Bro. Junrey J. Moncada
Pastor- Berea Baptist Church, Caburan Big, Jose Abad Santos, Davao Occidental Philippines

Corinthians 2:14 –“But the NATURAL MAN receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them for they are spiritually discerned”.(KJV)

Nowadays, almost 100 percent of different sects and denominations adhere to, believe in, and teach that man’s salvation depends on how he exercises his own free will. Some have contention and criticize others, not knowing that they are in agreement with the teaching about the freewill doctrine. They teach different ways of salvation, like salvation by good works, obedience to the law, baptism, and church membership, while others are right in their view of salvation by pointing only to the merits of Christ at the cross of Calvary. But then the essence of their teachings is harmonized by the freewill doctrine, as they preach that man should initiate first in exercising his God-given freewill or decision and to do good works, obey the law, be baptized, be a church member, or choose Christ in order to be born again and be saved. By their differences, they agreed that salvation depended upon the decision or choice of man. Is that really what the Bible revealed to us—that our salvation is dependent upon our own decisions and that even in our natural state we can be saved by exercising by our own will/decision? I can’t even imagine that God, who created a creature who is greater than Himself because of freewill, God cannot do as He pleases or dispose of His plans over man, as long as he decide either to allow God or not? This reason compels us to study the will of the natural man, according to the passage given above.

1. What does it  mean of  being  a Natural  Man?

Answer: To understand the meaning of being natural man we must first examine the term “natural”.

A.– Natural means- of or pertaining to one’s nature or constitution; inborn. (Webster Illustration Contemporary Dictionary pg. 482).

Merriam Webster dictionary 11th definition says-  being in a state of nature without spiritual enlightenment : UNREGENERATE natural man

B – Natural according to Vines– PSUCHIKOS, belonging  to the PSUCHE, “soul” ( as the lower part of the immaterial in man), natural, physical, describes the man in Adam and pertains to him(set contrast to PNUEMATIKOS,” spiritual”)I Cor.2:14;15;44(twice) 46 (in the latter used as a noun); Jas.3:15”sensual” (RV.marg. natural or animal), here relating perhaps more especially to the mind, a wisdom in accordance with, or springing from, the corrupt desires and affection; so in Jude19. (Vines Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, pg. 426-427).

C – The Bible describes the natural man as:

A sinner from the womb (Psa.51:5; Isa.48:8).

Born in the flesh Jn.3:6.

Evil from childhood (Prov.22:15; Gen.8:21).

Defiled by sin from head to toes (Isa. 1:5).

The faculties of the human nature are being ruled by sin: heart – (Gen. 6:5;8:21; Jer.17:9; Matt. 15:18); Mind – (Rom.8:5,7); Conscience – (Tit. 1:15); Eyes –( Prov. 21;2;IICor.3-4;Rom.3:8); Ears – (Jn.8:43,47;Jer.5:21;Isa. 43:7).

Unregenerate having not the Spirit of God (Eph.4:18; Jude19, Rom.8:8-9).

By nature (rendered in Greek Textus Receptus- “phusei” from phusis means- by birth,in born) children of wrath (Eph.2:3).

Therefore, the natural man is corrupted by sin and is dominated by his sinful nature (Job 25:4-6).

2. Why the Natural Man become corrupted, depraved and dominated by sin?

Answer:

Back in the days of the first human being, our human father Adam, God created for him a body out of the dust (Gen. 2:7; I Cor. 15:44–46); God gave Adam a helpmate that was created out of his body, whom he called Eve (Gen. 2:21–23). Before Eve was created, God had already commanded Adam not to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, because in the day you eat the forbidden fruit, you shall surely die (Gen. 2:16–17). Although Eve knew about the forbidden fruit, perhaps through Adam, she was beguiled and fell victim to the shrewdness of Satan. Adam, after he saw Eve holding the forbidden fruit, knowing Eve had eaten it and disobeyed God’s commandment, exercised his undefiled freewill and did eat the fruit. He chose to disobey his Creator rather than lose a beautiful wife like Eve. When Adam and Eve ate the fruit that God forbade them from eating, they actually experienced death on the day they ate the fruit. It was not by the substance of the fruit that they died and fell into sin, but because of their disobedience to God, death came upon them—not the physical death that they had experienced at that time but spiritual death—and Adam lived 930 years physically after he did eat the fruit (Gen. 5:1). In the Bible, death means separation; like in physical death, when the body and the spirit are separated (Jas. 2:26), in spiritual death, as experienced by our first parents, they become separated from the holiness of God because of sin (Isa. 59:2; Eph. 2:1), and they fall short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23), thus we are all by nature children of wrath even as others (Eph. 2:3).

Adam, the first human, did not lose his freedom of will after his fall into sin, but the freedom he possessed could not extend anymore to spiritual life, apprehension, knowledge, and emotion. He loses the spiritual ability and connection to God whereby Adam is free to will only to fulfill the desires of his sinful and fleshly fallen condition; he became a slave to sin (Jn. 8:34; Rom. 6:20; 2 Peter 2:19), which made him not to seek God but instead decide by his own will to hide and cover his sins (Gen. 3:8; Job 31:33; Rom. 3:10–11). After his fall into sin, Adam eventually exercised his will to dress himself in the presence of God, but it did not meet the standard required by God, so it was needed that God clothed him (Gen. 3:21). As far as the Bible is concerned, cloth symbolizes two kinds of righteousness: 1) man’s righteousness (Isa. 64:6);and 2) the righteousness of God (Rev. 19:8; Rom. 8:33; 2 Cor. 5:21).

