The Myth of Free Moral Agency
John 8:34
Jesus answered them,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.
The present
prevalent persuasion; that Man is a Free Moral Agent is contrary to the
scriptures, and therefore contrary to the teachings of the Holy Ghost, and the
teachings of The Lord Jesus Christ! The biblical sense of the word servant in
the subject verse, is, a slave, a bond slave; those who are slaves, are not
free, and this state of slavery to sin is the inherent condition of all natural
men and women after the fall. This slavery begins at natural birth, and
continues to the death and beyond; if the Lord Jesus Christ does not intervene.
This is our nature by birth after the fall; it is sinful nature, or a sin
nature, and not the created condition of our race as we came from the hand of
our creator, but it is our condition which we inherit by natural birth; since
the disobedience of our first parents. We not only inherit the curse of death
(both natural and eternal Ezekiel 18:4; Revelation 20:6, 14) as a result of our
fall in Adam; but we receive his corrupted evil nature. So that we are
alienated from our creator by our participation the original sin of Adam; and
by our own actual transgression brought on by the inherited sinful nature we
received at the natural birth. Being bond slaves to sin by nature, and from
birth, we can hardly say that we are free, but that is not all.
Satan takes natural men and women
captive at his will, for the Holy Ghost testifies in Scripture, “And the
servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness
instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them
repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; and that they may recover
themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his
will.” (II Timothy 2:24-26). Those who are taken captive at another’s will are
not free, but at the will of Satan they are his captives. But, reader, you may
say, I am no servant of sin; however, the thought of sin is sin itself;
therefore every evil thought is sin, every vile affection is sin, every selfish
attitude is sin, and now if you deny the testimony of the scripture, that is
sin. If you have not repented of sin, you have disobeyed God and that is sin,
for, “And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men
everywhere to repent:” (Acts 17:30). And since the unregenerate are under the
law, and you have broken the first commandment, by not loving God with all your
heart mind and soul, as evidenced by noncompliance to the first commandment,
for if you had loved God in that way you would obey; therefore, you now are
guilty of breaking every commandment in the law for “whosoever shall keep the
whole law, and yet offend in one point,
he is guilty of all.” (James 2:10). So the truth is that natural man is a bond
slave to his own sin, his corrupted nature, and the captivity of Satan, rather
than being free the natural man is bond by invisible cords that he can never
break.
Next we must consider whether
natural man is moral. The Holy Scripture will tell us the truth about natural
man, let us begin our inquiry in the book of Genesis “And God saw that the
wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the
thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. (Genesis 6:5). To this agree
the words of our Lord Jesus Christ “If ye then, being evil, know how to give
good gifts to your children..” (Matthew 7:11). Looking back to the Prophet
Isaiah we find this testimony of the Holy Ghost, by the Prophet “Ah sinful
nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are
corrupters: they have forsaken the Lord, they provoked the Holy One of Israel
to anger, they are gone away backward. Why should ye be stricken any more? Ye
will only revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart
faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but
wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed,
neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.” (Isaiah 1:4-6). To this we
might add the testimony of the Spirit of God by the Apostle Paul “There is none
righteous, no, not one: there is none that under-standeth, there is none that
seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become
unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an
open sepulcher; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is
under their lips: whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: their feet are
swift to shed blood: destruction and misery are in their ways: and the way of
peace they have not known: there is no fear of God before their eyes.” (Romans
3:10-18). So that according to the word of God, natural man is neither free,
nor is he moral; but we find that according to the scriptures man is a bond
slave to sin, and the captive of Satan, as well as his fallen nature; and that
far from being moral he is not moral at all, but is a sinner against God,
against himself, for his heart is turned to destruction, and against his fellow
man. But what can be said about his touted agency?
What saith the scriptures about
mans claim that he is his own agent? “No man can come unto me, except the
Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.”
(John 6:44). “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no
man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6). I am the door: by me if any man inter in, he shall be
saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.” (John 10:9) “There is one
God, and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;” (I Timothy
2:5) No man can approach God on his own behalf; Christ Jesus must interpose His
person as Mediator and His precious blood as Great High Priest on behalf of man
and only then will man be accepted. Jesus Christ is the Great High Priest by
whom men may find acceptance with God. By definition, an agent is one who is
authorized to act for another, Christ Jesus is the only Mediator, and Great
High Priest, that is authorized to approach on the behalf of men. Therefore it
is evident that natural man is not free, nor is he moral, nor is he an agent
authorized to act for himself as approved of God. Since this is the case; what
can be done to find acceptance before God?
