Human Nature: Inability or Free Will?

The two theological systems known as Calvinism and Arminianism disagree about many things. Their greatest agreement comes in their understanding of the human condition. In the Calvinist “TULIP”, T stands for Total Depravity. Both sides agree that sin impacts every aspect of life, and leaves human beings completely unable to contribute anything to their own salvation. The difference between the two approaches has to do with how God acts to remedy the human problem.

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Notes

In this series, we are introducing the basic differences between two theological systems known as Calvinism and Arminianism, generally following the five points of Calvinism defined by the word “TULIP”. The T stands for Total Depravity. This addresses the underlying question: what is the spiritual condition of human beings? 

Total depravity is the idea that Adam’s fall left all human beings completely unable to do a single thing to contribute to their own salvation. On our own strength, we cannot repent and believe, or live a life pleasing to God.  Total depravity doesn’t mean everyone is as evil as they can be, or that people are incapable of any kind of virtue apart from God. Yet without God’s action on our behalf, sin impacts every aspect of life and we cannot know God or please God. 

Both Calvinists and Arminians believe that fallen human beings require God’s grace throughout the salvation process, from beginning to end. The difference between the two approaches has to do with how God acts to remedy the human problem. 

How Bad Is It?

Both sides of the debate agree that fallen human nature is so sinful and corrupt that on our own, we cannot seek God, believe the gospel, or do anything that pleases God.

One Calvinist author writes, “A proper understanding of Calvinism is fully dependent on understanding Calvin’s view of man’s depravity. He taught that man, who once enjoyed perfect fellowship and communion with God, had his very nature changed through the fall into sin. This not only destroyed the communion between God and man, but also removed the ability of man to have communion with God. Man’s nature became so wholly corrupt as to leave him unable to choose against his nature. A fallen man is able to choose to do what he wants, but is unable to want God. Because man does not want God, he can never choose Him. Only God, in His Sovereign free will, can change man’s nature and make him capable of repentance.” 

But an Arminian source says something quite similar: “Humanity was created in the image of God, good and upright, but fell from its original sinless state through willful disobedience, leaving humanity in the state of total depravity, sinful, separated from God, and under the sentence of divine condemnation. Sin impacts every part of a person’s being and people now have a sinful nature with a natural inclination toward sin. Human beings are fundamentally corrupt at heart. As Scripture tells us, ‘The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick’ (Jer 17:9;). Indeed, human beings are spiritually dead in sins and are slaves to sin. The Apostle Paul even says, ‘I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh’ (Rom 7:18). Elsewhere he testifies, ‘as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one” ’ (Rom 3:10-12). In their natural state, human beings are hostile toward God and cannot submit to his Law nor please him. Thus, human beings are not able to think, will, nor do anything good in and of themselves. We are unable to do anything that merits favor from God and we cannot do anything to save ourselves from the judgment and condemnation of God that we deserve for our sin. We cannot even believe the gospel on our own. If anyone is to be saved, God must take the initiative.”

In 1610, Arminius’ followers wrote the Five Articles of Remonstrance to contrast their understanding of salvation with Calvinism. Article Three affirms the total depravity of man, that man is unable to do the will of God, and cannot save himself. Arminius himself stated: "In this [fallen] state, the free will of man towards the true good is not only wounded, infirm, bent, and weakened; but it is also imprisoned, destroyed, and lost. And its powers are not only debilitated and useless unless they be assisted by grace, but it has no powers whatever except such as are excited by Divine grace."

• (All Bible references are from NLT).
• Gen 6:5 – God saw that everything humans thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil.
• Gen 8:21 – everything they think or imagine is bent toward evil from childhood.
• Rom 3:23 - for everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.
• Rom 6:23 - for the wages of sin is death.
• Eph 2:1-3 - Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil - the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else.
• Rom 6:17-20 - once you were slaves to sin.
• Eph 4:17-19 - the Gentiles’ minds are full of darkness; they wander far from the life God gives because they have closed their minds and hardened their hearts against him. They have no sense of shame. They live for lustful pleasure and eagerly practice every kind of impurity. 
• Rom 8:7-8 - the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will. That’s why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God.
• John 6:44 - For no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them to me.

Little, then, separates the two camps on the plight of humanity. The real difference was hinted at in the previous quotes. Let’s explore the two sides.

Human Beings Can Pursue God Because God Assists the Human Will

Arminians believe that God graciously enables every sinner to repent and believe - if he or she chooses - but does not interfere with human freedom.

While Calvinists emphasize the sovereignty of God, Armininians emphasize the freedom of the human will. They believe that God has given humans free will in all areas. For a will to be truly free, they argue, there must be a real alternative to whatever the person will actually choose. A person who is presented with only one option does not truly have free will. While Calvin taught that man is free to choose, but only within the bounds of his nature, Arminius believed that this did not constitute true free will. For free will to exist, a person must be able to choose or reject God or his or her own accord.

