“Freewill” theology (as popularly understood) holds that whatever God commands man to do, man has the natural ability to do it. Otherwise, the act of God commanding us to do things would make no sense.
In short, as the thinking goes, whenever God commands man to do something, freewill—the natural ability to follow God’s commands—is necessarily implied.
The problem with this view is that it is contrary to Scripture.
Scripture says, “The law was added so that the trespass might increase.” (Romans 5:20a) (NIV)
Note that it does not say, “The law was added so that either the trespass or righteousness might increase.” And so the law was given to show our inability to follow God’s commands (not simply externally, but internally), not our ability.
Indeed,
“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)
“Can” is a word for ability. And so the mind set on the flesh—or the unregenerate man—has no ability to keep God’s law. Only those transformed by the Holy Spirit are granted ability (albeit imperfectly in this life) to follow God’s commands. As the next verse says:
“You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.” (Romans 8:9)
[...] Sovereignty of God: Command and Ability – Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 by Steve Halbrook of Sovereign Foundations: Contending for Biblical [...]
Very nice work on these verses! I think the ability to extrapolate what is “necessarily implied often makes the difference between a misunderstanding or proper interpretation of scripture.
Fred,
Indeed, I agree wholeheartedly. And thank God for the analogy of Scripture, which aids us in ruling out non-necessary inferences.
Understanding what is necessarily implied makes all the difference in refuting baptismal regenerationists–not a single text they can muster necessarily implies that water baptism saves. On the other hand, there are plenty of texts that necessarily imply that one is saved through faith alone.
Steve