Does Jesus' Saving Work Violate the Human Will? | askTheocast

Human Responsibility and the Bondage of the Will

What's up? This is Justin. Today, I am answering a question submitted by Isaiah. He asks, does Jesus' saving work violate the human will? It's a good question. In order to begin to answer that, we might want to first consider what the Bible says about human beings in a general sense and our wills in particular.

The Bible is clear that humans are responsible moral agents. We make choices that matter. We choose between good and bad and right and wrong. We are absolutely culpable for the decisions that we make, the ways that we act, the ways that we think, and the ways that we feel.

Satan, Adam, and the Corruption of the Flesh

Scripture could not be more clear about all of that. At the same time, the Bible is also clear that we are not exactly free in the ways that we tend to think that we are. Not only is Satan real, the one the Bible calls the prince of the power of the air, who is at work in all the sons of disobedience.

Satan exercises a kind of dominion over fallen men. Not only that, but we are also born through Adam and Eve with a nature that has been fundamentally corrupted and bent toward evil. Our flesh, our fallen nature, naturally desires things that are wicked.

We crave things that do not honor and please God. These desires and cravings just happen. It's not something that we necessarily sign up for. It's important that we understand that our wills, in that sense, have never been, in our experience, free.

It is not as though we just equally can choose between good and evil. We are in bondage at birth, and we are born into that bondage to Satan and to sin and the desires and cravings of our flesh. It is not as though human beings can walk around and make decisions that are completely free.

Christ's Saving Work as Liberation, Not Violation

In one sense, we are always being acted upon by Satan. Even the corruption of our flesh affects and influences every decision that we make, every thought that we have, and every feeling that we feel. What God does in his work of redemption through his Son, Jesus Christ, is he shows up, not so much in a violation of the human will, but acts in such a way where he inhabits and liberates our will.

When we come to Christ in faith, we are doing what we want to do. We don't know everything at that moment when we decide to follow Jesus, which is an entirely appropriate thing to say. We make decisions to follow Christ, and underneath our decisions to follow Jesus is something that God has done for us.

When we make that choice, when we trust in Jesus, we don't know everything, but we know that we need Christ and that he is the one who I can trust and the one that I need to atone for my sin and to provide me with righteousness.

Conversion, Faith, and the Testimony of Christian Experience

I joyfully run to him and cast myself upon the mercy of God in him. This is the witness of Scripture, and this is the testimony of every Christian, that I was blind, and now I see. I was in darkness, and now I am in light.

I was lost, and now I'm found. I was dead, and now I'm alive. And so it's important that we would understand that the human will is never entirely free in a place that is neutral, where we can equally choose good or evil, but because we are born bound to Satan and to sin, God comes in and sets us free.

He inhabits and liberates our wills so that we might repent of sin and trust in Christ. It is a very good and gracious thing that God does for us, and I do not think that we should consider that as a violation of our wills.

I hope this is a helpful answer to your question, Isaiah. I hope it's helpful to the listener. Continue to send us your questions over at asktheocast .com.