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THE PROBLEM OF FREEDOM
by Ray Shelton
Theologically, the problem of freedom centered in the doctrine of original sin. Augustine appealed to the doctrine of original sin to support his denial of human freedom not to sin. The whole race, he held, was corrupted in the first or original sin of Adam and from Adam each member of the human race received a sinful nature. This nature expresses itself in sinful acts. Because of his sinful nature, man is not able not to sin (non posse non peccare); man has lost his freedom not to sin and to do good works. Because all men literally sinned in Adam, their natural head, they are all guilty and have all inherited the guilt of that sin. Men are under condemnation not only because of their own personal sins, which each commits as an expression of his sinful nature, but because of the guilt of the original sin in which they participated in Adam before they were born. Thus man cannot save himself. He is not able not to sin and also not able to do the meritorious works that could earn him eternal life. This reasoning assumes that salvation is by works but man is not able to do the works.
After the Reformation, many Protestant theologians reinterpreted the doctrine of original sin. During the seventeenth century, it became known as covenant or federal theology. Among its earliest advocates were the Swiss reformer Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1531) and his successor, Johann Heinrich Bullinger (1504-1575), who were driven to the subject by the Anabaptists in and around Zurich. From them it passed to John Calvin (1509-1564) and to other Reformers; it was further developed by their successors, and played a dominant role in Reformed theology of the seventeenth century. Its emphasis on God’s covenantal relationships with mankind was seen as less harsh than the earlier Reformed theology that emanated from Geneva, with its emphasis on divine sovereignty and predistination. From Switzerland the covenant theology passed over into Germany. The German linguist and theologian Johann Koch [latinized to Cocceius] (1603-1669) set forth in his Doctrine of the Covenant and Testaments of God (1648) and in his Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans (1655) the fully developed covenant theology. It spread from there to the Netherlands and to the British Isles where it was incorporated into the Westminster Confession of Faith (1648); it came to have an important place in the theology of Scotland and of New England.
This Covenant theology sees the relationship of God to the human race as a legal compact or agreement. It said that God appointed Adam, who was the natural head of the human race, to be the federal (foedus, Latin “covenant”) head or legal representative of the whole race. God then entered into a covenant with the whole race through Adam as their legal representative. According to the terms of this Covenant of Works God promised to bestow eternal life upon Adam and the entire human race if he, Adam, as their federal head, obeyed God. On the other hand, God threatened the punishment of death, that is, condemnation and a sinful corrupt nature, upon the whole human race if he, Adam, as their federal head, disobeyed. Now since Adam sinned, God reckoned his descendants as guilty, under condemnation to eternal death. Adam’s sin is imputed to each member of the human race as their own guilt. And because of this imputation of guilt, each member of the human race has received by inheritance a sinful or corrupt nature. This sinful nature, which is itself sin, leads invariably to acts of sin. And each man in addition to the racial guilt is also guilty for his own personal sins. Thus men carry a double burden of guilt, of both objective and subjective guilt and condemnation. This theory of the relationship of Adam’s sin to the rest of the human race is known in Christian theology as the Federal Headship Theory to distinguish it from the Natural Headship Theory of Augustine.
But in spite of the difference between them, these two theories lead to the same view of man’s need for salvation. Man is a guilty sinner because of Adam’s original sin and also because of his own personal sins which he commits because of an inherited sinful nature. Both theories view man’s relationship to God as a legal relationship and sin as a violation of that relationship as well as intrinsic to human nature. They are both basically and essentially legalistic in their understanding of the origin of sin.
What is the origin of sin? The Biblical answer is twofold:
(a) sin had its historical origin in the act of Adam which is called the fall, and
(b) sin has its immediate, contemporary and personal origin in the spiritual death which along with physical death spread upon the whole race because of Adam’s act of sin.
The classical passage of Scripture that sets forth this twofold origin of sin is Romans 5:12.
“Therefore, as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death passed unto all men, because of which [death] all sinned: – ” (Rom. 5:12 ERS)
The historical origin of sin set forth in the phrase, “through one man sin entered into the world.” This is a direct reference to the first man, Adam, and his act of sin, the Fall. The immediate, contemporary and personal origin of sin is set forth in the last phrase, “because of which [death] all sinned.” The consequence of Adam’s act of sin is expressed in the second clause of Romans 5:12: “and death through sin.” God had given Adam an explicit command, a prohibition, the transgression of which would result in death.
“2:16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; 2:17 but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die.'” (Gen. 2:16-17 NAS)
Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s command and died. But in what sense did they die? Obviously they did not immediately die physically. But since God promised that they would die in the day that they ate of the tree and since God cannot lie (Num. 23:19; I Sam. 15:29; Psa. 89:35; Heb. 6:18), they must have died that day in some other sense than physical death. The death that they experienced that day has been called spiritual death. Even though the distinction between spiritual and physical death is not made explicitly anywhere in the Scriptures, the distinction is implied by (Gen. 2:17; 3:8) and assumed by the Scriptures (Matt. 8:22; Luke 9:60; I Tim. 5:6). Jesus recognized this distinction between spiritual death and physical death when he said, “Let the dead bury their dead” (Matt. 8:22 KJV; Luke 9:60), that is, “Let the spiritually dead bury their physically dead.” This spiritual death is implied by the Hebrew experssion which is translated “you shall surely die” in Gen. 2:17 and which is literally “dying you shall die.” That they died spiritually is clearly seen in that they hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God (Gen. 3:8) and later were driven out of the garden, away from the tree of life (Gen. 3:23-24). Just as physical death is separation of man’s spirit (the person or self) from the body and not extinction, annihilation or merely the dissolution of the living organism, so spiritual death is the separation, alienation of man from God – not the death or annihilation of the spirit (Eph 4:18; Col. 1:21).
