The Bible Answers
Doesn't Man Have Free Will, either to accept Christ or not?
As this question would be commonly understood, the answer is No.
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We must be very careful not to allow our human reason to intrude upon what God has revealed. Our hearts are so deceived that we put evil for good and good for evil. One of the most astounding statements in the bible is this statement of Jesus Christ, "Ye will not come to me that you might have life." [John 5:40] Why wouldn't they come to Christ. What caused them to choose not to be His disciples?
Jesus Christ as the most beautiful person who ever walked the face of this earth. He had no defect of character and always did the will of God. He gave Himself for His people, and taught as no man had ever taught before or since. Why didn't they choose to be His disciples? It certainly wasn't because of any defect in Him; the defect must be in them.
Jeremiah 17:9: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?"
- The heart directs the will. People choose to believe this or that, or to go this way or that way, because of their values. A person always chooses because of his perception that there will be some good to him because of the choice. Even in the case of suicide, or self-destruction, the choice is made because the suicide thinks that he will find peace, get revenge on his friends or relatives, or make some kind of statement. He perceives some good in his choice. Sometimes people make crazy choices simply because they want to demonstrate their own "freedom," but it is still a perceived good.
So we can talk about philosophical "freedom" and only a fool will deny that a person has liberty to choose the red car or the white car. But choices are always for a reason, and the reason for the choice goes to the values of the person. Some reject Christ for fear of public opinion; some choose sexual sin for the pleasure involved; some choose drunkennes because of a desire to escape reality; and so it goes. There is always a reason, and that reason goes to the core of a man's being. This is especially true of religion.
Because of evil, we cannot trust our own hearts. "He that trusts in his own heart is a fool." [Prov. 10:18]
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Jesus put it succinctly, "No man can come to me except the Father...draw him." Men will never come to Christ, in spite of His spiritual beauty, moral clarity, compassion and love. Because of sin, men have a bias against the biblical Christ that can only be removed by the power of the Holy Spirit.
This is the reason that Paul wrote, [1Cor. 12:3] "Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost." Receiving the Lord Jesus is an act of faith that is impossible for men unless they are born again by the Spirit of God.
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The natural man is every man descended from Adam, who is under the curse of sin and death. His mind is blinded and understanding darkened [Romans 1] He will not come to Christ because his heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. He does not value the things of God.
However, because he is in the image of God, he cannot help but be religious. This is where the problem arises. Because He is biased against God but desires to be religious, he invents gods or adopts those invented by others. Because these gods are the inventions of men, they are often opposed to each other and produce confusion and strife.
Because of the confusion and strife produced by gods invented by men who refuse to worship the true God, the modern man concludes that no religion is true! Go figure.
- Men boast of their freedom, but in reality they are in bondage to the devil, who works in them. They are under the curse of God and have been delivered over to the devil. They are considered to be the children of the devil because of the power of the devil that works in them. This powerful work of the devil in them is characterized by hatred and lies, for the devil was a liar and a murderer from the beginning, according to the words of Christ.