I have heard Calvinists say man has limited freewill. Could someone show me what limited freewill looks like.
Sure, and to that end I will
First post a few Scriptures
demonstrating limits...
Freedom Restrained
Job 14:4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? No one!
Psalm 22:29 All the prosperous of the earth Shall eat and worship; All those who go down to the dust Shall bow before Him,
Even he who cannot keep himself alive.
Proverbs 20:9 Who can say, “I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin”?
Jer 13:23
Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? Then may you also do good who are accustomed to do evil.
Matt 7:18 “
A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.
Matt 19:25 When His disciples heard it, they were greatly astonished, saying,
“Who then can be saved?” 26 But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
John 1:12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: 13
who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
John 6:44 “
No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him;
John 6:65 And He said, “
Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father.”
John 8:34 Jesus answered them, “Most assuredly, I say to you,
whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.
John 8:44 “
You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do.
Romans 6:20 For when you were
slaves of sin
Romans 8:7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.
1 Cor 2:14
But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned
2 Tim 2:25 in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, 26 and that they may come to their senses and
escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.
Romans 9:19 You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault?
For who can resist his will?” 20
But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?”
Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as
he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5
he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ,
according to the purpose of his will,..............11 In him we have obtained an inheritance,
having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will,"
Second I will quote a technical and basic definition of
my position from a philosophical encyclopedia, because there is no way to avoid philosophy in any depth of discussion concerning the controversial subject of
free will.
"
Compatibilism offers a solution to
the free will problem, which concerns a disputed incompatibility between free will and determinism.
Compatibilism is the thesis that free will is compatible with determinism. Because free will is typically taken to be a necessary condition of moral responsibility, compatibilism is sometimes expressed as a thesis about the compatibility between moral responsibility and determinism."
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Third it will be helpful to make an important distinction, I recognize no less (angels and man, fallen and non) than two distinct chains of
causality. God is the uncaused direct
first cause of everything in existence. Select portions of His creation were created, especially humans made in His image, with a will and ability to be secondary chains of causality, such that humans could be given commands and actually choose to obey or not obey (subjects of Theocracy). However, the first humans in disobeying, brought curse (original sin) to the choices of everyone after them. As secondary chains of cause, originating from the first Causer, there is of course a link (as image bearers), however the freedom given to fallen secondary agents of causality, shifts the responsibility of causality to secondary causers.
Because He works all things according to the council of His will, there is a sense in which everything is pre-determined, if in no other sense than permanently settled in the immutable omniscience of God. Does this make God the
direct cause of everything? NO, of course not. It does not follow that secondary chains of causality necessarily (by necessity) be caused by the first Causer. God is not pulling strings like a puppet master, He does not force, but has EVERY right to impose Himself when and where He so desires. I subscribe to what is technically called "the two wills of God theory", but it would be better termed "two aspects or attributes of one will". I recognize, within His
one will a permissive/prescriptive
aspect, and a sovereign/decree
aspect, what should be (and allows) and what shall be. So God can accomplish His will either directly, or indirectly through secondary causal agents.
Causality alone is not the sole contributor of our choices, by and large I would say most of our choices spring from desires which are bound by our nature. The complicated aspect about desires though is, for the Christian, there is the Spirit and the flesh, with contrary desires at constant war with one another.
Further, there is a difference between making a choice in the
libertarian sense and a free but limited sense. Choices cannot be free from many variables including desires (other general variables: time, gravity, location, economies, biology). Most importantly choices are limited by nature. While fallen man can and does make choices, his freedom is bound (slave) to a completely sinful nature (
Rom 6:20). Christians and non-Christians do not have the same freedoms. The Christian set free from the bondage of sin has a choice not to do what he knows is sin, he can fight the good fight of faith, he can put on the whole armor of God, whereas the non-Christian,
cannot please God (
Rom 8:8), as we read in the Word, whatever is not of faith [in Christ] is sin (.
Rom 14:23). Apart from Christ, all good deeds are as filthy rags (
Isa 64:6) before a righteous and Holy God.
