Westminster Confession of Faith – Chapter 9
Chapter 9
Free Will
1. God has given man a will, which by nature is free, i.e., it is not forced or necessarily inclined toward good or evil.(1)
(1) Mt 17.12, Jas 1.14, Dt 30.19, Jn 5.40, 7.17, Rv 22.17, Acts 7.51, Jas 4.7.
2. In his state of innocence man had complete freedom and the natural ability to will and to do what is good and pleasing to God. (2) God also made man so that he could lose that freedom.(3)
(2) Eccl 7.29, Gn 1.26, see under figure 1 above, Col 3.10.
(3) Gn 2.16-17, 3.6.
3. Man fell into a state of sin by his disobedience and so completely lost his ability to will any spiritual good involving salvation.(4) Consequently fallen man is by nature completely opposed to spiritual good,(5) is dead in sin,(6) and is unable by his own strength either to convert himself or to prepare himself for conversion.(7)
(4) Rom 5.6, 8.7, Jn 15.5.
(5) Rom 3.9-10, 12, 23, 8.7.
(6) Eph 2.1,5, Col 2.13.
(7) Jn 6.44,65, 1 Cor 2.14, Eph 2.2-5, Ti 3.3-5, Rom 8.8.
4. When God converts a sinner and brings him into a state of grace, he frees him from his natural enslavement to sin. By God’s grace alone, freely given, sinful man is enabled to will and to do what is spiritually good.(8) However, since the old sinful nature also remains, the believer cannot consistently or perfectly will to do what is good but also wills evil.(9)
(8) Col 1.13, Jn 8.34,36, Phil 2.13, Rom 6.18,22.
(9) Gal 5.17, Rom 7.15,18-19,21-23, 1 Jn 1.8,10.
5. The will of man is perfectly free and permanently inclined to good alone only in the state of glory.(10)
(10) Eph 4.13, Heb 12.23, 1 Jn 3.2, Jude 24, Rv 22.3-4, 2 Chr 6.36, 1 Jn 1.8-10, 2.1-6, Ps 17.15.