Do Calvinist believe that man has a "freewill"? It is clear that the natural man does indeed have a "freewill" to act according to his nature, that is, to choose according to his greatest natural desires, but he is morally incapable and unwilling to choose God on his own because he is "dead in sin", "loves the darkness" and "cannot understand" the things of God because "they are spiritually appraised." (1 Cor 2:14, Rom 8:7, John 3:19). Our greatest affections, therefore, determine what we choose to follow. And although mankind can do many "good things" he is spiritually impotent and unable to do any redemptive good since his "freewill" is bound, which really amounts to no freedom at all. Man will always choose what he desires most, and without the regenerative grace working in us by the Holy Spirit there is no desire for God. So, while we were yet in active rebellion against God (so it would have been completely just of God to pour His wrath on all of us), yet He was still willing to show His great love and affection toward us by bearing the punishment and wrath we deserved and then apply the benefits of the atonement on His elect; those He had given His Son from eternity (John 17:9).
J.I. Packer said,
So, here we clearly see that faith is not the cause of God's choosing us, but the result of it. Justification, of course, is the result of faith, but faith is the inevitable result of God's efficacious and regenerative grace."It is staggering that God should love sinners, yet it is true. God loves creatures that have become unlovely and (one would have thought) unlovable. There was nothing whatever in the objects of his love to call it forth; nothing in us could attract or prompt it. Love among persons is awakened by something in the beloved, but the love of God is free, spontaneous, unevoked, uncaused. God loves people because he has chosen to love them... and no reason for his love can be given except his own sovereign good pleasure. - (from Knowing God p.124)
" Faith is the evidence of new birth, not the cause of it."
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