It is the opposite of spiritual life which is to know God personally and have fellowship and communion with Him (John 17:3; 5:24; Eph. 2:1; Gal. 4:8-9; I Cor. 1:9; I John 1:3, 5-8). Spiritual death is a negative or no personal relationship between man and God. It is like a barrier or “iron curtain” between them. It is separation from God or, more accurately, it separates man from God. Death is a power. It is personified in the Scriptures as a king who reigns over the whole human race. Paul says, “by the offense of one, death reigned through one” (Rom. 5:17; see also Rom. 5:14). Death as a kingly power separates man from God (spiritual death) and brings about eventually the separation of man’s spirit from his body (physical death). Physical death is the outward expression and necessary accompaniment of spiritual death (Psa. 88:3-5; Isa. 38:10-11, 18; Psa. 6:5; 30:9; 115:17; Eccl. 9:18). Even though we may distinguish between them, they are never separated from each other. From the Biblical point of view spiritual and physical death are inseparable, and in the Scriptures death always seems to include both. This may be the reason that Jesus (John 11:11-14) and other early Christians (Acts 7:60-8:1; I Cor. 15:18, 20; I Thess. 4:13-15) spoke of physical death as “fallen asleep” in Christ. Since believers in Christ had been saved “from death to life” in Christ, they had not really died when they died physically but had just “fallen asleep” in Christ.
The immediate, contemporary and personal origin of sin is set forth in the last phrase of Rom. 5:12, “because of which [death] all sinned.” (ERS) The Scriptures teach that all men have sinned because they are spiritually dead. This is what the Apostle Paul says in the last clause of Romans 5:12, which clause is incorrectly translated in our English translations (RSV, NAS, NIV) as “because all sinned,” making Paul appear to contradict himself in verse 14:
“5:13 For until the law sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed where there is no law. 5:14 But death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned after the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.” (Rom. 5:13-14 ERS).
But Paul does not contradict himself; the translation of the last clause of Rom. 5:12 as “because all sinned” only makes Paul to appear to contradict himself. In the Greek of this last clause of verse 12, there is a relative pronoun that has not been translated. If it were translated, the whole clause in English would read, “because of which all sinned,” the relative pronoun being translated as “of which”. In the Greek, it is clear that the antecedent of this relative pronoun is the Greek word translated “death” in the preceding clause. (The antecedent of a relative pronoun is the word to which the pronoun refers.) The last clause would then be equivalent to “because of death all sinned” and would mean that all men sinned because of the death received from Adam. Thus Rom. 5:12 should be translated:
“Therefore, as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death passed unto all men, because of which all sinned: – ” (Rom. 5:12 ERS)
But how is this possible? How can men sin because of death? Let me explain how this is possible by referring to another passage in the writings of the Apostle Paul, Galatians 4:8. In this passage, Paul is reminding the Galatian Christians of their condition before they became Christians.
“Formerly, when you did not know God, you were in bondage to beings that by nature are no gods.” (Gal. 4:8)
Not to “know God” personally as a living reality is to be spiritually dead. And a man is “in bondage to beings that are no gods” when he chooses them as his gods. He is in bondage to them because he does not personally know the only true God, that is, because he is spiritually dead.
Let me put it another way. Every man must have a god. Man, by the very structure of his freedom, must choose something to be the ultimate criterion of all his decisions. This is because every choice a man makes is made with reference to some criterion. That is, behind every decision as to what a man will do or think there is a reason, a criterion of decision. And the ultimate criterion or reason for any decision — practical or theoretical — must be given in terms of some particular criterion, an ultimate reference or orientation point in or beyond the self or person making the decision. This ultimate criterion is that person’s god. In this sense, every man must have a god. Every man, if he hasn’t already, must choose something as his god, as his ultimate criterion. Now if he doesn’t know the true God personally as a living reality, that is, if he is spiritually dead, and since he must have a god, he will choose a false god. He will choose some part or aspect of reality as his god, deifying it.
“They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator” (Rom. 1:25).
The choice of a false god and consequent personal allegiance and devotion to it is what the Bible calls idolatry. An idol does not have to be an image of wood, stone or metal. It may be money, wealth, power, pleasure, education, the family, the state, democracy, reason, experience, science, the moral law, etc. It may be anything that is good in its proper place that is exalted as the ultimate good, taking the place of the true God, who is the ultimate Good (Matt. 16:17). An idol is a false god, and a false god may be anything that takes the place of the true God, anything a man chooses as his ultimate criterion of decision, exalting it as God in the place of the true God. It is any substitute or replacement for the true God in a man’s life. Since a false god usurps the place of the true God in a man’s life, idolatry is the basic sin. This sin is directly against the true God; it is a direct insult to the true God and an affront to His divine majesty. No more serious sin could be imagined than this one. Since it is the most serious sin, it is therefore the most basic. This is the main reason that idolatry is the first sin prohibited by the Ten Commandments. “Thou shalt have no other gods besides Me.” (Exodus 20:3 ERS) Idolatry is also the basic sin because this sin leads to other sins. It leads to other sins since a person’s god, being his ultimate criterion of decision, ultimately controls the direction and character of a man’s decisions. The choice of a wrong god will lead to other wrong choices. That is, the idol that a man sets up in his heart (Ezek. 14:3-5) will affect the character and quality of his whole life. In other words, if in his heart a man clings to a false god, his actions and speech will show it. In this way also idolatry is the basic sin.
