The Bondage of the Will and the Freedom of Grace

➰️The Will in Bondage and the Freedom of Grace

A Reformed Reflection on Human Choice, Divine Sovereignty, and the Master We Serve

Every person who has ever lived walks under the authority of a master. Scripture allows no third option. Jesus speaks plainly in Matthew 6:24 that a man will hate the one and love the other or be devoted to the one and despise the other. The human will is never neutral and never self-governed in the way our modern age imagines. The great question beneath our cultural debates and doctrinal disagreements is not whether man serves a master. It is which master he serves and why he serves him. The Reformed tradition answers that question by returning again and again to the clear testimony of Scripture. Man serves either sin or Christ. The natural heart always chooses sin. Only sovereign grace can free him.

The common man on the street believes he is free because he feels free. His choices seem spontaneous and unforced. He selects what he enjoys. He rejects what he dislikes. He follows the strongest desire that rises within him. Yet this is precisely where the Scriptures press deepest. The will follows desire and desire follows nature. A fish does not choose to breathe air. A wolf does not choose to graze like a deer. Fallen man does not choose God because he does not desire God. As Paul says in Romans 3, none is righteous, none seeks for God, and no one does good. This is not a description of limited interest. It is the language of a spiritual impossibility. The sinner does not come because he cannot come.

The Reformed tradition often summarizes this in the phrase bondage of the will. To many, the phrase feels harsh, but its testimony is sober and pastoral. To say that the will is in bondage is not to deny that man makes choices. It is to confess that every choice arises from a heart that is enslaved to sin until God intervenes. Just as Jesus said in John 8:34, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. Slavery is not freedom. Slavery cannot be overcome by a moment of moral resolve. Slavery must be broken by a liberator.

This is why Scripture never commands the sinner to regenerate himself. It tells him to repent and believe, but the power to obey that call comes from God alone. The cry of the Psalmist shows this: Turn my heart toward your statutes. Give me life according to your Word. These are the prayers of a man who knows his will is not self healing. Divine grace creates what it commands.

Reformed theology teaches that the will is not destroyed by the Fall. It is bound to the nature that governs it. Luther said the will is free to choose according to its nature. The problem is not the faculty of choosing. The problem is the corruption of desire. Man still chooses, but he does so as a man who loves darkness more than light. The sinner does what he wants. He simply never wants God until God renews the heart.

An Apologetic for the Reformed View of the Will

Critics frequently object that the Reformed view negates responsibility. If man cannot choose God freely, how can he be held accountable for rejecting Him. At first glance the objection feels intuitive, but it misunderstands the nature of moral responsibility. The Bible consistently holds men responsible for what they desire and love, not merely for what options lie before them. A drunk who loves alcohol more than sobriety is accountable for his actions even if he cannot choose otherwise until his desires are changed. His bondage does not excuse him. It condemns him.

Reformed theology does not teach that the sinner wishes to believe but is prevented by God. It teaches that the sinner has no desire to believe and therefore never would unless God grants a new heart. This is the entire force of passages like 1 Corinthians 2:14 where Paul says the natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God for they are folly to him. They are not rejected because God bars the door. They are rejected because the heart finds no beauty in them.

A second objection claims that the Reformed view removes genuine choice. Yet Scripture shows that genuine choices exist within a determined framework. Joseph’s brothers freely sold him into slavery. Their intentions were wicked. God intended the same event for good. Both sets of intentions operated simultaneously without contradiction. The brothers acted according to their fallen desires. God acted according to His sovereign plan. Their will was real, but not ultimate.

A third objection argues that if the sinner cannot choose God freely then the gospel call is insincere. The opposite is true. The gospel is most sincere when it follows the pattern of Scripture. God commands what the sinner cannot do in order to reveal his need for grace. The command drives him to despair of himself. Grace meets him when he has nothing left. Jesus did not soften His words to make them doable. He told the paralytic to rise. He told Lazarus to come forth. The command was the instrument through which the power flowed.

The Real Reason for Contention

The historic debate is not about whether man serves one master or another. Even the most ardent defender of free will admits that the human heart is influenced by forces greater than itself. The divide arises from one simple question. Is man able to choose God freely without prior grace. Scripture answers plainly. The mind set on the flesh is hostile to God. It cannot submit to God’s law. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Hostility cannot be persuaded by a gentle nudge. Dead men cannot stir themselves to life. Blind eyes cannot open by sheer force of will.

The heart of the contention is this. Reformed theology teaches that man is not merely unwilling to choose God. He is unable. His nature is corrupt. His affections are bent inward. His desires curve toward self. He chooses according to a heart that treasures anything except God. The Arminian insists that man retains at least a spark of native ability to turn himself toward the light. The Reformed position answers that nothing in Scripture supports this idea. Salvation is of the Lord from beginning to end. Faith itself is a gift. Regeneration precedes belief. Grace does not assist the natural heart. Grace resurrects it.

The Beauty of True Freedom

The only person who is truly free is the one whose heart has been made new. When God shines the light of Christ into the soul the will is not violated. It is liberated. The man who once clung to his chains now gladly casts them aside. The man who once hated Christ now runs to Him with joy. Grace does not force a reluctant sinner. Grace awakens a dead one. When the will is renewed by the Spirit it moves toward Christ with the same natural ease that it once moved toward sin. A new nature brings new desires. New desires bring new choices. This is freedom in its truest sense.

Augustine captured the beauty of this truth. Before grace we are not able not to sin. After grace we are able not to sin. In glory we will not be able to sin at all. The journey of salvation is the journey from slavery to freedom, from bondage of the will to the joyous liberty of the children of God.

The Reformed tradition does not diminish human dignity by teaching the bondage of the will. It magnifies the glory of Christ who sets captives free. It honors the testimony of Scripture which declares salvation to be a miracle of sovereign grace. And it comforts the believer by reminding him that his faith does not rest on the fragile foundation of human resolve. It rests on the unshakable mercy of God.

The will of man is never autonomous. It is either enslaved to sin or bound to Christ. True liberty is found only in the latter. And that liberty is a gift.

✒️ The Pilgrim’s Post