How does free will operate in a spiritually "dead" sinner?

Question

Spiritual death is referred to in the following passage. No one denies that people make choices, but how can a person choose Christ when his will is in bondage to sin and spiritual death?

Ephesians 2:1-5 (New International Version)

1As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. 4But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.

Answer 1

In keeping with the verses you posted, it clearly says that we (those who are presently saved) were (before we were saved) spiritually dead in our sins. We followed the spirit of wickedness, doing what "feels good" without a thought as to the Law of God. We were corrupt in thought, word, and deed. And by our natural birth, because of original sin (Adam's sin) we were objects of God's wrath. God owed us nothing but the wages of sin, being death. He could have left us all in our sins, and let us live our lives out in sin and misery, and justly punished us with eternal punishment for those sins on the Last Day. BUT GOD, who is rich in mercy, even WHEN WE WERE DEAD in our transgressions, made us alive with Christ, SO THAT, now being made spiritually alive, being able to see our sin and misery, and to comprehend the wrath of God due to us for sin, and understanding the mercy of God in Christ, we are ENABLED BY GOD to believe, and embrace Jesus Christ as he is offered in the Gospel. It is by God's grace we are saved. The very next few verses of that chapter repeat those words "it is by grace that you have been saved through faith, and that (faith) is not of yourselves, it (also) is the gift of God - not of works, lest anyone should boast."

There is yet another verse which says that it is not of him who WILLS or RUNS, but of God who shows mercy.

Anyone who says that they chose to believe out of their "free will" understands neither these verses, nor any other that explains clearly that dead, sinful, enemies of God, who hate righteousness cannot simply "choose" to love that which they do not love.

We are not "free" to choose contrary to our desires. However God removes the heart of stone, and replaces it with a believing heart of flesh.

God saves sinners. He doesn't help sinners save themselves.

Answer 2

I 'll put it this way so it may be easier for you ,grace is stronger than a death ,before Christ come ,we are ALL in sin ,deaths and no one could come to God with just a simple pray in the morning . It will require a long ritual in the Holy Temple ,But God's come ,and death in cross ,and no one ever believed Him ,but from His death ,we are all free ,free to meet God face-to face ,and talk to Him whenever ,wherever we wanted to ,and from that ,he released us from the sin and also a fear of death ,and the death has lost because God has broke our chain .So long as there are live in that person ,he/she could choose God wherever or whenever they wanted to let God broke their chain ,and release them from the control of the ruler of the kingdom of the air ,but if it was too late...you are dead and you're not asking God's help once when you live ,you will really face the eternal death and lost a chance to a new living ,that's why we have to preach ,so there will be no more "death" ,they will require our help ,or if someday ,they will helped by God personally ,but the main here is ,the sinner must let go of their old sinful life ,that's the only way he will be released ,they must think ,where their life will end soon ,that's the only way their free will will operate ,and also our job to preach them as a christian.

Answer 3

In the book of James it talks about a double minded person. Who is unstable in all he does like a wave in an ocean. The mind of a person that is dead by his transgressions is not always ensnared to sinful thoughts. The cycle of spirituality comes around, Holy Spirit knocks at the door. If the person opens their mind and heart to hear the calling they have the opportunity to let Jesus in. God makes His mercy fall on whom He chooses. We are not to boast in ourselves but in what God has done in us. We can not save ourselves and boast about it. God chose us from the beginning to be in His favor to receive salvation and gave us grace to repent for His great gift.

Same thing is true when we become alive in Christ. The only thing that makes us become acceptable to enter heaven is more grace to remove the believers from the laws that bring death. For man can not live a life pure from away sin even after salvation is obtained. Continued reliance on grace from God and a repenting heart as a believer goes through his journey to become more like Christ. It is not perfectly obtainable and this opens believers up to be classified as hypocrites. Believers are still people that continue to need Jesus and what He did on the cross as much as a non-believer. For we are forgiven of past , present and future sins.

Praise the Lord for His abundant Mercy and Grace.

Answer 4

The spiritual death of Adam, or his total corruption of human nature, has been transmitted to the entire race of man, the man Christ Jesus alone excepted; and hence that every child of Adam is born into the world with a nature which not only possesses no spark of Divine life, but is essentially and unchangeably bad, being enmity against God, and incapable by any educational process whatever of subjection to His law.

The free will of a spritually dead sinner will be unchangeably bad. It will take a good preacher to change his life.

Answer 5

The Spirit is dead because Adam killed it when he chose disobedience over obedience. Note what was used to kill his spirit: choice. Free will remained. Each human has the ability to evaluate the choice between self and God. Sin blinds the choice, however, so the Holy Spirit steps in to open the person's eyes to the facts of Who God Is. However, unlike what Calvinists claim, a choice is still made. Hell is exactly because the person CHOSE to be there.

Answer 6

That is like saying why do regenerated Believers often choose sin. Everyone has a free will but our nature causes us to prefer sin. Only the Holy Spirit can help redirect our natural instict from self serving to Christ serving, whether we are a believer or not. The Holy Spirit will convict both believers and non-believers of sin and both must choose which path to follow. We all must choose wisely.

Answer 7

I think you've found a "God doesn't want robots" passage for me -- but I interpreted it as God not wanting the robots who have an allegiance to Satan and the ways in the world. Unfortunately, we are all robots through original sin, and our eyes have to be opened by a loving father that sees us for who we are and loves us in spite of these failings. That means it is a complete mystery to me as to why he would send his son to die for people that don't deserve heaven whatsoever, and it just floors me that he would ever want to enter into a relationship with us. We are exactly like the verse says, dead in our transgressions and sins, which means that God has done something really special for us. Those who don't believe, have no idea what I'm talking about, and you'll see that they don't know what you're talking about, either.

Answer 8

Near the start of human history the one who is now “the god of this system of things” induced the fall of our first human parents. Adam and Eve were pressured into disobeying their Creator. This was before we were born. We have all felt the ill effects of this. In Romans 5:12 the apostle Paul speaks true to the facts when he writes: “Through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because they had all sinned.” We came under the divine condemnation to death because of naturally inheriting imperfection, sinfulness and moral corruption. We were as good as dead. To God we did not live.

Naturally, we were heirs of God’s anger, “children of wrath.” We were “alienated from the life that belongs to God.” (Ephesians 4:18) As Colossians 1:21 also says: “You . . . were once alienated and enemies because your minds were on the works that were wicked.” Because of that state of affairs and at that time, Jehovah God was not working in us. Well, then, who or what was?

In answer to that question, the words in Ephesians 2:1-5, written to converted Christians, tell us: “You were dead, through the crimes and the sins in which you used to live when you were following the way of this world, obeying the ruler who governs the air, the spirit who is at work in the rebellious. We all were among them too in the past, living sensual lives, ruled entirely by our own physical desires and our own ideas; so that by nature we were as much under God’s anger as the rest of the world. But God loved us with so much love that he was generous with his mercy: when we were dead through our sins.”—The Jerusalem Bible; An American Translation.

Answer 9

There is no Spirit in the sinner who is dead spiritually.And we don't choose Christ He chooses us.God knew our name before we were in our mothers womb.The free will comes in to play when we make the choice whether we will heed the call of the Holy Spirit and follow Him.Free will is our decision to follow or not.All are dead in sin until we accept the gift of salvation and are alive in Him eternally.

Answer 10

Christ does not save a person in their sins, He saves the from their sins. We are saved only if we walk in a newness of life after baptism. With his help we can overcome our sins and Christ will pay for them by grace. If we continue in sin that grace may abound we are subject to another power. We were created to walk in good works.