Now we can understand how death leads to sin. If a man is spiritually dead, separated from God, and since he must choose a god, he will usually choose a false god. If a man does not know personally the true God, the true God will not be a living reality to him. And lacking this personal knowledge of the true God as a living reality, man does not have the adequate reason for choosing the true God as his ultimate criterion of decision. God Himself is the only adequate reason for choosing Him. He cannot be chosen for any other reason than Himself. For then He would not be God but rather that reason for which He is chosen would be god. Only a living encounter with the true and living God can produce the situation in which God Himself may be chosen. If God Himself is the only adequate condition for the choice of Himself, then apart from a personal revelation of God Himself, man will usually choose as his god that which seems like god to him from among the creation around him or from the creations of his own hands or mind. Man does not necessarily have to sin but he usually will. Spiritual death is not the necessary cause but the basis or condition for his choice of a false god. (The Greek word translated “because” in the last clause of Romans 5:12 means “on the basis of” or “on the condition of”.)
Man is not responsible for becoming spiritually dead because he did not choose this state. He inherited spiritual death from Adam just as he inherited physical death. But he is responsible for the god he chooses. The true God has not left man without a knowledge about Himself.
“1:19 Because that which is known of God is manifest in them; for God manifested it to them. 1:20 For since the creation of the world the invisible things of Him, both His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, so that they are without excuse.” (Rom. 1:19-20 ERS)
This knowledge about God leaves man without excuse for his idolatry. But it does not save him because it is knowledge about the true God and not a personal knowledge of the true God. But even though a man is not responsible for becoming spiritually dead, he is responsible for remaining in the state of spiritual death when deliverance is offered to him in the person of Jesus Christ. If he refuses the gift of eternal life in Christ Jesus, he must reap the harvest and receive the wages of his decision, eternal death.
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 6:23).
If a man refuses the gift of spiritual and eternal life in Christ Jesus and continues to put his trust in a false god, remaining in spiritual death, then after he dies physically, at the last judgment he will receive the result of his decision, eternal death, separation from God for eternity.
Both Calvinism and Arminianism believe that man needs to be saved because he is a guilty sinner and a sinner by nature. Although disagreeing over the doctrine of Total Depravity, they both hold to a doctrine of the sinful nature. But even here they understand the sinful nature differently. Calvinism defines the sinful nature in such a way that man cannot do anything to save himself and thus God must sovereignly choose who will be saved and who will be lost (Unconditional Election). Arminianism defines the sinful nature in such a way to allow for man’s free will and thus as only a tendency to sin and a hindrance to doing good. In order to allow for man’s free will, Arminianism teach that man’s sinful nature does not determine his choices, but it is only a tendency to sin. The sinful nature only hinders man from doing the good; thus man falls short of divine perfection, the holiness of God. But in spite of these difference, they both see that man needs to be saved because he is a guilty sinner, a sinner by nature. But according to the Scriptures, man does not sin because of a inherited sinful nature, but because of spiritual death received from Adam.
“5:12 Therefore, as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death passed unto all men, because of which all sinned: — 5:13 for until the law sin was in the world; but sin is not reckoned when there is no law. 5:14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned after the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is the type of him who was to come.” (Rom. 5:12-14 ERS).
“…For if by the offense of one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound unto the many.” (Rom. 5:15 ERS)
“For if by the offense of the one, death reigned through the one, much more shall those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ.” (Rom. 5:17 ERS)
“15:21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come the resurrection of the dead. 15:22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.” (I Cor. 15:21-22)
Thus the Scriptures teach that Adam as the head of the human race brought spiritual and physical death on the whole human race (Rom. 5:12-19; I Cor. 15:21-22); but this was not as a punishment for the sins of the human race, neither personally for their own sins nor as a participation in Adam’s sin ( Rom. 5:13-14). Neither does the Scriptures teach that man inherited a corrupt or sinful nature from Adam. On the contrary, the Scriptures teaches that man inherited death, spiritual and physical, from Adam ( Rom. 5:12; I Cor. 15:21-22). And according to Rom. 5:12d (“because of which [death] all sinned” ERS) all men sin because of death (“the sting of death is sin”, I Cor. 15:55-56).
“15:55 O Death, where is thy victory? O Death, where is thy sting? 15:56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.”
(I Cor. 15:55-56)
And this death is not the sinful nature. These are two totally different concepts. The sinful nature is the nature of man that is sinful and the nature of man is what man is – that which makes man what he is and what he does. The nature of anything is that essence of the thing that determines what it is and how it acts. The sinful nature is that nature of man, and because it is sinful, makes him sin. Death, on the other hand, is a negative relationship of separation. Physical death is the separation of man’s spirit from his body, spiritual death is the separation of man’s spirit from God, and eternal death (“the second death,” Rev. 20:14) is the eternal separation of man from God. Spiritual death is the opposite of spiritual life, which is to know personally the true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent (John 17:3). That is, spiritual death is not to know personally the true God and Jesus Christ whom He sent. Knowledge is a relationship between the knower and that which is known; it is not a nature nor the property of a nature. Now it should be clear that spiritual death is not the sinful nature; it is a negative relationship between man and God and not the nature of man.
