Bondage of the will

 

Bondage of the will

 

Bondage of the Will: A Pastoral Reflection

When we speak of salvation, we often hear phrases like "saved by grace alone" or "saved by faith alone." These expressions are familiar, but they can sometimes lead to confusion. In truth, the Scriptures tell us we are saved by grace through faith in Lord Jesus Christ. This is not merely a formula—it is the divine pathway to life.

Grace is God's gift—His unmerited favor toward us. But faith is our response to that gift. Without both, the relationship remains incomplete. Like a hand reaching down and a hand reaching up, grace and faith must meet. God initiates; we respond.

Yet many today are taught that people have no free will to respond. That unless God irresistibly calls them, they cannot believe. But this view can distort the beauty of God's invitation. Scripture portrays God as one who longs for all to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). He stands at the door and knocks (Revelation 3:20), but the handle is on our side.

Some argue that since we are "dead in sin," we cannot respond unless first made alive. But death in Scripture often refers not to incapacity, but to separation. Like the prodigal son who was "dead" and then "alive again" (Luke 15:24), we are not lifeless corpses but people estranged, needing reconciliation.

To say we are robots or puppets in the salvation process removes the very heart of love. Love must be freely given and freely received. The relationship God desires with us is not coerced—it is entered by faith, born of trust and surrender.

Sadly, doctrines that diminish our responsibility can also weaken our resolve. If everything is predetermined, why pray? Why repent? Why seek holiness? But Scripture teaches the opposite: "Strive to enter that rest" (Hebrews 4:11). "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling" (Philippians 2:12). Not because we earn salvation, but because we walk with the One who gave it.

Faith is not a passive belief—it is active, living, and fruitful. True faith leads to repentance. It opens our eyes, softens our hearts, and moves our feet. It is not a work, but it works. It is not effort, but it expresses itself in love.

This is the harmony of grace and faith. Grace opens the door; faith walks through it. Grace provides the gift; faith receives it. Salvation is not a matter of intellectual assent or theological labels—it is a living relationship with the risen Christ.

So we say boldly: We are saved by grace through faith in Lord Jesus Christ. Not grace alone, not faith alone—but both, working together, in the power of the Holy Spirit, to the glory of God.

This is not philosophy. This is the Gospel. This is the way to life.

Come. Believe. Be transformed. 

R.C. Sproul once recounted an interaction with a man following a teaching session on sola gratia—grace alone. The exchange reveals not only the theological rigidity Sproul held, but also how a persistent line of questioning can frame a person’s faith in a way that misrepresents their actual belief.

“I had a discussion with some folks in Grand Rapids, Michigan, recently. I was speaking on sola gratia [grace alone], and one fellow was upset.
He said, ‘Are you trying to tell me that in the final analysis it's God who either does or doesn't sovereignly regenerate a heart?’
And I said, ‘Yes,’ and he was very upset about that. I said, ‘Let me ask you this: are you a Christian?’
He said, ‘Yes.’
I said, ‘Do you have friends who aren't Christians?’
He said, ‘Well, of course.’
I said, ‘Why are you a Christian and your friends aren't? Is it because you're more righteous than they are?’
He wasn't stupid. He wasn't going to say, ‘Of course it's because I'm more righteous. I did the right thing and my friend didn't.’ He knew where I was going with that question.
And he said, ‘Oh, no, no, no.’
I said, ‘Tell me why. Is it because you're smarter than your friend?’
And he said, ‘No.’
But he would not agree that the final, decisive issue was the grace of God. He wouldn't come to that. And after we discussed this for fifteen minutes, he said, ‘OK! I'll say it. I'm a Christian because I did the right thing, I made the right response, and my friend didn't.’”

After fifteen minutes of what seems like determined questioning, Sproul finally gets the man to say something that he can label as “self-righteous.” Yet nothing in the man’s words suggests he believed he earned salvation or took credit for his own redemption. He merely acknowledged that he responded to God’s call—something the Bible repeatedly invites us to do.

Sproul’s conclusion—that this amounts to a “Roman” view of works—is a profound mischaracterization. In Scripture, responding to God's grace is not boasting; it is obedience. To say, “I made the right response,” is no more self-glorifying than Noah obeying God and building the ark, or Peter stepping out of the boat at Jesus’ command. The response is not the boast—it is the fruit of faith and conviction of truth.

