The Majesty of Mystery by K. Scott Oliphint

Author:K. Scott Oliphint
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Theology, Doctrinal--Popular works.
Publisher: Bellingham, WA
Published: 2016-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

The Slavery of Sin

Readers aware of the Reformed view of sin and its consequences might feel a little uneasy at this point in our discussion. Reformed theology has consistently affirmed that we are all “dead in [our] trespasses and sins” (Eph 2:1); that “the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor 2:14, my emphasis); that “the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot” (Rom 8:7, my emphasis). Scripture is clear that sin has caused spiritual death (not simply sickness) in us; it has rendered us unable to understand the “things of the Spirit”; it has enslaved our thinking so that we cannot submit to God. How, then, dare we speak of a “freedom” of the will, when Scripture is clear that the fallen will cannot choose for Christ?

As we might expect by this point, we meet our friend mystery again in this question. But it might help to recognize another distinction that is important to make in this context. In the first section of the Westminster Confession, chapter 9, we highlighted (above) the affirmation that there is no “absolute necessity of nature” when it comes to the will of man. So the will is naturally free. “Natural” freedom refers to the image of God. Since we are image of God, we always have the ability to choose. Just as being the image of God means we retain the ability to think, so also with the will. It is the will’s “job,” as it were, to choose; if there is a will, there must be choice. Since we have a will, even after the fall, it must retain its natural ability to choose.

But just because we have the natural ability to choose, that does not mean we have, as Adam and Eve did, the ability to choose either good or evil. Since the fall into sin, since we are dead in our sins apart from Christ, we have lost the ability to choose for Christ. But we still choose, because sin did not destroy the image of God that we are as God’s human creatures. The will always chooses, but it chooses according to the nature of the person choosing. In the garden, Adam’s will could choose to obey or disobey. After the fall, we still choose, but we always choose what we want, and we always want sin. Our depravity does not mean that we do not choose; it means that, in our sin, we always choose sin. When we’re converted to Christ, there is a change of our nature, so that we can choose either to obey or disobey, just as Adam could. In the new heaven and new earth, since we—our nature—will be glorified, we will still choose, but we will always and only choose the good. In none of these cases do we lose our wills; the will remains in its natural state.

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