Spiritual death is not the necessary cause but the ground or condition of sin, the choice of a false god. The Greek preposition epi translated “because” in the last clause of Rom. 5:12 means “on the condition of” or “on the basis of”. It does not imply any necessary or deterministic causal connection between death and sin. Man sins by choice, not of necessity. In this state of spiritual death, he chooses freely his false god and thus sins. Then his false god puts him into bondage; he becomes a slave of sin, his false god being his slave master. The Calvinistic doctrine of Total Depravity or Total Inability misinterpretes this slavery of sin and equates it with the sinful nature or the results of the sinful nature, and turns the slavery of sin into a determinism and the denial of human freedom of choice.
Man’s nature is not sinful or good, but is what he choose it to be; if he chooses a false god as his ultimate criterion of his choices, his choices will be sinful. Since men are spiritually dead, that is, not spiritually alive in a personal relationship to the true God, they will choose a false god as their ultimate criterion of their choices of how they will think or act. God opposes man’s basic sin of idolatry and the sins that follow from it; this opposition is the wrath of God. And if a man continues to serve his false god, refusing the gift of eternal life in Jesus Christ, he will receive eternal death, the wages of this slavemaster. This has nothing to do with merit or demerit, nor with the execution of justice in paying the penalty for law breaking. Romans 6:23 is about the slavery of sin and its consequences; the word “sin” in the singular there refers not to the sinful nature but to sin as a slavemaster, who pays the wages of eternal death. And this eternal death is not the penalty of sin, but is the wages paid by sin as a slavemaster, the false god that a man has chosen.
“The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom. 6:23).
Sin as a slave master is the false god that a man chooses as his ultimate criterion of all his choices. Thus all men sin in choosing a false god and from this false god as their slavemaster they receive the wages of this slavemaster, eternal death. God does not choose just some to be saved, leaving the rest to be damned. But each man chooses his god and lord; if he chooses a false god that becomes his slavemaster, then he will receive the consequence of that choice, eternal death. But if he chooses to receive the true God as his God and His gift of eternal life in Jesus Christ, His Son, acknowledging Him as his Lord, he is saved. God has chosen to save all men, if they will receive that salvation. God has not chosen just a few to be saved, but all men. But not all men will be saved, not because God has not chosen them, but they have not chosen Him. Each man must make his own choice of which god he will have as his ultimate criterion of choice, to be his god and lord. God does not make that choice for him. In the preaching of the Gospel, the Holy Spirit opens the eyes of the spiritually blind and sets their wills free from the slavery of sin to their false god, so that they can choose the true God. Then if they refuse to choose the true God and to receive His gift of life, they are left in spiritual death and in their sin.
The choice of a false god leads to bondage, the bondage of sin. Idolatry results in the bondage of sin in two senses.
1. Since idolatry is the basic sin, it leads to other sins. Because a person’s god, being his ultimate criterion of all his decisions, ultimately controls the direction and character of his decisions, the wrong choice of a false god will lead to other wrong choices, sins. A person committed to a false god does not necessarily always have to commit sins. Happily, he is often inconsistent in following his false god. But since his god furnishes him with an entire set of values and motives for his choices, the sin of idolatry will usually invariably result in other sins. This invariableness of sin is one aspect of the bondage of sin. As Jesus said, “…every one who commits sin is a slave of sin.” (John 8:34)
2. The second sense in which idolatry results in the bondage of sin is that idolatry reduces and ultimately will destroy one’s freedom of choice. A false god, having become the repository of a man’s trust and allegiance, proceeds immediately to reduce and ultimately to destroy his freedom. It becomes a straightjacket and a limitation on his freedom. Thus it reduces his freedom of choice by limiting his options as well as his reasons for his choice. Some false gods totally eliminate some areas of life from its followers consideration. Thus a false god circumscribes and restricts the freedom of choice of the person who chooses it as his god; it acts as a frustrating limitation, a ball and chain upon the exercise of the freedom of its worshipper. But a false god also destroys the freedom of its worshipper by denying his freedom. Since a false god is a being that has limited or no freedom or power of choice (it is determined and not self-determining) such a god by implication denies the reality of follower’s freedom of choice. Thus having used his freedom to give this god his ultimate allegiance, the worshipper finds his freedom denied to the point of extinction and himself bound in a miserable slavery. As long as the false god remains his ultimate criterion of decision, he will not have the grounds for rejecting that god, since that god has not allowed him to have freedom of choice to do so. His power of choice having been effectively taken away from him, he is unable to reject the false god and free himself from its bondage. This is the bondage of sin (John 8:34; Prov. 5:22). Man becomes a slave of sin when he gives his ultimate allegiance and devotion to a false god. In fact, the false god is sin personified as a slavemaster (Rom. 6:16).
