Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost
August 22, 2010

Psalm 139:1-5
Is Free Will Real?

Philip Melanchthon, Martin Luther, and the other Reformers read Psalm 139 hundreds of times during their lives.

O Lord, You have searched me
and You know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
You perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down;
You are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue
You know it completely, O Lord.
You hem me in—behind and before;
You have laid Your hand upon me.

They studied this psalm and wrestled with the question: “Is free will real?” This is their answer from Holy Scripture: Article 18 of the Defense of the Augsburg Confession.

We do not deny freedom to the human will. The human will has freedom in the choice of works and things that reason understands by itself. To a certain extent reason can display public righteousness or the righteousness of works. It can speak of God, offer to God a certain service by an outward work, and obey public officials and parents. In choosing an outward work, it can hold back the hand from murder, adultery, and theft. Because human nature has been left with reason and judgment about objects subjected to the senses, choice between these things, the liberty and power to produce public righteousness are also left. Scripture calls this the righteousness of the flesh, which the carnal nature (that is, reason) produces by itself, without the Holy Spirit. (Ap XVIII, Paragraph 70)

We have free will in matters under the sun, as Solomon might say. You decide who to marry. Where to go to college. How fast to travel in a 45 mph speed zone. Whether to go to church. What to eat for dinner tonight. How many knots in your shoelaces.

All people, whether they trust in Christ or not, possess the free will to make these and a million other decisions under the sun. But even though unbelievers have free will, they often misuse it.

However, the power of lustful desire is such that people more often obey evil inclinations than sound judgment. The devil, who is powerful in the godless... [stirs] up this weak nature to various offenses, as Paul says in Ephesians 2:2 (“in 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”). For these reasons even public righteousness is rare among people. Not even the philosophers, who seem to have hoped for this righteousness, achieved it. (Ap XVIII, Paragraph 71)

This world is messed up because our free will keeps choosing selfish things. We choose selfish things because what we refer to as “free will” isn't free at all. Our will is bound to sin and self. Our will is the will of Satan and of the world and of our selves. God recognized this before and after Noah's flood and said: “Every inclination of [man's] heart is evil from childhood” (Genesis 8:21). Humans have wills, but they aren't free. Our wills are sinful selfish wills.

But it is false to say whoever performs the works of the commandments without grace does not sin. [False teachers] add further that such works also merit the forgiveness of sins and justification in merely an agreeable way... For without the Holy Spirit, human hearts lack the fear of God. Without trust toward God, they do not believe that they are heard, forgiven, helped, and preserved by God. Therefore, they are godless. For “a diseased tree [cannot] bear good fruit” (Matthew 7:18). And “without faith it is impossible to please [God]” (Hebrews 11:6). (Ap XVIII, Paragraph 72)

This means that your works of your sinful will, even though they may look good to the world around us, cannot make God want to spend time with you.

Although we admit that free will has the freedom and power to perform the extreme works of the Law, we do not assign spiritual matters to free will. These are to truly fear God, believe God, be confident and hold that He cares for us, hears us, and forgives us. These are the true works of the First Table, which the heart cannot produce without the Holy Spirit, as Paul says, “The natural person [namely, a person using only natural strength] does not accept the things of the Spirit of God” (1 Corinthians 2:14). (Ap XVIII, Paragraph 73)

The first Lutherans explained the failure of working to make God love you. Unbelievers can—in an outward way—honor their parents, not murder, not commit adultery, not steal, and not give false testimony. At best they can avoid going to jail. But their sinful will can do no more than that. Consider your thoughts—if the police had access to your thoughts, how long would you remain out of jail? Unbelievers and their “free will” can never above all things fear, love, and trust in God. They can never properly use His name. They can never take His Word seriously.

People can determine this if they consider what their hearts believe about God’s will, whether they are truly confident God cares for and hears them. Even the saints find keeping this faith difficult (which is not possible in unbelievers). But, as we have said before, it begins when terrified hearts hear the Gospel and receive comfort. (Ap XVIII, Paragraph 74)

Here the first Lutherans confess how a believer becomes a believer. It happens against our will. Our will loves sin; our will hates God's ways. But through the Gospel in the Sacraments and in the Word, the Holy Spirit break our stony sinful will into pieces and brings us the comfort of the saving work of Jesus that happened completely outside of us, and thankfully, outside of our supposedly free will.

Their distinction is helpful. Civil righteousness is assigned to free will, and spiritual righteousness is assigned to the governing of the Holy Spirit in the reborn. In this way, outward discipline is kept, because all people should know that God requires this civil righteousness and that, to some extent, we can achieve it. And yet a distinction is shown between human and spiritual righteousness, between philosophical teaching and the teaching of the Holy Spirit. It can be understood why the Holy Spirit is needed. (Ap XVIII, Paragraph 75)

Each person has a will. But each person's will is not free to choose good or evil. Anyone who believes that they have a truly free will has bought the snake's oldest lie to Eve in the Garden of Eden: “God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5). It is a half-truth. Yes, now we can see the difference between good and evil, but we can't be good enough for God to love us. We know what good is, but we can't be good.

We did not invent this distinction; Scripture clearly teaches it. Augustine also presents it, and recently William of Paris has presented it very well. But those who dream that people can obey God’s Law without the Holy Spirit, and that the Holy Spirit is given so that obeying the Law may be considered meritorious, have wickedly hindered the distinction. (Ap XVIII, Paragraph 76)

This teaching about free will is all from the Bible. It is a truth that has been preached by all faithful Christians through the centuries, Augustine in the 400s and William in the 1100s. Again they sum up the main point. Anyone can choose to avoid extreme wickedness. But we can't chose to believe in Jesus. We can't chose to be good enough to please God.

Instead Jesus is the superior solution. He gives us His goodness. He sends His Spirit through Word and Sacrament to create and sustain trust in Him. He gives us strength to do good works with which God is pleased.

Yes, you have a free will, but it can only send you to hell. But God's will was to send Christ to suffer hell for you. So yes, God knows your every thought. But instead of fear, this fact bring God's people joy and comfort. He is taking care of us, because that is His will.

Amen.

Book of Concord Source
Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions. Edited by Paul T. McCain. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2005.