The Un-free Will
The Reformation is known for recovering core biblical doctrines of catholic and apostolic Christianity. The theological tsunami of the Reformation reclaimed the inspiration of the Bible as our ultimate authority (sola Scriptura), the doctrines of justification by grace through faith alone and the universal priesthood (of all believers), and an understanding of real presence in the hearts of the faithful recipients of the real grace offered in the two sacraments. But the biggest discovery of those 16th century madmen and women for the Bible is often unspoken: the bondage of the will. The un-free will is the right place to start, and the foundation on which the rest of Protestant theology stands or falls. Without this, we have no true understanding of the character of God and a dim appreciation for the cost of our salvation. The Bible in its rightful place and salvation by a righteousness that is not our own are gigantic markers of the Reformation, but understanding who we are “by nature” (Eph 2:3), may be the Reformation’s most important one. If we get this wrong, everything else that follows will be wrong. “Theology does not start from the top; it begins from the bottom. If theology starts at the top and moves down, it is not earthed in everyday life. It is conceptual rather than real” (Paul Zahl, Grace in Practice). Zahl later writes what I have found true in my own ministry:
“I have been talking about the un-free will for thirty years and have never has a single person agree with me on my first attempt. People instinctively rise up against the idea. I repeat, I have not experienced a single instance, in thirty years, of anyone immediately agreeing with me that the human will is not free. (In fact, the only people who display any receptivity at all to the idea are alcoholics and criminals. And even criminals behind bars want to go back to ‘free will’ once they are settled into prison existence.) When I speak of the un-free will, most people wish to have a duel with me and leave me, like Alexander Hamilton at Weehawken, inert on the ground.”
When we speak about an un-free will we are obviously not saying that we are puppets or that some kind of determinism is at play. It should be obvious that we have free wills to raise our right hands and wiggle our fingers, and to select an ice cream flavor. Whether the human will is free or un-free goes to the question of salvation and how we enter the Kingdom of God. Either we are saved because we willfully chose him (men and women in search of God, with all eyes closed and heads bowed), or our “wills” are so in bondage to sin that our only hope for help is outside of ourselves (God in search of us). Is the story of salvation about men and women climbing a ladder to reach God, or about God coming down to us on our level (or, heaven forbid!, some half way meeting: God helps those who help themselves)? It is absolutely true what the old hymn says best: "I sought the Lord and afterward I knew; he moved my soul to seek him, seeking me.”
The Bible teaches human helplessness in sin and the glory and sovereignty of God in grace. “Almighty God, we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves…” states the collect for the Third Sunday in Lent. But we are not left there in the desert to shrivel and die in the scorching Arizona sun! God, in his unfathonable mercy, came to our rescue. Biblical Christianity leads us to have complete and utter confidence in God for salvation from beginning to end. Our efforts at self-justification and the treadmill of moralism only leads to further despair because we simply can never do enough.
I love how Anglicans speak of having a low anthropology and a high Christology. Men and women, apart from grace, are incapable of doing anything but continue to sin, either by doing wrong things, or by doing right things for the wrong, selfish reasons. There is no friendship or cooperation between grace and freewill; they live in different neighborhoods! it is only by grace that our wills and affections will be set right by the power of the Holy Spirit. Article IX (Thirty-nine Articles of Religion) speaks of “the fault and corruption of the Nature of every man, that naturally is ingendered of the offspring of Adam; whereby man is very far gone from original righteousness, and is of his own nature inclined to evil, so that the flesh lusteth always contrary to the spirit; and therefore in every person born into this world, it deserveth God’s wrath and damnation. And this infection of nature doth remain, yea in them that are regenerated.” Article X says this more succinctly: “the condition of Man after the fall of Adam is such, the he cannot turn and prepare himself, by his own natural strength and good works, to faith.” The Christian life takes its first breath in us with the words, “God, please help me!” People in 12-Step programs seem to know this better than others, and so do Christians who have been humbled on moralistic treadmills of self-righteousness - who have learned to pray from the heart: “We do not presume to come to this thy Table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in thy manifold and great mercies. We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under thy Table. But thou art the same Lord, whose property is always to have mercy…”
Grace in Practice: A Theology of Everyday Life, Paul F. M. Zahl