MAN HAS A FREE WILL, BUT NOT UNTO SALVATION

[Eddie Ramos]

When it comes to the topic of election and predestination, many who hold to the free will doctrine have made the very similar statement that God did not create us as robots, rather he created us with a free will to choose or to reject Him. Then of course, they look to Adam and Eve as their primary example.

DID ADAM AND EVE HAVE FREE WILL?
Absolutely they did. Adam and Eve were created in the image of God, and like God, as well as everything God had originally created, they were created “good”. Adam and Eve were living beings, living in body, soul and spirit, and they had fellowship with God because they had not yet fallen into sin. Thus, as fully living beings Adam and Eve were able to make physical choices of right and wrong in accordance with, or against, the law of God. Obedience resulted in continual fellowship with their creator with no negative effects on themselves, but disobedience, or the breaking of God’s law, would adversely affect their condition as living beings and their fellowship with God.

Genesis 2:16-17
And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

Adam and Eve knew that there was a consequence for disobedience the very day they, of their own free will, made the decision to disobey God’s commandment. Well, as we know, Eve did indeed make the choice to disobey God’s command as a result of being deceived by the serpent. Eve, in her perfect physical and spiritual condition, chose to commit sin. And as a result, Adam also became sin by eating.

WHAT HAPPENED WHEN ADAM AND EVE SINNED?
So, this seems to be where many have gone astray insofar as understanding exactly just what happened “the day” Adam and Eve sinned. As we recall, God told them very specifically, “for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die”, yet we didn’t read about them dropping dead that same day, as a matter of fact, they lived for years after they were ejected from the garden. At this point we have to answer the question, what happened the day they disobeyed God? How did they die?

Well, we know they didn’t die physically because they lived many years thereafter. But some may say they began the dying process. Well, the punishment of physical death was declared by God after they had sinned, but another death is mentioned in the Bible that came as a result of sin, it’s the death of the soul.

Ezekiel 18:4
Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.

Since Adam and Eve did not physically die the day they disobeyed God, we know that they died spiritually, that is, their soul died.

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?
At this point, we have to realize the spiritual condition of mankind has drastically changed. Before the curse of sin, Adam and Eve (mankind) had the ability to physically choose to obey God’s commandments and remain in a right relationship with God, or they could choose to disobey and lose that relationship altogether. They chose to lose that relationship through their sin. BUT NOW something had changed, Adam and Eve (mankind) was spiritually dead (dead in their soul), so, would a free will act of physical obedience to any commandment of God restore a right standing with God? Would it bring salvation? The answer is absolutely NOT.

With a perfectly created being came the privilege of freely choosing to follow God or not to follow him. But with this freedom, came consequences, in other words, Adam and Eve had the ability to die in soul and body. But after the fall, death came to all men, for all have sinned, this includes men, women, children and babies alike, "for all have sinned".

It therefore must be understood that Adam and Eve had the free will to REMAIN in a right standing relationship with God, they never possessed the free will to REESTABLISH that relationship because, as I stated earlier, while mankind can still physically and willingly choose to follow God’s commandments, God’s law has decreed that no amount of obedience to God’s law, or good works by any individual, can restore them to a right relationship with God.

Titus 3:5
Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;

WE ALL DIED IN OUR SOUL
So because mankind all spiritually died as a result of sin, they were unable to spiritually hear the gospel call (which is spiritual) and therefore unable to respond to it. Of course many people who hold to the free will doctrine assume that all mankind needs is to be able to physically hear and physically respond to the gospel call and they are saved, meaning, they become born again in their soul. But the Bible teaches us that salvation comes, not by physical hearing, but by spiritual hearing.

John 8:43 & 47
Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.
He that is of God heareth God's words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God.

Romans 10:17
So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Mark 4:9 (KJV 1900)
9 And he said unto them, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

So, after the fall, man's free will to obey or disobey God's commandments, had nothing to do with obtaining salvation which was completely spiritual. This is why it was God who had to do all the work of salvation, because it was impossible for man to bring his dead soul back to life by any work of righteousness he did (like believing).

Any rebuttals? If so, please respond with the scriptures rather than opinions. Thanks.