The bondage of the will is a key doctrine of those who oppose the many Scriptures that inform us of our need to seek God and search for Him with all our heart. This is because, within their muddled mind, they cannot reconcile the Scripture that says we are captive to do the Devil’s will and the many verses that exhort us to make a choice between life and death by seeking God and searching for Him. When pushed, Calvinists admit we have freewill, but they will then say that we have no freewill to choose God. The Calvinist Robert Charles Sproul had an encounter with a person after expounding his belief that people do not possess freewill. This is what he reports happened:

I had a discussion with some folks in Grand Rapids, Michigan, recently. I was speaking on sola gratia [grace alone], and one fellow was upset.

He said, "Are you trying to tell me that in the final analysis it's God who either does or doesn't sovereignly regenerate a heart?"

And I said, "Yes," and he was very upset about that. I said, "Let me ask you this: are you a Christian?"

He said, "Yes."

I said, "Do you have friends who aren't Christians?"

He said, "Well, of course."

I said, "Why are you a Christian and your friends aren't? Is it because you're more righteous than they are?" He wasn't stupid. He wasn't going to say, "Of course it's because I'm more righteous. I did the right thing and my friend didn't." He knew where I was going with that question.

And he said, "Oh, no, no, no."

I said, "Tell me why. Is it because you're smarter than your friend?"

And he said, "No."

But he would not agree that the final, decisive issue was the grace of God. He wouldn't come to that. And after we discussed this for fifteen minutes, he said, "OK! I'll say it. I'm a Christian because I did the right thing, I made the right response, and my friend didn't."

What was this person trusting in for his salvation? Not in his works in general, but in the one work that he performed. And he was a Protestant, an evangelical. But his view of salvation was no different from the Roman view.[i]

While Sproul claims that the person, a born again Christian, does not believe God regenerates hearts, he is probably twisting the truth. This is because no born again Christian believes his or her heart is regenerated without God. Every person who is born again knows that God has done something within them; this is how they know they are born again. What Sproul is attempting to do is say that this born again Christian thinks he is born again, but he is really going to Hell. This is because he does not believe in the false doctrine of unconditional election that R. C. Sproul spouts off about, which is nobody chooses to seek God, instead, everybody was chosen either to go to everlasting torment or everlasting life before they were born (we are all robots).

Sproul is dishonest in what he says. Sproul, a vocal advocate of TULIP doctrines, also believes that our hearts are deceitful and, from this, we can assume that telling a few lies here and there does not really matter. Whereas if a person is truly born of God, telling lies cease. The reason this incident concerning Sproul is included here is to point out how the deceivers themselves go on to deceive and be deceived, and because of the lessons that the account of this incident provides.

If Sproul was approached, the truth is more likely that the born again Christian questioned his proposition concerning unconditional election and why he advocates God does not desire all men to be saved. [ii]As the born again Christian said, “I made the right response.” Robert Charles Sproul does not like that idea. He wants people to believe that no response is necessary.

The Bible teaches us to strive diligently to enter God’s rest. Now according to Sproul and his ilk, such a Scripture as this does not exist. Already, we have seen many verses of Scripture that teach us to seek God with all our heart in order that we might feel after Him and find Him. Sproul reveals that he attempted to embarrass a man into admitting that he was more righteous than another man. When the man said that he decided to seek God, Sproul points the finger of the accuser of the brethren and says, “See that person thinks he is better than his friends.”

Then Sproul says that the person is trusting in his works for salvation. This is what Sproul does not understand, we who have sought our Lord God out and found him, trust in Jesus for our salvation, not ourselves. This is because we understand that we cannot save ourselves and this is the reason why we sought God in the first place. We have sought the Lord God out and put our trust in Him; this is not the Roman view of works. The Roman Catholic view of works is salvation is only given to those who do good to achieve merit and not to those who do evil—unless the evil pay sufficient into the indulgences box for removal of sin. There is a vast difference.

Now let us have a look at Robert Charles Sproul’s position.  We are not to seek God in order to be saved, if we do, this means we are self-righteous. Instead, we are to believe that what is written in the Bible is the literal word of God, except for those Scriptures that contradict the Calvinist view on the bondage of the will. According to the modified Calvinist view, we have freewill to make choices but do not possess freewill to choose salvation. This only comes from God. Therefore, we need to rely upon the grace of God for salvation.  So how are we saved? We are saved through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ; Who paid the price for sin.

