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Originally Posted by byHismercy
And one of their positions is holding to the faith that we have no free will in coming to Christ but rather only those elect will come to faith in Him. byHismercy
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The Scripture is clear that man is unable to believe in Christ on his own fallen free-will.
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No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. (John 6:44)
And He was saying, "For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father." (John 6:65)
“Why do you not understand what I am saying? Itis because you cannot hear My word.“You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.“But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me. (John 8:43-45)
"But you do not believe because you are not of My sheep. (John 10:26)
But though He had performed so many [signs before them, yet they were not believing in Him. This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet which he spoke: “Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” For this reason they could not believe, for Isaiah said again, “He has blinded their eyes and He hardened their heart, so that they would not see with their eyes and perceive with their heart, and be converted and I heal them.” These things Isaiah said because he saw His glory, and he spoke of Him. (John 12:37-41)
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Many have misunderstood that we Reformed folks deny human free-will and its role in redemption. We believe from Scripture that while the human will after the Fall has been “enslaved” to Sin (so much so that the unregenerate heart is absolutely devoid of any salutary disposition), the faculty of the human “will” itself is not altogether extinguished.
The spiritual slavery that is the result of the Fall did not render the human heart “incapable of willing anything absolutely.” Rather, the Fall rendered the human heart “incapable of willing THAT WHICH is right and pleasing in God's eyes” as the Scripture declares (see Romans 8:7-8, cf. Eze. 36:25-27).
So, the fallen man still “freely makes choices” according to the inmost desires of his heart. This is volitional liberty that nobody denies. But we do affirm more. While we acknowledge the fact that we indeed make choices according to the inmost desires of our hearts (volitional liberty), we also affirm that the inmost desires of our hearts are predisposed only to Sin (moral & spiritual slavery) unless the heart is first regenerated by grace. Indeed, we freely chase after that which we love and treasure; but apart from grace our fallen hearts does not and will not love and treasure God above all. We have volitional “liberty” and yet, at the same time, with respect to our moral disposition, are “enslaved” to the Sin that we so love.
Thus, if we are talking about volitional liberty, we heartily affirm “free-will.” But if we are talking about spiritual/moral liberty, the Bible is clear that man had lost this freedom by Sin.
Watch this video from R. C. Srpoul on
"Why We Can’t Choose God?"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0C8AArEk3E