The question is not what can be
done; but the question is what has been done already! The question dear reader,
is did Jesus Christ redeem you with his blood at Calvary. Christ Jesus shed His
blood but once, by that great work he purchased all His chosen people; the
question is, were you one in the group that Christ purchased? That information
can only be attained by the gift of God the Holy Ghost. To the chosen, and
redeemed, children of God; the Holy Ghost becomes the teacher of the New
Testament. For it is written “And they shall not teach every man his neighbor,
and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me from
least to the greatest. (Hebrews 10:11). Some of the great things the Holy
Spirit teaches are stated by Matthew “All
things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the
Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.” (Matthew 11:27). It is the office
of the Spirit of Christ to bring the elect, redeemed, children of God to the
knowledge of Christ and through Christ to the knowledge of the Father, whom,
both to know is life eternal. (John 17:3; I John 5:20). This grant of saving
knowledge is freely given to the elect, redeemed children of God, at their new
birth.
The new birth does not make them
the children of God but it gives the children of God the knowledge of their
state in Christ. The children of God are regenerated (or born again) because
they are the children of God, hear the testimony of the Apostle Paul; “And
because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your
hearts, crying, Abba Father.” (Galatians 4:6). And again the Prophet Isaiah
says “And all thy children shall be
taught of the Lord: and great shall be
the peace of thy children.” (Isaiah 54:13). Isaiah is of course speaking to the
church, “thy children” namely, the children of God. The Apostle John brings
this into the New Testament “It is written in the Prophets, And they shall be
all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the
Father, cometh unto me. (John 6:45). Eternal life is only to be obtained by the
knowledge of God in His essential essence; that is, in His Trinity of Persons,
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost; and it is only known of
men by the revelation of God the Holy Ghost. This saving knowledge called the
faith is by revelation of the Holy Ghost; “no man can say that Jesus is Lord,
but by the Holy Ghost” (I Corinthians 12:3) no man can in sincerity and from
his heart declare that Jesus is Lord but by revelation of the Holy Ghost it is
by personal revelation by the Spirit of God.
Consider the declaration of Christ; our Lord had asked His
disciples who men said He is, to which there were various replies. Then Christ
Jesus asked them “But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said,
Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said
unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed
it unto thee, but my Father which is
in heaven.” (Matthew 16:15-17). Reader here is the blessedness of the children
of God, to them truth is revealed; they are taught of God, they are made to
know their Eternal Spiritual Father, (Hebrews 12:9).
One thing more must be added; the
Spirit of God reveals His truth by the preaching of the Gospel; (see Romans
10:13-17; I Corinthians 1:18-21). Reader you will not hear the true Gospel, by
listening to a false one, (Galatians 1:6) as proclaimed by a man who is
convinced that he knows the truth, for “the
deceived and the deceiver are his.”
(Job 12:16). The spirit of antichrist was already at work in the days of the
Apostles, (I John 2:18, 19: II Thessalonians 2:8, 9) and in our day it is the
same. Those who preach a christ who came to save all men without exception, or
to give all men a chance to be saved, do not know the Christ of Holy Scripture;
who came to do His Fathers will, that none of those that the Father had given
Him should be lost; look at the word of our Lord Jesus “And this is the
Father’s will that hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should
lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.” (John 6:39).
Reader, our Lord Jesus Christ finished all the work that His Father sent Him to
do. Diligently consider His word “Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son,
that thy Son also may glorify thee: as thou hast given him power over all
flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And
this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus
Christ, whom thou hast sent. I have glorified thee on earth: I have finished
the work which thou gavest me to do.” (John 17:1-4). The work that Christ was
sent to do is given in Matthew as: And the angel said to Joseph; “And she
(Mary) shall bring forth a Son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he
shall save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21). Christ Jesus redeemed
His people by His blood at Calvary, those the Father gave Him before the world
was made are His people whom He redeemed, and whom He has saved; it is the
work of the Holy Ghost to teach the
children of God their privileges. Reader for sake of your soul; find the true
Gospel and attend the preaching of it.
A.J. Ison
