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If we are born with a sinful nature from Adam, does that really mean we have free will, since the sin nature makes us more likely to choose to sin?

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  • Just to clarify Phill's answer (upvoted; thanks!), a Lutheran IIUC would not say "the sinful nature makes us more likely to choose to sin", they would say "the sinful nature mean we, aside from God's power working within us, can only choose sin". Given the question, I wonder if that's what you meant? (Also, I assume you means "sinful", but can't edit less than 6 chars.)
    – Matthew
    Commented Jul 11, 2021 at 12:31

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There are two kinds of 'free will' which philosophers speak about: liberty of spontaneity, and liberty of indifference. Liberty of spontaneity means we are free to act according to our desires, whereas liberty of indifference means we are free to choose our desires.

So, for example, liberty of spontaneity means I like cheese and I can eat it whenever I want. Liberty of indifference means I am free to choose whether I like cheese or some other food.

The standard protestant answer is that we have liberty of spontaneity, but not liberty of indifference. So, for example, this is what is found in the 39 Articles of the Church of England (Article X, of Free-Will):

THE condition of Man after the fall of Adam is such, that he cannot turn and prepare himself, by his own natural strength and good works, to faith, and calling upon God: Wherefore we have no power to do good works pleasant and acceptable to God, without the grace of God by Christ preventing us, that we may have a good will, and working with us, when we have that good will.

This is saying that we do not have the free will to choose to do good: our hearts are inclined to evil. And yet, in a sense that evil is freely chosen - because our nature has been corrupted by sin.

This teaching is consonant with teachings of the reformers such as Martin Luther and his famous essay 'On the bondage of the will'.

Hence it follows that "free-will" without God's grace is not free at all, but is the permanent prisoner and bondslave of evil, since it cannot turn itself to good.

Similarly John Calvin:

our proper course will be, first, to show that man has no remaining good in himself, and is beset on every side by the most miserable destitution

Typically protestant answers would point to passages and verses such as Romans 9, John 6:44, Ephesians 2:1-10 etc.

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