Now if Sproul’s position is taken to its logical conclusion, that we rely on the grace of God through the death of Jesus Christ as the price for sin, everybody is saved, because the Bible states that Jesus Christ came to save the world. Here are some Scriptures that tell us that this is so:

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. (John 3:17)

In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (1 John 4:9-10)

As we can see, there is nothing about making a decision. God sent the Son into the world to save it, so that we might live through Him because He paid the price for sins.  We need only acknowledge that we are all saved by the grace of God. We do not have to seek God, or make a decision to accept this salvation, because, according to Sproul and his ilk, to do so is an act of self-righteousness.  We can assume that we are all saved then, and there is no need to worry about anything. However, Sproul will say, “Wait a minute!”

According to Robert Charles Sproul, only the elect are saved. Who are the elect? They were the ones who were chosen before the foundation of the world to be saved. This is by the grace of God. And we end up with the doctrine of double predestination; unconditional election, limited atonement and the other falsehoods.

Let us have a look at this issue about bondage of the will to see if there is something in this, and possibly, unravel where the Calvinists get their misinformation from (apart from the Devil).

The Scripture that states that we are entrapped by the Devil to do his will is the pretext for this idea of bondage of the will.

Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work. So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,  heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.  For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.  Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith.  But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men.

You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness,  my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra—which persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me. Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. (2 Timothy 2:20-3:13 ESV)  

Now that we have this text of Scripture within context, we notice a number of statements that suggest freewill. One even suggests a work of righteousness: “...if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy….” If we were to take this verse out of context, we could build a doctrine of salvation by works in similar manner to the Calvinists who build false doctrines such as the bondage of the will prevents people from choosing or rejecting salvation.

Why would anyone have to flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness and call on the Lord, if they are part of the elect? The only reason that could be possible is that people have freewill to choose between fleeing one thing and pursuing another. Calling upon the Lord is not something everybody does, only those who desire to know God. The Calvinists would say that these people have been regenerated already as part of the elect, and irresistible grace enabled them to call upon the Lord, flee sin and pursue righteousness.

Why does the Apostle say that God may perhaps grant people repentance that they might come to the knowledge of the truth, if they already belong to the elect? There is no perhaps involved, if these people have already been regenerated and saved. They have no need to repent.

The Calvinists have a treacherous teaching. One that has the form of godliness but denies the power of God. They do not believe in the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Consequently, they are always learning but never arriving at the knowledge of the truth. They refuse to come to Jesus. Rather, they prefer to say that the Bible is the living Word of God. While the Apostle says that “all who desire to live a godly life will be persecuted”, note how he says that “imposters go from bad to worse”. Now if we are trapped by the Devil to do his will and possess no freewill of our own, having been born in total depravity, how can we go from bad to worse. The Calvinist will probably say that “bad is equivalent to total depravity in this life; worse is eternal torment”. However, we know that is not what the Apostle means. The Apostle is talking about people in this life.

When we are presented with the idea that God has given us freewill to choose between right and wrong and make choices ourselves regarding our destiny in this life, this seems right. However, the Calvinist then points to how everybody falls short of the glory of God by violating one of the Ten Commandments and claims that this is because everyone is held captive by the Devil to do his will rather than God’s will. When a person is presented with this logic, at first it seems right.  This is why those who proclaim the doctrines of TULIP think they are right.

When the truth is admitted, this is what happens: we have the capacity to reason, and once we have decided to seek God and have received the Word of God into our hearts, we are born from above, or as many say, “born again”. Our tendencies are still very much inclined towards the flesh in many instances. This is because our old nature still has sway in our lives. Because of this, Calvinists are always talking about the struggle over sin. Many other Evangelicals and Pentecostals do as well, because they buy into the lie of the Devil.

One day I was in a church and the pastor had rambled on for thirty or forty minutes as he was inclined to do. He was hired by the church because the office bearers felt that he was a good fit, not too strong or forthright and would do what they wanted. (Hirelings are a pathetic lot.) Anyhow, there was a girl sitting next to me who was Hindu. I spoke to her and asked her if she believed in God. She did. But she was not sure about Jesus. It was not until I was able to reframe the question to state that if she believed God created the world and could do anything; did she think He could raise the dead? She answered, “Yes.” So I showed her the verses of Scripture in Romans chapter ten about how that if we believed God could raise the dead, we have right standing before Him; and if we confess Jesus as Lord, we are saved. To cut the story short: after praying and asking Jesus to come into her life, I suggested to her, that if she believed Jesus rose from the dead, she needed to tell other people—so she did. This girl had just received the seed of the sower, the word that would now work within her heart to draw her closer to God.

