Total Inability to do Good
Meditations on John 8
A quick review of John 8:31-36:
*There is a kind of faith that is not saving and doesn’t help us. It is the same kind of faith the devil possesses. The Jews who opposed Jesus in John 8 “believed Him” but were exposed as haters who wanted to kill Him.
*Jesus offended them by telling them they were not free and needed to be set free by Him. Unregenerate sinners are very proud of their free will and get very angry if you tell them they’re not free.
*Jesus said that those who commit sin (i.e. practice it habitually) are not free but are slaves – slaves to sin.
*Jesus said that true freedom comes only when He sets us free.
At this point, it would be worthwhile to consider a few other verses which speak of man’s depraved and dysfunctional will. No one denies that man has a will, a faculty of choice. Indeed, we make choices all the time that are uncoerced. But what we need to understand is that our will only chooses things in accordance with the dominant desires of our heart. And the heart of man is deceitful above all else and is desperately wicked (Jer. 17:9).
Before a man is born again, his will is in bondage to sin and Satan. In his unregenerate state, a man hates God, hates Christ, and hates God’s commandments. And because he hates everything about God (the one true God, not the god he invents), it is impossible for him to repent of sin and believe in Christ savingly.
This is why Jesus said to the Jews, “everyone who commits sin in the slave of sin” (Jn. 8:34).
And this in John 8:42-44: “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and have come from God, for I have not even come on My own initiative, but He sent Me. Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word. You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”
Notice, they could not hear Christ’s word. That speaks of ability, or rather the lack of it.
There are many scriptures that speak of what are able to do and what we are unable to do. If we want to know what the Bible teaches about our abilities, we should look to those verses that directly address the subject, rather than verses which show us our duty. Below are several examples.
John 6:44: “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.”
“For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” (Rom. 8:6-8)
1 Cor. 2:14: “But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.”
2 Tim. 2:24-26: “The Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.”
Titus 3:3: “For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another.”
Heb. 2:14-15: “Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.”
Jer. 13:23: “Can the Ethiopian change his skin Or the leopard his spots? Then you also can do good Who are accustomed to doing evil.”
Mt. 12:33-35: “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. “The good man brings out of his good treasure what is good; and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil.”
It is because sinners hate God and love sin that they cannot do what pleases God, cannot believe in Christ savingly and cannot repent of the sin they love. They cannot repent of sin anymore than you who love chocolate can repent of your love of chocolate. You cannot make yourself hate what you actually love, and love what you actually hate.
It is because men are universally depraved that scripture gives us such a dismal appraisal of humanity: “as it is written, “THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE; THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD; ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE.” (Rom. 3:10-12)
Free will advocates argue in vain about how unfair it would be for God to choose some people for salvation and not everyone. They insist that God gives everyone the opportunity to be saved by exercising a free will decision to choose Christ. But what they fail to understand again and again is that God could “chances” for sinners to love Him and believe in Him all day long for 100 years straight, and apart from His electing grace, they would trample every opportunity underfoot. The so-called opportunity to be saved is only something that is despised and spurned.
Unless God in His sovereign power chooses to awaken and regenerate a hostile sinner (like He did with the apostle Paul), that sinner will never in a million years take the slightest friendly step toward reconciling with God.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Eph. 2:8-9)