

00:26:41.700 you're blind and deaf to the gospel. And this is why Jesus often said, he who has eyes to see,

00:26:46.680 let him see. And he who has ears to hear, let him hear, right? Therefore, the only way someone can

00:26:51.980 go from a place of such spiritual darkness to spiritual light is because God issues an effectual

00:26:58.360 call in the heart of his elect. Okay, he gives the sinner a new spiritual life, a new heart,

00:27:06.600 new eyes and ears to see their sin and enable them to repent and trust in Jesus Christ alone

00:27:13.700 for salvation. So what's really the conclusion of our discussion today, right? What's the

00:27:19.900 conclusion? What are we talking about? What's the conclusion regarding man's free will? If freedom,

00:27:26.980 okay, freedom, if freedom means that you are free to only choose evil, then you can say that you

00:27:34.540 have free will. However, again, I, along with Augustine, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Jonathan

00:27:41.240 Edwards, Spurgeon, B.B. Warfield, John MacArthur, Sproul, and many others argue that fallen man

00:27:48.940 does not have moral free will. That is, he cannot choose evil and good, and therefore he is not a

00:27:59.000 free moral agent. So let me just close with kind of a brief zoomed out explanation of what we've

00:28:08.120 been talking about that might just give you a little bit of an understanding of kind of the flow

00:28:13.460 of the grand narrative of redemption. So if we zoom out on a timeline, and we're looking at Adam

00:28:20.800 and Eve, and we're looking at the fall, and we're looking at Jesus coming, and we're looking at the

00:28:26.780 restoration of the new heavens, the new earth, and the glorification of the saints. So he's

00:28:36.120 looking at the whole timeline. If we look at the beginning with Adam and Eve, they both had

00:28:42.600 free moral will. That is, they had the ability to choose good and evil. After the fall of man,

00:28:52.300 Adam and Eve and all subsequent people were not able to not sin. Okay, that is, they lost their

00:29:00.880 moral free will and were stuck in that fallen paradigm. All they could do is sin. So they lost

00:29:08.900 their free moral will. Now, when a person is born again, that person returns back to a Garden of

00:29:17.600 Eden-like state, where we again have a free moral will to choose both good, to the glory of God and

00:29:25.900 faith of Jesus Christ, and evil. And the last part of the timeline is that when we're glorified in

00:29:32.680 heaven with Christ, we will only be able to choose good morally. So Adam and Eve could choose both

00:29:41.460 good and evil. Fallen man can only choose evil. Born again man can choose good and evil. And

00:29:48.980 glorified man can only choose good. This is actually, I think it's called the Augustinian

00:29:55.700 or Augustine Matrix. It's actually, you can see this in R.C. Sproul's book, Chosen by God. He

00:30:04.980 talks about this. It's on page 49, if you want to check that out. But it's a really wonderful

00:30:10.620 chart that shows the paradigm of the will over time and God's redemptive purposes.

00:30:18.580 Now, people, I know this is a lot, and this is a big discussion, as I mentioned at the

00:30:22.300 introduction of this show, but what should it do to your reverence for God and your appreciation

00:30:30.420 of the gospel? Well, it should magnify them both. Okay, when we realize that the only reason

00:30:37.800 we are spiritually alive in a saved state with a free moral will is because God sovereignly chose

00:30:47.280 us before the foundation of the world, according to Ephesians 1. He did not choose us based on

00:30:54.600 any conditions known to us other than his love for us. And what makes this so special

00:31:01.880 is the same reason it makes any wife feel special in marriage or any child feel special in adoption.

00:31:10.280 What makes it so special is that he chose you and he didn't choose someone else.

00:31:19.680 That is what makes it so special.

00:31:22.220 He passed over someone else and chose you because he loved you.

00:31:26.740 His love placed on you through election, saving you from your spiritual darkness and death.

00:31:36.900 understanding the state of your being prior to Christ

00:31:43.440 and not contributing any of your salvation to yourself

00:31:47.700 or to your own free will

00:31:51.440 that you were wise enough to choose God

00:31:55.420 because you weren't.

00:31:57.160 When you remove all that

00:31:58.740 and when you start to see that it's God who did it all,

00:32:04.320 I was totally unable

00:32:06.100 and actually loving my inability.

00:32:09.060 I was following the course of this world,

00:32:11.440 following the prince and the power of the air.

