THE
IMPOTENCY OF THE HUMAN WILL
Does it lie within
the province of man's will to accept or reject the Lord Jesus as Saviour?
Granted that the Gospel is preached to the sinner, that the Holy Spirit
convicts him of his lost condition, does it, in the final analysis, lie
within the power of his own will to resist or yield himself up to God?
The answer to this question defines our conception of human depravity.
That man is a fallen creature all professing Christians will allow, but
what many of them mean by "fallen" is often difficult to determine.
The general impression seems to be that man is now mortal, that he is
no longer in the condition in which he left the hands of his Creator,
that he is liable to disease, that he inherits evil tendencies; but, that
if he employs his powers to the best of his ability, somehow he will be
happy at last. O, how far short of the sad truth! Infirmities, sickness,
even corporeal death, are but trifles in comparison with the moral and
spiritual effects of the Fall! It is only by consulting the Holy Scriptures
that we are able to obtain some conception of the extent of that terrible
calamity.
When we say that man is totally depraved, we mean that the entrance of
sin into the human constitution has affected every part and faculty of
man's being. Total depravity means that man is, in spirit and soul and
body, the slave of sin and the captive of the Devil — walking "according
to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in
the children of disobedience" (Eph. 2:2). This statement ought not
to need arguing: it is a common fact of human experience. Man is unable
to realize his own aspirations and materialize his own ideals. He cannot
do the things that he would. There is moral inability which paralyzes
him. This is proof positive that he is no free man, but instead, the slave
of sin and Satan. "Ye are of your father the Devil, and the lusts
(desires) of your father ye will do." (John 8:44). Sin is more than
an act or a series of acts; it is a man's make-up. It has blinded the
understanding, corrupted the heart, and alienated the mind from God. And
the will has not escaped. The will is under the dominion of sin and Satan.
Therefore, the will is not free. In short, the affections love as they
do and the will chooses as it does because of the state of the heart,
and because the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked
"There is none that seeketh after God" (Rom. 3:11).
Arthur
Pink
What
man does cannot change what God has done. What man thinks cannot change
what God knows! What man says cannot change what God has said! What man
determines cannot change what God has decreed! What man wills cannot change
what God has wrought! "The Lord of hosts hath purposed, and who shall
disannul it?" (Isa. 14:27)
Gary Shepard
CHRIST SHALL HAVE HIS OWN
I do not come into this pulpit hoping that perhaps somebody will of his own free will return to Christ. My hope lies in another quarter. I hope that my Master will lay hold of some of them and say, "You are mine, and you shall be mine. I claim you for myself." My hope arises from the freeness of grace, and not from the freedom of the will. A poor haul of fish will any gospel fisherman make if he takes none but those who are eager to leap into the net. Oh, for five minutes of the great Shepherd's handiwork!
Charles H. Spurgeon |