The true God, on the other hand, preserves and fulfills the freedom of the one who chooses and worships Him. Since the true God is a living God (Jer. 10:5-15; I Thess. 1:9), that is, a being that has the power of self-determination, with unlimited freedom, He can and does affirm His worshipper’s freedom. He gave them such a freedom of choice when he made them. When this Being who has such freedom is made the ultimate criterion of one’s decisions, one’s freedom of choice may be exercised without frustrating limitation. His freedom is not denied or taken away from him. But more importantly, the true God not only affirms the freedom of the one who chooses and worships Him but also fulfills the freedom of the one who commits and devotes himself to Him. This He does by loving him, that is, by acting toward him for his highest good. Now man’s highest good is the true God; because He alone does not deny but affirms the freedom of the one who chooses Him. For when a man chooses the true God as his God, he has found his highest good and obtained true happiness (Prov. 16:20; Psa. 40:4; 84:12; 144:15; Jer. 17:7, etc.). Since the true God is love (I John 4:8, 16), He acts toward man in such a way as to bring man to the choice of man’s highest good, that is, to the true God, and hence the fulfillment of his freedom. He sets him free from the bondage of sin, the slavery to a false god, and brings him to the freedom of righteousness, the righteousness of faith. Just as the basic sin is trusting in a false god, the basic righteousness is trusting in the true God. Righteousness is not a quality that we possess, neither merit that we have earned or have imputed to our account, but it is a right relationship to God; faith in the true God relates us rightly to Him (Rom. 4:3-5). In this right relationship to the true God, man’s freedom is fulfilled and man is truly free. “So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8:36)
The slavery of sin is not a sinful nature but the choices made in following a false god; it is not a determinism by one’s nature but the self-determinism by one’s personal choice according to one’s false ultimate criterion. And salvation is not a determinism by God that overrides the determinism of the sinful nature. God’s sovereignty in salvation is not a determinism but the setting of man free from the bondage of sin to a false god so that he is free to choose the true God. Biblical theology is not deterministic in either sense. Calvinism misinterprets God’s sovereignty deterministically in such passages of Scripture as Rom. 8:29.
“Those whom he foreknew, he also foreordained to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.” (Rom. 8:29)
The Greek verb here translated “foreknew,” proginosko, means “to know beforehand.” It is used in general to refer to knowledge that is previously had (Acts 26:5; II Pet. 3:17). The Greek verb is used only 5 times in New Testament, two times in the letter to the Romans; here in Rom. 8:29 about believers and in Rom. 11:2 about Israel. The fifth occurrence is in I Pet. 1:20 about Christ “having been foreknown before the foundations of the world.” The Greek noun, prognosis, translated “foreknowledge,” occurs twice in the New Testament, in Acts 2:23 about Christ and in I Pet. 1:2 about believers as the elect or chosen ones. Paul uses the verb here to refer to God’s knowledge of believers before they knew God. It is equivalent to choosing beforehand someone as God did Israel (Rom. 11:2). It does not refer to the omniscience of God whereby God knows all things before they happen. Paul is here talking about God’s personal knowledge and not His objective knowledge of all things. The Greek verb here translated “foreordained,” proorizo, literally means “to set boundaries beforehand,” hence, “to decide upon beforehand, to appoint, designate, and choose beforehand.” It is used 6 times in the New Testament, twice in chapter 8 of Romans (in verses 29 and 30) twice in Ephesians 1 (in verses 5 and 11), Acts 4:28 and I Cor. 2:7. In none of these places does it mean a causal determinism that makes free will impossible. As Paul says in Eph. 1:11, God “works all things according to the counsel of his will.” Although some theologians have interpreted these words as teaching such causal determinism, Paul’s choice of words do not say that all things are causally determined by God. The translation of this Greek verb proorizo as “predistined” makes Paul seem to teach this determinism.
Calvinism is wrong in interpreting the slavery of sin as a determinism of the sinful nature and Arminianism is wrong in not taking the slavery of sin seriously in their stress on the freedom of the will. Neither of them recognize the Biblical truth that the basic sin is idolatry and that man sins in choosing a false god as his ultimate criterion of all his decisions because he is spiritually dead. They both distort the Biblical theology of salvation in their dispute about man’s free will. Salvation is neither a monergism on God’s part nor a monergism on man’s part; it is the free gift by grace on God’s side that is received through faith on man’s side.
“2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it [salvation] is the gift of God; 2:9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.” (Eph. 2:8-9 ERS).
Calvinism’s view of salvation is monergistic, that is, God alone is active in salvation, because it believes that since man’s nature is sinful and man does what his nature is, then all the acts of man are sinful and he cannot do any righteous act to earn salvation. Therefore, God alone must do it for him. Calvinism, denying the Augustinian view that God does these meritorious acts by the grace of God that man receives from God through the sacraments, asserts that God alone does these meritorious acts through the active obedience of Christ; Christ has earned salvation for us. God alone is active in man’s salvation. Not only is the grace of God the work of God but so is faith, since salvation is “by grace through faith” (Eph. 2:8). According to the Calvinistic doctrine of Irresistible Grace, the faith that receives the grace of God is also the work of God. But the phrase in Eph. 2:8, “and this not of yourselves, it is a gift of God”, refers to salvation and not to faith. In the Greek of this verse, the demonstrative pronoun translated “this” agrees in gender (masculine) with the verbal participle translated “have been saved”, and not with the noun translated “faith” which is feminine. On God’s side, God gives (“by grace”) salvation and on man’s side (“through faith”) man chooses to receive that gift. Salvation is the gift which is received by faith, not earned by meritorious works. Even though faith is the act or choice of man, it is not a meritorious work which can earn salvation.
Calvinism’s view of salvation is legalistic, because it assumes that all the acts of man are meritorious, either earning merit by his righteous acts or losing it by the demerit of his sinful acts. This view of man is thoroughly legalistic. It views the relationship of man to God as based on merit that the justice of God demands and requires. The righteousness of God is misinterpreted as the justice of God. On this view, the justice of God rewards the merit of righteous acts and punishes the demerit of sinful acts. Because man does what his nature is and because of his nature is sinful, all the acts of man are sinful and cannot earn any merit. Therefore, no man can save himself. If he could do any righteous or good acts or works, then he could earn salvation and save himself. But since all men have sinned, no man can save himself and all men are condemned to eternal punishment for all their sins or demerits.