00:32:13.420 I was fallen and loving my sin

00:32:16.000 because I didn't like the light

00:32:18.120 because I love darkness and my works were evil.

00:32:22.380 When you realize that that was you,

00:32:24.200 even if you were five years old when you were saved,

00:32:27.840 when you realize what you've been saved from

00:32:30.920 and the magnitude of what you've been saved from,

00:32:33.700 You will appreciate your Savior even more.

00:32:37.980 And that's the purpose of this episode, to help you understand how lost you were

00:32:42.580 and how beautiful it is that you've been made alive and found in Jesus Christ.

00:32:50.240 So as always, guys, I'm going to leave you guys with a few resources

00:32:53.800 that will offer further understanding of the topic that we've been discussing today.

00:32:57.520 And you can find them on the post page for this episode just at relearn.org.

00:33:01.120 This is episode 131, and it's titled, Do People Have Free Will to Choose or Reject Christ?

00:33:09.200 So a couple things.

00:33:10.860 I'm going to recommend a book.

00:33:12.440 If you haven't read Chosen by God by R.C. Sproul, fantastic introduction.

00:33:16.980 It's not even really about the will.

00:33:18.880 It's more about the sovereignty of God.

00:33:20.880 However, it's a good layperson, meaning it's a good introduction.

00:33:27.380 There's not a lot of heavy theological language.

00:33:30.400 It's a great book, and it's not that long either.

00:33:33.120 So that's Chosen by God by R.C. Sproul.

00:33:34.700 He does a course on this that you can watch on Ligonier's website.

00:33:38.860 I'll link it.

00:33:39.360 It's called What is Free Will by R.C. Sproul.

00:33:41.380 It's like a five-video course you can watch for free.

00:33:45.900 Also, there's a book that's very heavy, a couple books I'm going to give you that are

00:33:50.200 very heavy.

00:33:51.340 The first one is The Bondage of the Will by Martin Luther.

00:33:54.620 The second is The Freedom of the Will by Jonathan Edwards.

00:33:59.040 And the third one is The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination by Dr. Bentner.

00:34:06.420 And again, I'll link all those.

00:34:08.120 If you read all of those books, I mean, wow.

00:34:11.540 One, those are some of the highest thinking books on earth.

00:34:14.200 But they are good to just sit on your nightstand and get a couple days or a couple pages a night

00:34:20.000 and just do some underlining, do some thinking, let it form your theology

00:34:24.740 and how you're viewing scripture

00:34:26.620 and how you're viewing the gospel.

00:34:29.760 So hopefully those resources are helpful.

00:34:32.160 If you guys have not left a review on the show,

00:34:34.320 please do so.

00:34:35.420 You don't need to write anything.

00:34:36.380 You can just tap the stars in the podcast app.

00:34:38.200 But if you do leave a review, I will read it.

00:34:40.120 I think we're actually right about to pass 6,000 reviews.

00:34:43.220 And those reviews really do help the exposure of our show.

00:34:47.760 You can also follow us on Instagram, Facebook,

00:34:50.720 as well as following me on Twitter.

00:34:53.500 I'm actually at Dale Partridge on Twitter, and we would love to have you on social media.

00:34:58.920 We're putting out regular content that'll be edifying for your walk with Christ.

00:35:03.420 On that note, thank you for joining me today.

00:35:05.300 My name is Dale Partridge, and I'll see you next week.

00:35:09.920 Thank you for listening to this episode of Real Christianity.

00:35:13.200 If you're a regular listener to this show, would you prayerfully consider making a donation

00:35:17.020 to support our ministry efforts?

00:35:18.920 Simply visit relearn.org forward slash donate.

00:35:21.900 Again, that's relearn.org forward slash donate.

00:35:25.940 And for those looking to explore the idea of joining or planting a church in your home,

00:35:29.780 you can download our free PDF ebook titled The Basics of Biblical House Church

00:35:33.920 by visiting relearn.org forward slash house.

00:35:37.200 Lastly, do you have a theological question you would like answered on the show?

00:35:41.040 Submit your question at relearn.org forward slash question.

00:35:45.000 Thanks for joining us on this episode of Real Christianity.

00:35:47.560 We will see you next Wednesday.

00:35:51.900 Thank you.

Dale Partridge - February 03, 2021

Real Christianity #131： Do People Have Free Will To Choose or Reject Christ？

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