There is much talk today in Christendom about free will as the culprit in the human race choosing to sin. Free will is defined as the power of acting without the constraint of the necessity of fate [or faith] the ability to act at ones own discretion without constraints. Most Christians, if pressed, will assign the propensity to sin and the evil in the world to mans free will. The Lord has impressed upon me lately, through the writing of John Darby, that this is simply not true. Yes man, in the garden, did make a free choice to turn to his own self centered effort, thereby sin entered into the world, that put us in a position of eternal death, separated from God forever and in dire need of redemption. It is little understood that Adam's choice ended free will for all of mankind forever, the available choices of fallen man, a man now in the flesh, all were lost to death, the death of body, soul and spirit. In and of itself, the flesh [mans totality of being] will always remain in death even for the Christian as Christ died unto the flesh. If man as a natural being in the flesh is lost to sin, in and of himself, he has but one choice available to him; he cannot chose good, that would be and still is impossible, therefore no free will, for he is in God's sight as to his existence in the flesh only sinful and as Jesus said;" only God is good". If Adam has only the choice of the bad, or evil, he has no free will. If he had chose good, that would mean he did not have good to begin with, and if you are bad or sinful choosing good does not make you good. Then we must ask what remains for us to do? Fear not you my friends of faith, for your Redeemer is drawing close, and the way that redemption will be lived out is your choice; in the first Adam or the last.
In looking at the problem of applying free will to the Christians life, I think it is better to see our choices as acts of volition. Which is defined as; the act or an instance of making a conscious choice or decision. Volition may also be seen as a psychological function, much like affection [emotional] or even motivation, as volition can be applied consciously for a end purpose, our discretion and constraints are involved here; unlike pure free will. Volitional will also can become a automatized response or habit becoming so over time, such as continuing to behave or act out in a certain manner when confronted by a specific stimuli. Just what then does this have to do with living out our Christianity?
In the Scofield Study Bible, there is a quite reveling note on this matter on page 1716, which I will quote and give Bible references for further study. " Flesh," in the ethical sense, is the whole natural or unregenerate man, spirit, soul, and body-as centered upon self, prone to sin, and opposed to God Rom. 7:18. The regenerate man is not in the flesh but in [the sphere of, or under the influence of] the Holy Spirit Rom. 8:9; but the flesh is still in him and he may according to choice, [volition] walk according to the flesh or the Spirit 1Cor. 3:1-4 Gal. 5:16-17. In the first case he is a carnal Christian; in the second a spiritual Christian. Victory over the flesh will be the habitual experience of the Christian who walks in the Spirit Rom. 8:2,4, Gal 5:17-17." I know I wish to be known to God as one who walks in the Spirit, and certainly victory is my preferred life as a Christian it seems that it is all up to me. If this is true why then do we fail so often, by not choosing to live our lives in victory and the knowledge of our presence in Christ? The answer lies in our own volition, and according to the Bible, is because of the the Adam we choose to remain in.
Lets clear the air here. When we were born again we became a new creation, we were given a brand new regenerated spirit, before God we became completely new, NOT IN THE FLESH. What does that mean? The new spirit you were given at the moment of belief does not mean the one that lives, [think of your sinful mind] inside of you was made better, so that you may now walk on the earth a completed man, once again seen by the Father as good, no the new creation which is your new birth, is ONLY found residing in the person of Jesus Christ, and Him before the Father representing you. What you were given by this gift of new birth was the Holy Spirit, and His only purpose is to glorify Christ by enabling you in your mind, still a man in the flesh, to mortify that fleshly person [kill it] by coming to the full realization that your new spiritual / mental personality which has eternal life, not your old personality in the flesh, is entirely held in the mind of God in seeing you, as he views His Son the glorified New Adam; " For you have died and your life [now seen by God in Jesus] is hid with Christ in God "Col. 3:3. My friends this leaves us in a position of choices, all by our own volitional will. We may listen to the Holy Spirit describe this truth about us in God's Word, and accept it in a moment by moment faith," studying to show ourselves approved" always praying for more of our life in Christ to be revealed and appropriating the Gift of the knowledge of our objective position in Jesus Christ that is made clear in the Words of Scripture and thereby we become a growing, spiritual, man or women. OR we may make a volitional choice to remain in the flesh, as to our understanding of our Christianity by remaining ignorant of this truth, defeated by the life of a dead man alive in us, a carnal [flesh] christian. Again you choose, the first Adam fallen or the Last Victorious.
