2.2
Calvin's Institutes: Humanity's Lack of Free Will
Wild
Card by Claire Brettell
The way I understand Calvin and his
adamant stance with regard to our inability to be free from either evil or
righteousness, is simply that Calvin wants it known that since the fall of man,
we have all been broken and bound to evil.
And only by the glory of God's grace are we freed from the bondage to
evil and become bound then to righteousness through Christ's redemptive work.
Calvin is adamant in his conviction
that there is no part of us, which is able to offer free will. We are either bound
by evil and respond according to our evil desires, or we are bound in
righteousness and respond from a place of good. This concept of Calvin's is
repeated a number of different ways and he gives a number of suggestions as to
why, and how this is to be. But, what I see as the overriding reason for his
stance is shared in Calvin's words from Book 2 Chapter II of the Institutes
(McNeill page 255) "Nothing, however slight, can be credited to man
without depriving God of his honor, and without man himself falling into ruin
through brazen confidence". It is all about acknowledging God's Glory. It
is as if Calvin is protecting us from ourselves with this strong and for most
people I know difficult to accept notion.
As I was reading the text for this
week, I continued to think about Calvin and free will, I remember thinking about
our Freedom in Christ Jesus. What is freedom? Freedom in Christ is for me best
explained experientially as the audible dropping of chains and the peace and
lightness of step. Scripturally
it is a profound freedom which places over us a yoke which is easy and a burden
which is light vs. the heavy burden of sin and the harness of sinful desires
which we were once bound.
Where is freedom if there isn’t free will? My thought is
that there is freedom in the bondage to the Will of God. And that freedom from
sin is the greatest gift. And I do believe this is the reason for Calvin's hard
to hear words. His contention is that we must not slip even an inch from
whose will is at work, or we will surely completely slip from the grace of God.
Calvin is hard on this point because of the severity of this notion. If we
should slip even one inch from giving Glory to God, we will have lost it all again because of our human nature to make all things ours....
I
then began to think of the ways in which Christians made decisions, and I immediately thought of
discernment. Discernment is huge and can, at times move mountains in
a community of faith. My thought flows then, if there is no free will then what is
the meaning of our discernment practices? Decisions need to be made, we weigh them, we consider, we pray
that our choices would not be self-motivated, we ask our community to pray for
us as we enter a time of discernment. I am just wondering how all of this fits
with Calvin's concept of no free will. What are we agonizing over if there is
no actual free will?
The other thought I had while I was reading the text: Did Jesus
have free will? From the stories in the desert, when he turned the water into
wine, to the temple where he chose to knock over tables, to the Garden at Gethsemane
one might be sure he did have free will. Spurred by anger, passion, grief or torment,
Jesus was making his decisions, his choices. As part of his humanity then, did
he have free will? What are your
thoughts?
Yes, Calvin's words are hard to hear. And yet you are right, God's gift to us grants us all kinds of freedom, especially freedom from sin. I think though Calvin still makes way for the agency of both humans and demons. In book one, chapter 17, Calvin writes about Providence, but still makes it clear that the evil things that happen are not the fault of God. When evil is committed it is the act of the evil one, but it is still part of the overall plan. At least that is how I read it. Of course, this is not a positive statement about free will, but for me muddies the waters somewhat. I guess we must see that the evil done is due to the fallen nature of humans and the fact that we are a slave to sin. (Forgive me, I am still sorting this out.)
ReplyDeleteAs for the will of Jesus, another hard question. Jesus was not fallen, but the new Adam and, as Calvin points out, Adam was able to choose. He was, after all, made in God's image (Institutes, 1.15.3) Calvin goes on to say, "God provided man's soul with a mind, by which to distinguish good from evil, right from wrong, and, with the light of reason as a guide...To this he joined the will, under whose control is choice." (1.15.8) So, yes, Jesus did/does have free will. I think this would also pertain if we say God has free will, the whole Trinity must have free will.
Yes, providence makes a way. But, evil bends with God's Will, and so it is still a hard concept for me and as far as I can tell; in all of theology there is 'the sorting out of it'. I thought there would be answers in Seminary, come to find out there are more questions! Thank you for your response to my little wild card post!
DeleteInteresting point Bill, I had not thought about whether Jesus was free or not.
DeleteGreat question Claire. Jesus seems to get to have his own sort of category. In his divinity, he was perfectly aligned with the Father’s will. In his humanity, even when he questioned a course of action, Jesus was clear that his purpose was to abide with God the Father. Remembering Jesus’ prayer in the Garden for God to take the cup of suffering from him, yet Jesus prays for God’s will, not his own. “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet, not my will but yours be done.” Luke 22:42 In that prayer, I hear perfect submission, which is a pathway to freedom and ultimately to God.
ReplyDeleteLaurie, thank you. I suppose I was thinking of this question from the humanity perspective of the gift in Jesus Christ. In the wilderness one of the messages is that Jesus was tempted in all the ways we might be, and he stood firm in his convictions, spoke Scripture over the temptations as, an example of what it is to surpass one's own immediate need or temptation for the Will of God in any circumstance. So, in this 'test of the wilderness' it is supposed, that Jesus could have chosen the other way. COULD HAVE, being he had his own free will, and this free will would then have been his human-own because he was born without sin, no 'evil seed within him', which bound him to evil as we do. But, still he agonized verbally, physically, emotionally. Anyway that was what I was thinking. Thank you again for your post.