Even though this view sounds biblical, it is not. Nowhere in the Bible does it teach that salvation is earned by righteous or good works, even in the Old Testament. On the contrary, it teaches just the opposite: man is saved by grace through faith and not by works (Eph. 2:8-9). Righteousness is not merit but a right personal relationship to God through faith (Gen. 15:6; Hab. 2:4; Rom. 4:3-5). The righteousness of God is not justice in the Greek-Roman sense of rendering to each what is due to them according to merit, but God acting to put right the wrong and to set man into right personal relationship to Himself, that is, it is a synonym for salvation (Psa. 98:2; Isa. 56:1). The basic sin is not just breaking the law earning demerit, but faith and trust in something other than the true God (Ex. 20:3-4; Deut. 6:4, 14-15; Rom. 1:22-25; 14:23); the basic sin is idolatry, trust in a false god. And man does not sin because of a inherited sinful nature, but because of spiritual death received from Adam ( Rom. 5:12). Calvinism is based on two basic assumptions which are legalistic in character.
1. The first assumption is about man and the second is about God. Calvinism assumes that man cannot save himself because he is not able to do the good works necessary to earn salvation. This assumption is clearly legalistic. It assumes that salvation is by meritorious works but man is not able to do those works. The truth is that salvation is not something that is earned by merits, but a personal relationship to God that God offers to man by the grace of God as a gift and man enters into by faith in God, receiving eternal life as a gift. Man cannot save himself by works, not because he cannot do the works, but because salvation is not by meritorious works; it is a gift of life, a personal relationship given by God in His love and grace and entered into through faith ( Eph. 2:8-9).
2. The second assumption is about God and follows from the first. Since man cannot earn salvation himself because of sinful nature, God must earn it for him. Augustine believed that God gives His grace to enable man to earn the meritorious works which would save him. The Calvinist deny this view of grace and sees grace as the unmerited favor of God in which God gives to the elect the righteousness or merits earned for them by Christ’s active obedience. That is, God in Christ has earned for them eternal life that they themselves cannot earn because of their sinful nature. But the Calvinist is wrong; the righteousness from God (Phil. 3:9) is not the merits earned by Christ’s active obedience but is a right personal relationship to God through faith: faith reckoned as righteousness, the righteousness of faith.
“4:3 For what does the scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.’
4:4 Now to one who works, his wages are not reckoned as a gift but as his due. 4:5 And to the one who does not work
but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness.” (Rom. 4:3-5)“…. We say that faith was reckoned to Abraham as righteousness.” (Rom. 4:9b)
“The promise to Abraham and his descendants, that they should inherit the world, did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith.” (Rom. 4:13)
And God puts man into this right personal relationship to Himself by His grace, not by vicarious meritorious works earned for them by another. The grace of God is not just the unmerited favor of God, but it is the love of God in action to save man from death to life ( Eph. 2:4-5).
Click HERE to read about this salvation by the grace of God.
But Calvinism also misunderstands the meaning of the death of Christ. Christ’s death is seen as dealing basically with the consequences of sin. From the legalistic point of view, man needs to be saved because he is guilty of breaking the law. Salvation is accordingly conceived of as a removal of that guilt. Justice requires that the penalty be paid before the guilt can be removed. It cannot be forgiven freely but only can be taken away by the paying of the penalty which alone can satisfy justice. Because of the enormity of the guilt – it is against an infinite moral being – finite man himself can never pay the penalty and go free. From this legalistic point of view, man’s sin demands an eternal punishment, and being finite, man cannot meet the infinite demand of justice. If he is to be saved at all, he must be saved by another – one who is man like himself but without sin, but also one who is God who alone can meet the infinite demands of justice. Where is such a one to be found? Only God can provide that one, and God has provided the perfect sacrifice to pay the penalty by sending His Son to become man. His death is the perfect sacrifice. It can remove the guilt by paying the penalty. In His death, Christ endured the eternal punishment due to man’s sin.
This penal satisfaction theory of the death of Christ is clearly legalistic. It assumes that the order of law and justice is absolute; free forgiveness would be a violation of this absolute order; God’s love must be carefully limited lest it infringe on the demands of justice. Sin is a crime against God and the penalty must be paid before forgiveness can become available. According to this view, God’s love is conditioned and limited by His justice; that is, God cannot exercise His love to save man until His righteousness (justice) is satisfied. Since God’s justice requires that sin be punished, God’s love cannot save man until the penalty of sin has been paid, satisfying His justice. God’s love is set in opposition to His righteousness, creating a tension and problem in God. How can God in His love save man from sin when His righteousness demands the punishment of sin? This is the problem that the death of Christ is supposed to solve. According to this legalistic theology, this is why Christ needed to die; he died to pay the penalty of man’s sin and to satisfy the justice of God. Redemption is misinterpreted as paying the penalty of man’s sin and propitiation is misinterpreted as the satisfaction of God’s justice. And reconciliation is misinterpreted as as a vicarious act, instead of another, God being reconciled to man by Christ’s death paying the penalty of man’s sin. The necessity of the atonement is the necessity of satisfying the justice of God; this necessity is in God rather than in man. And since this necessity is in God, it is an absolute necessity. If God is to save man, God must satisfy His justice before He can in love save man.
Both Calvinism and Ariminianism do not understand that Christ’s death dealt basically with death, and then secondarily with sin since all men have sinned because of (spiritual) death ( Rom. 5:12d ERS; etc.). Christ entered into our spiritual death on the cross (“My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” Matt. 27:46) so that we could be made alive with Him in His resurrection ( Eph. 2:4-5). He entered into death for us, both spiritual and physical, so that we could be made alive to God in His resurrection. And by saving us from death to life, God saves us from sin to righteousness, to the righteousness of faith. This salvation from death to life, and hence from sin to righteousness, was accomplished by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, for all men. He died, not just for some men, but for all men.
