
31/07/2025
Reformed Covenant Theology
The Bo***ge of the Will – A Modern English Abridgement
Argument 8: A whole fistful of arguments.
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Romans 5:12 NASB
[12] Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned—
1 Corinthians 15:22 NASB
[22] For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.
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The concept of free will—that human beings have the inherent ability to choose good or evil without being determined by their nature—is inconsistent with the biblical teaching about the condition of humanity after the Fall. The Scriptures teach that:
“We are all under God’s condemnation because of Adam’s sinful disobedience (Rom 5:12; 1 Cor 15:22). We all come under this condemnation at our birth, including those who have ‘free will’—if any such people exist! How then can ‘free will’ help us—except to sin and earn condemnation?”
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Argument:
• The will is not morally neutral but is bound to sin (cf. John 8:34).
• What people call “free will” is in fact a will that is enslaved to sinful desires.
Thus, “free will” only serves to deepen condemnation, not to enable righteousness.
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*Romans 5:12 (ESV)
“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.”
• The “one man” is Adam. Through his sin, death (both physical and spiritual) entered the world.
• All people are counted guilty in Adam (federal headship), not merely by imitation but by imputation.
• This verse establishes original sin: we are born condemned—not neutral.
• John Murray, The Epistle to the Romans: “The sin of Adam is not to be understood merely as the first sin but as a sin that constituted all in guilt.”
*1 Corinthians 15:22 (ESV)
“For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.”
• “In Adam all die”: our union with Adam brings death.
• “In Christ shall all be made alive”: only those united to Christ are given spiritual life.
• Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, Vol. 3: “There is no autonomous realm of human freedom that stands apart from the fall. The will, after the fall, is free only to sin.”
*We reject the doctrine of free will insofar as it teaches that the human will is morally neutral and that God passively waits for our consent in salvation. According to Scripture, the will of fallen man is in bo***ge to sin, and it is God who sovereignly initiates and accomplishes salvation by regenerating the sinner’s heart.”
*Moral Inability: We are not only unwilling but unable to choose God apart from grace (Rom 8:7–8; Eph 2:1–3).
• The so-called “free will” does not liberate; it condemns. It allows man to act according to his nature—and that nature is corrupt.
• As Martin Luther wrote in The Bo***ge of the Will: “Free will, without God’s grace, is not free at all, but is the permanent prisoner and bondslave of evil.”
•Jonathan Edwards, Freedom of the Will: argues that true freedom is acting according to one’s nature, but fallen man’s nature is bound to sin.
• R.C. Sproul, Chosen by God: “Free will does not mean that man can choose righteousness on his own.”
Soli Deo Gloria