That girl could have gone to that church as some of her friends had done before her and rejected the gospel based on what she saw and heard. Instead, because I was beside her that day, I was able to present the truth of God in a way that enabled her to consider the relevance of Jesus being raised from the dead. Now all she did was open her mind to the truth of what I presented to her based on logic and the power of human reason. It was not until she prayed and asked Jesus to come into her life and forgive her of her sins that she received a touch from the Lord. Something entered her heart. From Titus we know that this is the beginning of the washing and renewal of the Holy Spirit, or from a study of Abraham, we can see that she has responded to the call of the Lord, or as Isaiah asked, “How can anyone believe if a messenger is not sent to share the good news?”  This Hindu woman acknowledged Jesus that day, and renounced Hinduism. At the time, she had not entered the rest of God, so she still had (and probably still has) a battle ahead of her.

This is where Calvinists (not the hypocritical ones who are agents of the Devil) get confused, because they do not understand what it really means to be saved. They think they are saved regardless of how much sin they continue in and regardless of their disobedience and unbelief, as long as they have been baptized or made a profession of belief. However like us all, they are only being saved as long as they believe. Until we enter God’s rest and have been chosen of God, we are only saved while we believe. Many believe that we can only enter the rest of God at the Second Coming of Jesus. But the rest is available today. We who have entered God’s rest have ceased from our labors of trying to make sense of the world and have secured our salvation. For the writer of Hebrews says:

Again He defines a certain day—today, saying through David so long a time afterward (just as has been said), “Today if you will hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts.” For if Joshua had given them rest, he would not have spoken afterward of another day. There remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God.  For he who has entered into His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His.  Let us therefore give diligence to enter into that rest, lest anyone fall after the same example of disobedience. (Hebrews 4:7-11)

My own experience is that I received the word of God when I made the decision to sing praise to God after hearing a gospel message (the likes of Robert Charles Sproul would say that was an act of self-righteousness and unworthy of God). Two years later, to the day, I entered God’s rest and received the joy of salvation. During the two year interval between the two events, the word of God was active within my spirit, cleansing me and giving me the ability to think more about my reason for living, rather than living for myself. God was at work in me, even though I was doing my best to stay trapped in the ways of the Devil. Like Abraham, it was not until I laid my life down for my brother and listened to the messenger of God, that I decided to seek Jesus. Abraham saw Jesus’ day and was glad (John 8:56). I sought Jesus had the joy of salvation imparted to me; when my salvation was sealed by Him. Since I have been saved, I have continually possessed the joy of salvation, that is our guarantee. At the time, of my encounter with Lord Jesus, I did not know that the Bible spoke of the joy of our salvation. The Psalmist had lost his joy for a period of time (Psalm 51:12) for he had known it earlier and described it as greater than that of natural joy (Psalm 4:7); indeed, such is the joy of the Lord God’s presence (Psalm 21:6). But according to the Calvinists that I have met, they say that I do not know Lord Jesus. According to them, I am self-righteous; a heretic who does not understand the Bible. Either I am a liar or they belong to the accuser of the brethren (Revelation 12:10). However, those who have come to know Lord Jesus Christ through my testimony, know who is not a liar.

There comes a time for all who believe and continue to seek Lord Jesus when their will is set free to do the will of God and secure their salvation. This is what Jesus was speaking about when stating that those who continue in His word would become His disciples and know the truth.

For us, this truth is when we recognize that we need to make Jesus Lord of our life and call upon Him, having had our hearts made clean by the word of God in us, through the working of the Holy Spirit as it washes and renews.  This is when we can enter the rest of our Heavenly Father. However, those of us chosen of the Lord, are chosen because we have a pure heart. This purity of heart is not our doing, rather it is the doing of the Holy Spirit who is at work in us, as we work out our own salvation (Philippians 2:12). In like manner the Psalmist said, “Create in me a clean heart, O God” (Psalm 51:10).

When Jesus came into my heart and life just after 2.00 am that Tuesday morning, August 6, 1974, everything changed. But this did not mean that I was completely transformed. My spirit was saved, made perfect, and I was enrolled in the book that is kept in Heavenly Jerusalem (Hebrews 12:23). Essentially, what happened to me was the same as that which happened when Abraham was declared righteous (Genesis 15:6), for he had believed God and, because of this, had his sins covered (Romans 4:3-8). I had received the word of God into my heart at a Church of Christ on Sunday, August 6, 1972, when I decided to sing the last hymn of the evening to the our Heavenly Father, with all my heart, just as the preacher exhorted the congregation of mumblers to do. This was a decision I made. I also made another decision not to return to that church because of the arrogant manner of the person who took me there in the first place. He shouted at me and called me an ignoramus.  So I thought that he and his hypocritical church-goers can do whatever they like, but without me.  If I were being called by irresistible grace at the time, I was definitely resisting.