“But we see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that he might taste death for every one [pantos].” (Heb. 2:9; see also II Cor. 5:14; I Tim. 2:3-6; Titus 2:11; I John 2:2).
He became what we were that we could become what He is.
“2:4 But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, 2:5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),” (Eph. 2:4-5; see Rom. 6:8).
His resurrection is our resurrection. He was raised from dead for us so that we might participate in His resurrection and have life, both spiritual and physical. Thus the representative work of Christ is a participation, an act of sharing in the condition of another. He participated in our death so that we could participate in His life.
Since spiritual death is no fellowship with God (it is the opposite of spiritual life which is fellowship with God), then being made alive with Christ we are brought into fellowship with God. Hence we are reconciled to God (Rom. 5:10; II Cor. 5:17-19). The Greek word katallage, which is translated ” reconciliation” in our English versions, means a “thorough or complete change.” Hence it refers to a complete change in the personal relationship between man and God. Because man is dead, he has no personal relationship with God, no fellowship with God. When a man is made alive to God with Christ, he is brought into a personal relationship with God, into fellowship with God. His personal relationship to God is completely changed, changed from death to life. Reconciliation can, therefore, be defined as that aspect of salvation whereby man is delivered from death to life. And the source of this act of reconciliation is the love of God. It is a legalistic misunderstanding of reconciliation to say that God was reconciled to man. The Scriptures never say that God is reconciled to man but that man is reconciled to God (Rom. 5:10; II Cor. 5:18-19). The problem is not in God but in man. Man is dead and needs to be made alive. Man is the enemy of God; God is not the enemy of man. God loves man, and out of His great love He has acted to reconcile man to Himself through the death and resurrection of Christ. It is true that God in His wrath opposes man’s sin and in His grace has provided a means by which His wrath may be turned away. But this aspect of salvation is propitiation, not reconciliation. Reconciliation should not be confused with propitiation. God in reconciling man to Himself has saved man from death, the cause of sin, and hence He has removed sin, the cause of His wrath – no sin, no wrath. Christ’s death is a propitiation because it is a redemption and it is a redemption because it is a reconciliation, salvation from death to life.
This is why a man needs to be saved; he is dead spiritually and dying physically. Man needs life – he needs to be made alive – to be raised from the dead. And if he receives life, if he is made alive to God, death which leads to sin is removed. And if death which leads to sin is removed, then man will be saved from sin. Thus salvation must be understood to be primarily from death to life and secondarily from sin to righteousness. And since God’s wrath – God’s “no” or opposition to sin – is caused by sin (Rom. 1:18), the removal of sin brings with it also the removal of wrath. No sin, no wrath. Salvation is then thirdly from wrath to peace with God (Rom. 5:1).
Propitiation is the sacrificial aspect of Christ’s work of salvation that saves us from wrath to peace with God. Redemption is the liberation aspect of Christ’s work of salvation that saves us from sin to righteousness. And salvation is a propitiation and a redemption because it is a reconciliation to God. Reconcilation is the representative aspect of Christ’s work of salvation that saves us from death to life. Being made alive to God, death, the cause of sin, is removed, and sin, the cause of wrath, is then removed. Christ’s death is a propitiation because it is a redemption; and it is a propitiation and a redemption because it is a reconciliation to God, salvation from death to life.
Reconciliation, Redemption, and Propitiation are the three aspects of salvation.
But this death and resurrection of Christ for all men must be received by faith in order for them to be saved.
“10:8 The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart (that is, the word of faith which we preach); 10:9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10:10 For man believes with his heart unto righteousness, and he confesses with his mouth unto salvation. 10:11 The scripture says, ‘Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.’ 10:12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and bestowes his riches upon all who call upon him. 10:13 For, ‘every one who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.'”
(Rom. 10:8-13 ERS).
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The death and resurrection of Christ was not limited just to a few men (the Elect), but was for all men. But they must believe in their hearts that God raised Jesus from the dead and confess with the mouth Jesus as Lord in order for them to be saved (Rom. 10:9-10). God choose before the foundations of the world to save all men in Christ, but only those who believe are in Christ and thus are saved (Eph. 1:4, 13). Calvinism is correct when they affirm that God’s choice or election is not based on or conditioned by any foreknowledge of man’s works; salvation is not by works. But they are wrong when they affirm that only some, not all, are chosen to be saved. On the contrary, God has unconditionally chosen to save all men rather than not to save them. God did not have to save man, but He sovereignly chose in His love to save all men. But not all men will choose to accept that salvation and thus they will perish.
“3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that all of those believing in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. 3:17 For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.”
(John 3:16-17 ERS)
God did not love just some men (the Elect), but the world, all men. But only all those who believe in His Son, accepting the gift of His love, have eternal life and are saved through Him. They are saved unconditionally by grace [God’s love in action] through faith, not by works lest any man should boast.