God our Father has imparted in us a new life and new nature, to which nothing of the old Adam's sinful nature can be applied, in other words our flesh nature cannot be attached to the new or have any part in it, after all we the new man which we are, is seen by The Father in Christ in Glory, our position. This only makes sense as God can have nothing what so ever to due with sin, which we will always be associated with on this earth! We, ourselves personally, here on the earth, are in a mixed condition, as we carry two principals within us, we do actively sin in the flesh, and we do have Christ our salvation alive in us; but that knowledge of His life in us is by the Holy Spirit revealing to our mind that we are hid IN Christ in position. A mingled condition in the body if you will. But remember according to the Bible the old nature that is still in us is not allowed or accepted, and as a matter of fact for the purpose of God's economy is a dead thing, and the second, or new nature which is contained in Jesus, we hold in ourselves by faith or you might say is only recognized by faith. Once again it seems we must make a choice.
It must be forever held and thoroughly understood, for position in Christ to hold sway over us and have power in our life, that we see that Jesus Christ died on the Cross to accomplish a judicial purpose; God's judgement of the sin of mankind! And that remains true of us in the condition we find ourselves here in the flesh as Christians, having been forgiven. But we by a volitional choice must make it true to ourselves, in accepting by faith the eternal result of this judicial reality; we exist in Christ, Him in His person, our eternal life "hid in Christ in God", and He as our Federal Representative there, in Glory, for that purpose. Again this will only be realized by faith, and your volitional conscious choice of accepting this fact, given by God's grace and truth found in His Word.
My dear brother and sisters in Christ from the bottom of my heart I pray you consider the following with deep contemplation; If it were not important for the life of the Christian in the conduct of His relationship with the Father the picture presented in the Word, "The first Adam was made a living soul" 1 Cor. 15:45 would not be necessary. We all know that, that soul, fell into sin hence the need for a Saviour; enter the Biblical concept for our consideration, the Last Adam. "The Last Adam was made a life-giving Spirit" 1 Cor 15:45. This realization changed everything for me! You see I was lucky enough to reach an end, as I found that conducting my Christian persona under my soul's realization in my earthly life of the first Adam could only bring sadness and spiritual death. The Bible says "we are strangers and Pilgrims here" and that we are to be " as He [Jesus Christ] is in Heaven here on Earth" and that we "are hid in Christ in God". Now I don't know about you but I sure couldn't live up to or visualize that in the way I conducted my life as a Adamic man, and did not see myself as a man " being conformed into the image of Christ". It was at the bottom of the barrel of need that God presented me His Son in The Last Adam; I learned that my Christian life would only have the Joy and victory God wished for me by entering into by Faith the Word of God, which says that we are held in a spiritual place in Heaven, in His Son and that all I was trying to do by working in my old self contained christian soul in the flesh was of no value what-so-ever. You see my friends Christ's Death on The Cross was to do away with that old man and thereby we entered a entirely" new creation," the old way of the earthly man is gone for me. I am now conducting my affairs on this sin racked evil planet as a "new man" with a completely new spirit, which is not contained in my old man here,which would be impossible as he sins! I am by Faith identified and positioned in the object of all beauty, the Holy Son of God , the creator of the universe, and I have full and open access to the very Throne room of God by that faith. This, a new creation, enables me to place my old nature still contained in my body in a place of death and conduct my Christian life from a platform of heavenly power, a vantage point of great advantage indeed. Come up my Christian friends the view is most lovely and the air is clear. Pray for the need and desire to know this positional truth and God will grant you by His grace the Gift of faith to make the most important volitional choice you have ever made; that of living in a active realized eternal life now and here.
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