Unfortunately for Calvinists and anybody else who does not believe we possess freewill to seek God, it is the only answer for us being here. We may be ensnared by the Devil to do his will, from time to time, but we are morally responsible agents and are to be held accountable to God for our own actions. Up until the time we look to God and receive the word of God, we can be likened to caterpillars on the ground. When we begin to look to God, we are like a fish that comes up to the surface of a pond to get some oxygen because we cannot stand the suffocation; the oxygen is an analogy for receiving the word of life, the breath of life. But back to the caterpillar analogy, when we receive that breath of life, this can be equated to the call to enter the rest of the chrysalis before beginning to go into the throes of our metamorphosis. This marks the beginning of struggle, when we start questioning ourselves and where we stand in relation to God and why sin has a hold over us. Or, as in my case, this became a time where my search for meaning became even more earnest, because God was not going to let me go, if He could help it. Like the fish that came up for air, I was hooked and even though I was fighting, even though I was resisting, even though I was called, I was questioning whether the fight required to resist was worth it, whether life was worth the effort, whether the struggle could go on. In fact, there were many complications to my simple lifestyle, because the Devil was doing his darnedest to prevent me from finding the truth. I even became aware, as never before, that I was the one who made my own decisions.

On the one hand, I was entrapped by the Devil to do his will, and on the other hand, my spirit was being washed clean and my will was being set free by the word of God at work in me. Since I was not being indoctrinated at the time, I was able to be cleansed of sin and misinformation and other deceptions. When I finally came to Jesus, I was poor in spirit, even though the word of God in the power of the Holy Spirit was washing and renewing my spirit. My will had been set free to seek God out or dive back into the world of sin, for at the time I had three people who I was plotting to murder and a fourth I was intent on making a vegetable. I was also thinking about becoming involved in organized crime. One of the reasons, I thought to seek God was if Jesus rose from the dead and we were judged for what we did on Earth, then I would have an eternal problem. From the moment I decided to sing a hymn to our Heavenly Father with all my heart to the time I found Jesus, I spent two years in a battle between Heaven and Hell and did not realize that this battle is what had been going on. This was the case the day I felt so depressed I decided to commit suicide, but pulled out of driving my car into a grove of gum trees at full speed, accelerator flat to the floor, because of my responsibility to my employees. My will was being set free from being ensnared by the Devil to do his will. However, this only began to happen because I decided to acknowledge our Heavenly Father and sing a hymn to Him.  I made the first move. I could have refused like some of my friends.

In the case of King David, he had sinned, but this is permissible according to Calvinists: he was one of the elect, you see. Being one of the elect, his will has been set free to do the Father’s will, only according to them, he was still caught in sin. A disconnect exists in this thinking. Either David had been set free from the snare of the Devil to do his will in order to do the will of God or he could not do anything but sin and disobey God. Calvinists believe we are either a slave of sin or a slave of righteousness—but. The “but” means “contrary to expectation” God does not make us slaves to righteousness because we are still in utter sin and totally depraved. The god of the Calvinists is the powerless god of this world. Only the True God has the power to set people free from sin, and He has given us freewill. For this is what happened after David had sinned against God:

David’s heart struck him after he had numbered the people. David said to Yahweh, “I have sinned greatly in that which I have done. But now, Yahweh, put away, I beg you, the iniquity of your servant; for I have done very foolishly.”

When David rose up in the morning, Yahweh’s word came to the prophet Gad, David’s seer, saying, “Go and speak to David, ‘Yahweh says, “I offer you three things. Choose one of them, that I may do it to you.”’”

So Gad came to David, and told him, and said to him, “Shall seven years of famine come to you in your land? Or will you flee three months before your foes while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days’ pestilence in your land? Now answer, and consider what answer I shall return to him who sent me.”

David said to Gad, “I am in distress. Let us fall now into Yahweh’s hand; for his mercies are great. Let me not fall into man’s hand.”

