The Highway Forums General Discussion Theology Discussion Forum The Role Of Works In Our Salvation (2)

Agreed! There is further condemnation, i.e., the punishment received at the Judgment will be far more severe upon those who have been given the privilege of hearing the Gospel but rejected the call to believe upon the Lord Christ.

In regard to: Romans 6:20 (ASV) "For when ye were servants of sin, ye were free in regard of righteousness.", I would suggest that what this means is that when a person was a bondservant of sin (serving the lusts of the flesh by nature) he was not being "controlled" by righteousness (serving the new spiritual nature; it didn't exist).

I detect some possible confusion here due to the use of terms, perhaps? When you say that man "is not free to sin", this is true if one is speaking of what is required of man according to the preceptive will of God, which is revealed in the Scriptures. However, IF you are referring to the ability of man, then I would have to strongly disagree. For, man's "freedom" (ability to think and act without outside compulsion against the will) is determined solely by one's nature. Thus, the natural man who is conceived in sin and born with a corrupt nature; i.e., a disposition which is an enmity with God and opposed to all that is good will/can only do that which is against the preceptive will of God; aka: sin. The unregenerate man naturally and thus freely chooses to sin. He is not forced to sin; i.e., to do that which is contrary to his will. The sinner's "enslavement" is the corrupt nature of which he is totally responsible. Thus the unregenerate person "can not because he will not AND he will not because he can not"! The converse is also true; a regenerate man is in possession of a new nature, a spiritually alive nature which is predisposed to love God and to do that which is holy and good. Of course, this new nature, which is created in the soul by the Holy Spirit in regeneration is one in principle whereby the remnants of the "old man" still linger and thus perfection is not possible in this life. Add to this the external influences of the demonic angels who also bring about temptation according to the will of God for the purpose of sanctification of the believer. Thus the holiness enjoined is one which only partially attained in this life and that progressively. It is only fully attained after death in glorification.

Thus, the biblical teaching is:

- Unregenerate: Free to sin but not free to not sin.
- Regenerate: Free to do that which is right and free (able) to sin. But not guaranteed to not sin.

If the case is that you are in disagreement with what I've written above, I would appreciate it if you would explain in more detail why an unregenerate person isn't "free to sin". <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

In His Grace,