One writer explains, “Arminius taught that man’s fall into sin has not completely removed his ability to make a choice for or against God. Rather, man’s will is in a neutral state and is not able to choose only evil. The will is free to make a choice for either good or evil. In salvation, then, the Spirit draws people sufficiently and enlightens them enough that they can, of their own free will, choose salvation. However, He does not draw or enlighten them enough to force them into a decision.” 

As seriously as human nature was affected by the fall, Arminians do not believe that human beings are left in a state of total spiritual helplessness. God provides a kind of grace to all humanity which enables a sinner to choose to repent and believe - if he or she chooses. This kind of grace is called prevenient grace (we will talk more about it in episode five). Each sinner has the ability to either cooperate with God’s Spirit and be regenerated, or to resist God’s grace and perish. 

As one writer says, “Sinners who hear the gospel have the free will to accept or reject God’s offer of saving grace so that nobody is excluded by God from the possibility of salvation except those who freely exclude themselves. But true, historical, classical Arminianism includes the belief that this free will [to repent and believe unto salvation] is itself a gift of God through prevenient grace."

Arminians believe the faith comes before regeneration. While lost sinners need the Spirit’s assistance, they do not have to be made spiritually alive first, by the Spirit, before they can believe. Once they do believe, then they are made spiritually alive.

• Matt 23:37 – Jesus longs to gather the people to him but they would not let him.
• Luke 15:11-32 – The prodigal son came to the realization of his depravity by himself.
• John 3:16 – “everyone who believes in him” would seem to indicate we choose to believe in Jesus.
• John 5:40 – You refuse to come to me to receive eternal life.
• John 7:17 – Anyone who wants to do God’s will will know the truth.
• Acts 2:38 – After their choice to repent, turn to God, and be baptized they would receive the Holy Spirit.
• Acts 16:31 – Paul and Silas told the jailer that if he were to believe in Jesus, he would be saved, indicating that he was given the choice of repentance.
• Rom 10:9 – A free choice is indicated when we are told that if we believe in Jesus and declare it, we will be saved.

Human Beings Can Pursue God Only If God Changes Their Very Nature

Calvinists believe that human nature is so corrupt that the only way God can bring anyone to believe the gospel is to completely change his or her very nature. If humans are spiritually dead, they must first be made alive before they can respond to God.

As one writer says, “Man’s will is in complete bondage to his nature. Man is free to choose according to the way his nature dictates, but his nature is so wholly corrupt that he could never choose for good. He is free to choose, but he cannot contradict his nature. With a sinful nature it is impossible to take an action that would be anything other than sinful and rebellious. It is impossible to choose a righteous or pleasing work capable of pleasing a holy God. Similarly God is able to choose according to His free will, but cannot contradict his nature, which is perfect. Therefore God could never take an action that was anything but perfect and holy.”

There is a misconception that Calvinists do not believe in human free will, but this is not true. Calvinism teaches that free will exists, but is bound by a man’s nature. Man is a slave not to God, but to his own nature. Therefore human beings will not nor cannot choose good over evil in the spiritual realm. 

Here’s an illustration: if you put a pile of grass and a slab of red meat in front of a lion, which will the lion choose to eat? The lion is free to choose either food. There is nothing placed between it and either of the two options. There is no external coercion. But the lion will never choose to eat the grass, because that would be contrary to its nature as a carnivore. Does the lion have free will? Yes. Can the lion make either of two choices? Theoretically, it can. But in reality it simply won’t.

Another writer concludes, “It takes much more than the Spirit’s assistance to bring a sinner to Christ. It takes regeneration, by which the Spirit makes the sinner alive and gives him a new nature. Faith is not something man contributes to salvation but is itself a part of God’s gift of salvation.”

In light of this, it makes sense to Calvinists that because human beings are spiritually dead, then regeneration must come before faith. No one can exercise faith unless they have first been “born of the Spirit” (John 3:6-8).

• Eph 2:5-6 - Even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) For he raised us from the dead along with Christ.
• Isaiah 64:6-7 – There is no one who calls on God’s name or pleads for God’s mercy.
• John 3:19 – People loved darkness rather than light because their actions are evil.
• Rom 3:10-18 – No one is righteous. No one seeks after God. They have all turned away.
• 2 Tim 2:25,26 – We have been taken captive by the devil to do whatever he wants. It takes God to change our hearts so that we come to our senses and can escape.

The Takeaway

Human depravity is real. People are lost apart from God’s grace. Everyone is corrupted by sin and will not pursue God on their own, apart from God’s provision.

How God provides for human depravity is seen in two ways. For Calvinists, God acts to make a spiritually dead sinner alive so that that person has the capacity to exercise faith in the gospel. For Arminians, God gives prevenient grace to every human being to free the human will and provide the ability to respond to the influence of the Spirit. 

Both groups agree that lost people, far from God, need to hear the gospel. No one can be forgiven of their sins or made eternally alive without hearing about Jesus and what he has done.