Human Nature: Inability or Free Will?

The two theological systems known as Calvinism and Arminianism disagree about many things. Their greatest agreement comes in their understanding of the human condition. In the Calvinist “TULIP”, T stands for Total Depravity. Both sides agree that sin impacts every aspect of life, and leaves human beings completely unable to contribute anything to their own salvation. The difference between the two approaches has to do with how God acts to remedy the human problem. 

How Bad Is It?Both sides of the debate agree how desperate, sinful and corrupt the fallen human condition is. 

One Calvinist author writes, “[Calvin] taught that man, who once enjoyed perfect fellowship and communion with God, had his very nature changed through the fall into sin…. Man’s nature became so wholly corrupt as to leave him unable to choose against his nature. A fallen man is able to choose to do what he wants, but is unable to want God. Because man does not want God, he can never choose Him….” 

An Arminian source says something quite similar: “Humanity was created in the image of God, good and upright, but fell from its original sinless state through willful disobedience, leaving humanity in the state of total depravity, sinful, separated from God, and under the sentence of divine condemnation. Sin impacts every part of a person’s being and people now have a sinful nature with a natural inclination toward sin. Human beings are fundamentally corrupt at heart. As Scripture tells us, ‘The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick’ (Jer 17:9;). Indeed, human beings are spiritually dead in sins and are slaves to sin.… In their natural state, human beings are hostile toward God and cannot submit to his Law nor please him. Thus, human beings are not able to think, will, nor do anything good in and of themselves. We are unable to do anything that merits favor from God and we cannot do anything to save ourselves from the judgment and condemnation of God that we deserve for our sin. We cannot even believe the gospel on our own…”

• Genesis 6:5 (NLT) The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil.
• Romans 3:23 (NLT) For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.
• Ephesians 2:1-3 (NLT) Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil – the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else.
• Romans 8:7-8 (NLT) For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will. That’s why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God.
• John 6:44 (NLT) For no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them to me.

Human Beings Can Pursue God Because God Assists the Human Will

Arminians believe that God graciously enables every sinner to repent and believe – if he or she chooses – but does not interfere with human freedom. They believe that God has given humans free will in all areas, and for free will to exist, a person must be able to choose or reject God or his or her own accord.

One writer explains, “Arminius taught that man’s fall into sin has not completely removed his ability to make a choice for or against God…. In salvation, then, the Spirit draws people sufficiently and enlightens them enough that they can, of their own free will, choose salvation. However, He does not draw or enlighten them enough to force them into a decision.” 

As seriously as human nature was affected by the fall, Arminians do not believe that human beings are left in a state of total spiritual helplessness, because God provides a kind of grace to all humanity which enables a sinner to choose to repent and believe – if he or she chooses. This kind of grace is called prevenient grace. Each sinner has the ability to either cooperate with God’s Spirit and be regenerated, or to resist God’s grace and perish. 

Thus Arminians believe that faith comes before regeneration. While lost sinners need the Spirit’s assistance, they do not have to be made spiritually alive first, by the Spirit, before they can believe. Once they do believe, then they are made spiritually alive.

Arminians look to biblical passages that emphasize the spiritual choices people are called to make:

• Matthew 23:37 (NLT) Jesus says: “How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn’t let me.”
• John 3:16 (NLT) “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”
• John 5:39-40 (NLT) Jesus says: “The Scriptures point to me! Yet you refuse to come to me to receive this life.”
• John 7:17 (NLT) Jesus says: “Anyone who wants to do the will of God will know whether my teaching is from God or is merely my own.”
• Acts 16:31 (NLT) They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, along with everyone in your household.”
• Pelagius

Human Beings Can Pursue God Only If God Changes Their Very Nature

Calvinists believe that human nature is so corrupt that the only way God can bring anyone to believe the gospel is to completely change his or her very nature. If humans are spiritually dead, they must first be made alive before they can respond to God.

As one writer says, “Man’s will is in complete bondage to his nature. Man is free to choose according to the way his nature dictates, but his nature is so wholly corrupt that he could never choose for good…”

It’s not that Calvinists do not believe in human free will, but that a person’s will is a slave to his or her own nature. Therefore human beings cannot choose good over evil in the spiritual realm.  Consider this illustration: if you put a pile of grass and a slab of red meat in front of a lion, which will the lion choose to eat? The lion is free to choose either food. But the lion will never choose to eat the grass, because that would be contrary to its nature as a carnivore. Does the lion have free will? Yes. Can the lion make either of two choices? Theoretically, it can. But in reality it simply won’t.

Calvinists believe that it takes much more than God’s assistance to bring a sinner to Christ. It takes a divine act of regeneration. The Spirit has to make the sinner alive and give him or her a new nature. It makes sense to Calvinists that because human beings are spiritually dead, regeneration must come before faith. No one can exercise faith unless they have first been “born of the Spirit” (John 3:6-8).

Calvinists emphasize biblical passages that underscore the impossibility of human beings to overcome their old nature and to choose God, apart from a radical work of God:

• Ephesians 2:4-6 (NLT) But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. 
• Isaiah 64:6-7 (NLT) We are all infected and impure with sin…. Yet no one calls on your name or pleads with you for mercy.
• John 3:19 (NLT) God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil.
• Romans 3:10-12 (NLT) As the Scriptures say,“No one is righteous—not even one. No one is truly wise; no one is seeking God. All have turned away; all have become useless. No one does good, not a single one.”
• 2 Timothy 2:25,26 (NLT) Gently instruct those who oppose the truth. Perhaps God will change those people’s hearts, and they will learn the truth. Then they will come to their senses and escape from the devil’s trap. For they have been held captive by him to do whatever he wants.

The Takeaway

Human depravity is real. People are lost apart from God’s grace. Everyone is corrupted by sin and will not pursue God on their own, apart from God’s provision. Whichever view of God’s action you hold, both sides of the debate agree that lost people, far from God, need to hear the gospel. No one can be forgiven of their sins or made eternally alive without hearing about Jesus and his atoning work. When we declare the gospel, we can trust that God is at work.