But Calvinism is wrong in asserting that only those chosen by God in eternity are enabled to accept the gift of God and cannot resist and refuse the gift. On the contrary, man does not have a sinful nature that must be changed by God’s grace in order that the men chosen by God in eternity can accept the gift of God. The grace of God is not a divine determinism that must overcome the determinism of the sinful nature. God sovereignly created man in His own image, giving him free will (the ability to choose between good and evil) to exercise his dominion over the rest of creation (Gen. 1:26). And at the fall of man, when Adam sinned by choosing evil, God did not take away that freedom nor corrupt his nature so that he can only choose evil. Death, spiritual and physical, was the result of the fall of man. Spiritual death is not the sinful nature, but separation and alienation of man from God. Death is a power (“death reigned”, Rom. 5:14, 17) that separates man’s spirit from God (spiritual death) and separates man’s spirit from his body (physical death) when he dies physically. Because of this condition of spiritual death, all men have sinned by choosing a false god as their ultimate criterion of their choices. All men have sinned, not because they have sinful nature, but because they are spiritually dead ( Rom. 5:12cd).
Click HERE to read the conclusion of the evaluation of Calvinism and Arminianism.
The freedom from death and sin is not the only freedom that the New Testament speaks of; it also speaks of the freedom from the law.
The law of God was a covenant relationship between God and the people Israel. Unlike the covenants God made with Noah and with Abraham, which were covenants of sheer grace, with no conditions attached to the receiving of the blessings of the covenant, the Mosaic covenant was conditional. God made unconditional promises to Noah and to Abraham of what God Himself would do. But the blessings of the Mosaic covenant were conditioned upon Israel’s obedience to God (Deut. 28:1-14); their disobedience to Him would bring curses upon them (Deut. 28:15-20; 30:1-20). These conditions are given in the Ten Commandments (Ex. 20:3-17; Deut. 5:6-21) and other statutes and ordinances. These commandments were not an end in themselves; they were specific ways in which they were to obey God. The law is concerned with Israel’s personal relationship to God: to love and obey God and not to worship or serve other gods. The history of Israel shows that they did not obey God. They disobeyed Him by turning from Him to other gods. From the time of Moses through the times of the judges and kings they kept backsliding into idolatry. The prophets over and over again rebuked them for the sin of idolatry. The curses that God said He would bring upon them for their disobedience and idolatry (Deut. 28:36-52, 63-66; 29:24-28) came upon them; they were scattered among the nations: the northern tribes in 722 B.C. by Assyria and the southern tribes in 586 B.C. by Babylonia. When they returned from the 70 years of Babylonian captivity, the Jews never again went into the idolatry of worshipping pagan gods. But it seems that very soon after the last of the O.T. prophets, Malachi, they developed an idolatry of the law. They began to trust in the law (Rom. 2:17). The law became an absolute standard to be obeyed. Obedience to the law subtly took the place of obedience to God. Keeping the law became a meritorious work that could earn God’s favor and blessings. Eventually there evolved the idea that one’s eternal destiny depends upon the amount of merit or demerit that one accumulates during one’s life-time. This whole scheme of merit with its absolute standard of the law is what we mean by legalism.
Jesus and the early apostles, particularly Paul, opposed this Jewish legalism. Paul combated the Judaizers’ attempts to put Christians under the Mosaic law. When we realize the covenant nature of the law, we can see why this was not possible. Since the Christian’s relationship to God was already established in the New covenant, it could not at the same time be established under the Old Mosaic covenant. Then it must be that what the Judaizers were trying to do was to make the law in an absolute sense necessary for a right relationship to God. This is not just the Mosaic law; it is legalism. And Paul refused to allow it. Man needs to be made alive, and that is what God has provided through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And that is what the law cannot do; it cannot make man alive.
“Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not; for if a law had been given which could make alive, then righteousness would indeed by the law.” (Gal. 3:21).
God did not give His law to Israel to make them alive but to show them what sin is; “through the law is the knowledge of sin” (Rom. 3:20b); the law was not given for salvation from sin to righteousness. Man cannot earn salvation by keeping the law, by the works of the law, because that law can not make him alive to God. For if man could be made alive to God through the law, then Christ died in vain (Gal. 2:21).
“I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.” (Gal. 2:21 KJV)
The problem with Calvinism and Arminianism is that they assume that man can be made alive by the works of the law, and that eternal life can be earned by the works of the law. Hence, Calvinism reasons that man must be totally unable because of his sinful nature to do those works, since the Scripture says that salvation is not by works ( Eph. 2:9). Now since salvation is not by man’s works, they reason that Christ by His active obedience has earned salvation for them. That is, God in Christ has earned for them eternal life that they themselves cannot earn because of their sinful nature.
But eternal life was not earned by Christ because Christ Himself is eternal life, the Son of God. Eternal life is not a thing, an “it”, a quantity of merit imputed to one’s account, but is a person, the Son of God, Jesus Christ.
“And Jesus said to him [Thomas], ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me.'” (John 14:6).
And this eternal life cannot be earned, because it is a gift. Salvation is not by the works of the law, not because man cannot do them, but because salvation is a gift of life that is to be received through faith, having nothing to do with the works of law. Salvation is not something that can be earned by meritorious works, but is the gift of life in Christ to be received and entered into through faith. When that gift of life is offered in the preaching of the gospel, a man can choose whether or not to receive that gift. That choice of faith is not a meritorious work, but is the choice to accept the gift of life in Christ. One’s acceptance of that gift does not earn for him the gift.
And when a human person accepts Jesus Christ as their Lord and God, they are made alive to God and have eternal life. That is, when he or she chooses to accept that Person, Jesus Christ, acknowledging Him as their Lord and God, thus entering into a personal relationship to Him, then they have God’s Son and eternal life.
“5:11 And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. 5:12 He who has the Son has life, and he who has not the Son has not life.” (I John 5:11-12).
Click HERE to read what Paul says in his letter to the Galations about the Christian freedom from the law.
And click HERE to study the Christian relation to the law.
“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand fast therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” (Galatians 5:1)