DeleteThis is truly an awesome discussion! As I read Calvin, I struggle with "freedom from sin." because we are not truly free from sinning. When we consider the free will of Jesus I would agree that Christ because of His divinity and humanity does get to make a choice and even ask questions of God (with ultimate decision to obey God) As we think of ourselves as followers of Christ (and therebye allowed to question) does this negate Calvin's idea of free will? As I think of this idea of questioning, it seems that it is the gift of God's grace which allows this questioning. Calvin through chapters 3 and 5 of book 2 acknowledge this idea of God's grace.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Jesus for the opportunity to ask these questions with sincere hearts. And the more I think about this, our will is always tainted. Jesus' Will not ever, no matter if it is through the divinity of Jesus or the humanity of Jesus. I believe too, now that the way in which the choice(s) are made (either through divine will or human will for Jesus) the lesson dictates the way in which Jesus will portray His will for us as an example. Thank you for your post!
DeleteClaire you bring up a good point regarding free will. I believe there is a fine line in our discernment in making the best decisions and striving towards what we have learned as righteous behavior and the work of the Holy Spirit bringing us towards a right relationship with God. I believe not one of us would choose God. It is the Holy Spirit’s work in drawing us near towards the relationship with God that even allows us to have the ability to choose that relationship in the first place. So is the path for us predestined in that since? I believe that God works through all situations for the best. Scripture is full of stories where if certain situations hadn’t happen the way that they did then the whole outcome of the human race would have been different. For example, David and Bathsheba, that situation was a sin against God. When David took her selfishly. But it is through Bathsheba that Solomon was born, and then eventually Christ. So without her DNA what would have happened to Christ bloodline? There are certain situations that I feel when we look back on them we realize that God worked through them and if they hadn’t have happened this particular way then nothing that was good would have happen. There are times that out of evil the very best things happen.
ReplyDeleteI thank you for your post. And I think of David's sin against God with Bathsheba as you share is a wonderful example of how God works with us, in our sin and lust, WHEN WE REPENT and when we are His and when.... it is God's Will. That is my only hope that somehow when I am making a decision (and not a sin or don't sin choice, but one that is more along the line of which good thing) I pray, I pause, I step in one direction and take in and consider once again my motivations, and proceed in and through prayer that the Lord's great power will be able to pull me out of the thicket if I have somehow chosen incorrectly, or that along some other line of choices, someone else has made a really bad one and that wave of broken-ness ends up colliding with my decision. And Kabluueewweee!
DeleteAnd so, in all things I give thanks to God for the undergirding provided as I/we move through our days of decisions which are free or not, they feel like they are our own and I take the decisions I make seriously.
Claire, thank you for making us wrestle with this topic. When we make choices, it "feels" like free will. I don't think Calvin would define is as such and I understand why he didn't like the term - too many definitions. "For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it." (Matt. 7:14) I look at discernment, prayer, pondering the Scripture, etc. as practices that just might help me stay on the right path. I have no doubt that God is the one leading and may have predestined whether I make it through the narrow gate, but since I don't know that ahead of time, I find those practices helpful.
ReplyDeleteThank you Sharon, I too, rely on my methods of discernment in and with the decisions I make. And I think now too, that Calvin often speaks in terms so much of the time as a protective father or big brother. He so much does not want there to be a misunderstanding about what Free Will is not, he cannot bare to step into what Free Will is, afraid maybe that his little brothers and sisters might not understand and 'blow it'! Cautious is what I see in Calvin.
DeleteThe Gate is narrow, this is true. And something I share with many Believer's who are not so quick to accept that. Nevertheless, it is so. I was reading the other night, Second Esdras and it shares a similar theme 7:8-9 "There is only one path lying between them, that is, between the fire and the water, so that only one person can walk on the path. If now the city is given to someone as an inheritance, how will the heir receive the inheritance unless by passing through the appointed danger?"
Thank you again for your post, peace.
I concur with you and all of our classmates. Calvin is tough to hear concerning freewill. Your question about Jesus and freewill made me think long and hard too. I also agree Rick and his answer of Jesus’s divinity. It reminds of the conversation between God and Satan in Job and later Jesus temptation in the desert. God’s plan always easy to understand when it is all spelled out and explained. I like leaving mysteries as mysteries and remain cautious on things I cannot fully explain. Thank you for stretching my mind this week. I have some more thinking to do.
ReplyDeleteExcellent discussion. We have freewill, according to Calvin, in that we have the freedom to sin that we would "choose" in favor of God's preordained plan for humanity would in itself not be a choice. (2.2.7) Therefore, I think you are all right in that it feels like we have choice since we have the choice to sin.
ReplyDeleteI thought about this in great detail when a confirmation student (the pastor's daughter) jumped off of a 12 story building. How could anyone say, "that was meant to happen." This was not God's plan for her, but she chose. Now, I prefer not to think of suicide in terms of sin as it seems so harsh, but such an act is a division from God and God's purpose and it did cause so much pain. My church was truly a grieving church. Now as we heal, I can see God's will in action as we move forward in God's plan.