So Yahweh sent a pestilence on Israel from the morning even to the appointed time; and seventy thousand men died of the people from Dan even to Beersheba. When the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, Yahweh relented of the disaster, and said to the angel who destroyed the people, “It is enough. Now withdraw your hand.” Yahweh’s angel was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. (2 Samuel 24:11-16)

Amazingly, we see David asking God for forgiveness, even though, according to Calvinists, he was part of the elect and saved from the foundations of the world. Then we see David given three choices. Unlike a programmed robot, David chooses to allow God to choose rather than make the choice himself. We can assume that David understood God to be wiser than himself. Furthermore, we see the Lord God, changing His mind on the severity of the disaster, which indicates that God’s will was not fixed before the foundation of the world. But He is willing to see who perhaps might change their ways and seek Him. Why did God relent? Could this be because David was the one who had been given the right to choose, but instead of choosing unwisely, he decided to rely upon the Omniscient One’s judgment and mercy rather than his own. We have to assume that God who was punishing David, by destroying people, was not sending these people into eternal torment; otherwise He would be unjust. The Calvinists, however, would see punishing other people for King David’s sin and assigning them to everlasting torment as just.

Jesus often spoke in parables to tell truths about the Kingdom of God. Many expositors overlook the truths contained in the parables because of their simplicity. The story of the Prodigal Son is no different. Here it is:

Even so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner repenting.”

He said, “A certain man had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of your property.’ He divided his livelihood between them. Not many days after, the younger son gathered all of this together and traveled into a far country. There he wasted his property with riotous living. When he had spent all of it, there arose a severe famine in that country, and he began to be in need. He went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed pigs. He wanted to fill his belly with the husks that the pigs ate, but no one gave him any. But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough to spare, and I’m dying with hunger! I will get up and go to my father, and will tell him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight. I am no more worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired servants.”’

“He arose, and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him, and was moved with compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

“But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe, and put it on him. Put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. Bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let us eat, and celebrate; for this, my son, was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found.’ They began to celebrate.

“Now his elder son was in the field. As he came near to the house, he heard music and dancing. He called one of the servants to him, and asked what was going on. He said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and healthy.’ But he was angry, and would not go in. Therefore his father came out, and begged him. But he answered his father, ‘Behold, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed a commandment of yours, but you never gave me a goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this, your son, came, who has devoured your living with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him.’

“He said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But it was appropriate to celebrate and be glad, for this, your brother, was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found.’” (Luke 15:10-32)

This is a parable that contains a number of truths. Importantly, it tells us that the son chose to leave the father’s house and then he decided to return based upon his own reasoning, not because he heard a preacher or because of someone else. His father decided to welcome him, as any loving father would do, rather than ostracize him.

To illustrate the point from a perspective that captures the concept of the Calvinists’ view of salvation, we will change the scenario a little using the Prodigal Son and a Calvinist.

A Calvinist happened to stop at the farm where the Prodigal Son lived.

Prodigal Son to Calvinist: How are you going?

Calvinist: By grace into the sewers of the world, for I have eternal life, being a part of the elect, chosen before the foundation of the world. God’s grace has saved me. Once saved, always saved. And I have a greater inheritance in store for me than what this world can offer.

Prodigal Son: Sounds irresistible! I will join you, but first let me get my inheritance that I possess. We can spend it and have a good time, and then we can enjoy the greater one we will get in eternity.

The Prodigal and the Calvinist headed off to the sewers of the world. After sometime, the Prodigal had run out of money and the Calvinist had died from a drug overdose. The Prodigal decided that living in the sewer of sin was not for him. So he repented (changed his mind about sin and its consequences) and forsook the sewers of the world in the hope that he might find favor with his father. Now if his father were a wicked devil who loved torturing people, he would not have sought to go home, but because he knew of the loving kindness that his father had shown him, the son believed that his father would forgive him. He had faith in his father’s love to forgive him, so he forsook his wicked ways to return home.

When we read the book of Romans, we learn God’s loving kindness is meant to lead to repentance (Romans 2:4); now, repentance requires an act of freewill.

In the book of Numbers, we learn that a woman can exercise freewill, and men can exercise freewill to the contrary of the woman’s desires, and the Lord will forgive the woman but uphold the decision of the man.  We read:

“Also when a woman vows a vow to Yahweh, and binds herself by a bond, being in her father’s house, in her youth, and her father hears her vow, and her bond with which she has bound her soul, and her father holds his peace at her; then all her vows shall stand, and every bond with which she has bound her soul shall stand.  But if her father forbids her in the day that he hears, none of her vows, or of her bonds with which she has bound her soul, shall stand. Yahweh will forgive her, because her father has forbidden her.

“If she has a husband, while her vows are on her, or the rash utterance of her lips, with which she has bound her soul, and her husband hears it, and hold his peace at her in the day that he hears it; then her vows shall stand, and her bonds with which she has bound her soul shall stand. But if her husband forbids her in the day that he hears it, then he shall make void her vow which is on her, and the rash utterance of her lips, with which she has bound her soul. Yahweh will forgive her. (Numbers 30:3-8)

When it comes to sinners bound by the Devil to do his will and not being able to exercise freewill, then this dictate of God to the Israelites is very clear regarding freewill. God has given men freewill to make choices and this is in relation to what they promise God. Not only this, but although a woman might make a promise to God, this can be over-ridden by her father or husband. The doctrine of predetermined predestination of humans as slaves of sin, so that they are to be sentenced to eternal damnation, while those who are predetermined for eternal salvation have been elected without reason, declares us robots and the God of the Universe to be evil.

The evidence of our possession of freewill is found throughout the Bible and known to us all from our own experience. We are responsible for our actions and we can make decisions about moral issues. We can decide to sin or not sin. We can decide to steal or not steal; to lie or not lie; to hate or not hate. The Devil does not make us do it. We are not victims of our environment. We either succumb to sin or overcome sin through faith in the power of the God to deliver and protect us. If we have sinned, by repenting and seeking God, we can get His help to overcome sin. If we suffer from unbelief, or doubt that God can do as He promises, then we will have demonstrated a lack of faith.

Those Calvinists, and everyone else, who believe that they are trapped to do the will of the Devil, do not understand the love of God, nor the gospel. Instead, they will see God as angry; because, rather than coming to Him like the Prodigal Son, they prefer to remain in their sin and do not believe God can raise them out of sin. Knowing that it is wrong to sin but not having faith in Jesus Christ, they suffer cognitive dissonance (internal conflict because of their contradicting beliefs to reality)—if genuine; otherwise, they are just plain hypocrites heading for Hell. For those Calvinists, and other proud people who genuinely desire to do the will of God but have inadvertently taken on the teachings of Calvinism, the only thing they understand is the battle between trying to do the will of God and resisting sin. They do not know what it means to enter God’s rest. They do not understand what it means to have the Ten Commandments of God fulfilled in them. Instead, many give up on the struggle to enter God’s rest, and take comfort in the doctrines of unconditional election and salvation by grace alone, thinking that because they have acknowledged God that they are saved, regardless of what they do. They believe God chose them to have their salvation secured by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ before the foundation of the world. Therefore, they proclaim once saved always saved, regardless of how much sin they commit. They do not get free from the Devil’s snare to do his will and fall into the sin of unbelief. The deceit of sin is what causes people to remain outside of the Kingdom of God. Tragically, the idea that we are ensnared by the Devil to do his will is contrary to what the Bible teaches as the Apostle Paul wrote:

However God’s firm foundation stands, having this seal, “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Let every one who names the name of the Lord depart from unrighteousness.” (2 Timothy 2:19)

The one thing that we all desire is to be united with our Savior, Lord Jesus Christ. But this is conditional upon us desiring to honor God by seeking Him out to find our purpose in life.  We are not saved by works, but we are saved by accepting our inheritance in Jesus Christ. This is a simple matter of, will I say, “Yes, Lord Jesus,” or will I not. As Jesus said about the refusal of people to seek the truth, they search the Scriptures because they think they possess eternal life by reading them, yet they will not come to Him, so they might receive that eternal life (John 5:39-40). Accepting the death and resurrection of Lord Jesus on our behalf is an act of freewill, but God requires us to exercise our freewill to have faith (trust) in His promises.

Too many people learn some Scriptures which are proofs for certain doctrines, but overlook the many that contradict the assertions for those doctrines. If we are honest, we will let God teach us and see that the Bible bears witness to Jesus Christ; for in Him Alone, there is salvation.

The Devil wants people to believe that they are robots condemned to sin, but whether people are advocating universal salvation for all, or limited salvation for those who belong to the elect ones predestined before the foundation of the world, this amounts to the same thing: the claim you can sin as much as you like and you are saved. The lie is you are saved regardless of what you do, and you certainly do not have to seek the Lord God. Only this is not the case according to the prophet Ezekiel (ch18, v24).

The truth is Jesus has paid the ransom price and we all have the right to walk away from the captivity into which we were born. The Devil does what he can to prevent us from leaving his kingdom, but he has no power over us if we decide to leave. The Devil may put obstacles in the way or try to bluff us into doubting the salvation that has been made available for every person through the death and resurrection of Lord Jesus Christ. Once we realize that the ransom price has been paid, then by faith in what Lord Jesus has done, we can simply walk out of the Devil’s realm. The question is a matter of whether we no longer want to do evil or we want to create our own terms by which we can walk away from the Devil. If we decide that the ransom price Jesus paid is not worthy of us, then that is our decision.

This is the same as adults, kidnapped against their will as children, who are now free to go because the ransom has been paid. Instead of going, having spent years with the kidnappers, not all the hostages are keen to leave. Where they live conditions are good, but the way home looks treacherous, so only those possessing faith go home, those who have no faith stay behind; so too, do those who demand more than the right to freedom and decide to dictate their own terms for returning home.

The ransom price to free those who have been kidnapped against their will has been paid by the grace of God. However, only those who have the faith to return to God will receive the promised inheritance that has been made available through Lord Jesus Christ.

We are not saved by grace alone. We are not saved by faith alone. We are not saved by Jesus Christ alone. We are saved by working out our salvation through faith in Lord Jesus Christ in the grace that is extended to us as God works within our hearts for His good pleasure.

When the many Scriptures in the Bible are put together like a jig-saw puzzle, we end with a picture that goes something like this: Man has no ability to overcome death (Rom. 5:17); but he has the ability to choose (Jos. 24:15) and be as good a person as possible (Rom. 5:7).  However, this will not save him because He needs to overcome death (Rom. 5:21). Moreover, whatever righteousness a person may claim (Rom. 2:23), when measured against God's standard (the Ten Commandments) this has to hold up (John 5:45).  If anybody fails by one iota or one dot (Mat. 5:18), then that person cannot claim to be as righteous as God (Rom. 3:10). Hence, all men sin and fall short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23). Humans sin and have no power over death, but those who seek justice, need to seek the Lord God of the Universe (Pro. 28:5), because there is no other Judge. Abraham said, "Shall not the Judge of the Earth do right" (Gen. 18:25). He has indeed done what is right: having died for the ungodly (Rom 5:6). He who knew no sin, became sin, so those who have sinned could become the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:21). This is brought about through the righteousness of Jesus which was bequeathed in His will as an inheritance (Heb. 9:15-17) for those who believe that the Son of God has come in the flesh (1 John 4:2), and paid the redemption price for sin (Col. 1:14), and has been raised from the dead (1 Cor. 15:12-14). This is obtained by each one working out his or her salvation while allowing the Spirit of God to work in his or her heart (Phil 2:12-13). For this is the will of God that whoever sees Jesus (Heb. 12:2) and believes in the Him (John 3.:16), He will raise from the dead at the last day (John 6:40).

Considering all the foregoing, we know that it is impossible for a person without the faculty of freewill to deny the Master; who purchased every person’s salvation through the shedding of His Own blood—the eternal blood of God.

But false prophets also arose among the people, as false teachers will also be among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, denying even the Master who bought them, bringing on themselves swift destruction. (2 Peter 2:1)

Many who deny the Master, do so in ignorance. But false prophets and false teachers bring in destructive heresies because they are not walking in the light; rather they are following the desires of their master’s desires, having rejected the truth through willful disobedience. Therefore, we owe it to ourselves to be vigilant in desiring the truth and recognizing that the Bible teaches: we are saved by grace through faith in Lord Jesus Christ.

Freewill is a gift from God, as is the initial faith that we possess to recognize right from wrong, good from evil, what is true and what is false. Nevertheless, we are the ones who can say “yes” or “no” to Lord Jesus Christ, when we hear His voice and answer His knock on the door of our hearts. As the book of Revelation states, Jesus stands at the door of every person’s heart and knocks; whoever opens to Him and receives Him into their innermost being, finds salvation and receives the power to overcome sin and death (Revelation 3:20-22).

---

[i] Sproul., R.C. The Pelagian Captivity of the Church. PDF

[ii] Sproul is renowned for his teaching that God does not desire all men to be saved.   Wade Davis posted on youtube (Jan. 23, 2010) R.C. Sproul—“Does God desire all men Saved” (an excerpt with an interview R.C. Sproul and Mark Driscoll.)  whttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uR4y6_teHS0 —accessed Nov. 2014