The consequence of Adam’s disobedience was death, and as Adam was the first human being created directly by God, he represents the entire human race, thereby putting all his descendants physically and spiritually to death (Rom. 5:12, 17–19).

Every human being born naturally in this world inherits the corrupt, depraved, and dominant sinful fleshly nature of Adam (Psa. 51:5; Isa. 48:8; Gen. 8:21; Job 14:4).

3. Why  the  Natural  Man  received not  the things  of  the Spirit of  God and neither can he know them according to passage above?

Answer:

Because natural man is:

•Dead in trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1). As stated above, death is separation, like a physically dead person who is separated and inactive in any physical activities that make it impossible to understand because he or she neither can see nor hear physically (Eccl. 9:10). The same is true of a spiritually dead person who is separated in life and holiness from God, one who is physically alive (1 Tim. 5:6) yet spiritually dead, separated, and dormant in any spiritually good activities, and thereby cannot receive and understand spiritual things (Matt. 13:13).

•Still in the flesh (Jn3:6) and those who are in the flesh cannot please God (Rom8:8), always mind and do the things of the flesh (Rom.8:5; Gal.5:19-21).

•Not born again in the Spirit. John 3:3 states-“Except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God”. The word see rendered in Greek ιεδο “iedo” which means to know, understand, perceive. Man must be born again to know/understand the spiritual realm of God, 1Cor.2:14 says – …”spiritually discerned”.

•Alienated from the life of God; “Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of the heart”(Eph.4:18).

•Servants of corruption (2Pet.2:19).

4. What is the will of a Natural Man?

Answer:

Loves darkness rather than light (Jn.3:19).

Wise to do evil than good (Jer.4:22).

Likes to fulfill the lusts of the flesh (Gal.516-21; Eph.2:3)

Cannot cease from sin (2Pet.2:14)

Never seek God (Psa.10:4; 14:1-3; Rom.3:10-12).

Impenitent (Rom.2:5).

Never come to Christ (Jn.5:40 compare Jn.6:44).

No love of God in them (John 5:42; 1John 2:15 compare Rom. 5:5).

The Bible declares that man may obtain salvation not of his own will but only by the grace of God as apostle Peter said: “But we believe that through grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved even as they”(Acts 15:11), apostle Paul added: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that is not of yourselves; it is the gift of God: not of works lest any man should boast for we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. “(Eph. 2:8-10). Now, from this stand point, it is very clear that it is only by God’s grace that we are saved, for IT IS NOT OF OURSELVES; IT IS THE GIFT OF GOD, and no man can add to or mingle with it by his own decision or free will or other efforts because salvation is purely the free grace of God and not by man’s free will or decision.

5. How does the sinful nature influence the will of a Natural Man?

Answer: 

The sinful nature of a natural man affects the will in the same way that nature controls the will, and the will is the cause of man’s action. Let us elaborate this in a backward effect sequential way: 1st, action is being executed through will; 2nd, the will is influenced by the inducement and reason of the mind and the desire and inclination of the heart; 3rd, the mind and heart are ruled by the nature. In the case of a natural man, his knowledge and emotions are bound to follow his sinful nature as he acts as an agent or servant of it. The nature does affect the heart and mind to incline and convince the will to cause an action. The Bible shows examples of how humans exercise their will.

Eve, the very first woman and mother of all humans, By her eyes, she got knowledge of the fruit, as it states, “It was pleasant to the eyes.” Her mind induces the will because of the pleasantness of the fruit that she saw. Her heart desired the fruit from which she gained knowledge. Then she will cause action by picking the forbidden fruit (Gen. 3:6).

-Delilah, she willed to beguiled Samson because she knew that from doing so she could earn money, because her heart was before then a lover of money (Judges 16:4-6).

-Saul, the first to reign as king of Israel, had a heart that was envious and a mind that was troubled because of David’s fame. Saul’s envied affection and troubled mind caused him to have the willful intent to kill David, but it failed (1 Sam. 18:8–11).

By these examples, we can see how the mind and heart influence the will and cause one to act. The will is not independent in itself so as to act contrary to and separately from the faculties of human nature. Christ said, “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witnesses, and blasphemies” (Matt. 15:19). 

Now that the natural man is in his sinful state and is enslaved by the sinful nature, we can certainly say that his will and volition acted freely in harmony with the affection and knowledge of the dominant sinful nature. Our Lord Jesus Christ already taught this truth: ”Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt; for the tree is known by his fruit.” O generation of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things? Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. “A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things; and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things” (Matt. 12:33–35). That is the reason why spiritual things are only foolishness to the natural man, because his heart is set to love darkness over light (Jn. 3:19), having a deceitful heart (Jer. 17:9). His mind is set to do the things of the flesh (Rom. 8:5), having a mind that is wiser to do evil than good (Jer. 4:22). He cannot discern spiritual things because he is still in the flesh, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God (Rom. 8:8).

6. Is the Natural Man’s will is free ?

Answer:

When we talk about the freedom to will of a natural man, he is free to will but not in the sense that his will is free beyond his natural sinful state; he is free within the boundaries of his sinful condition but could not surpass or extend in exercising and attaining spiritual things. The natural man’s will is subjected only to one direction, which is downward; he is free to act sinfully according to the lust and will of the flesh (Rom. 8:5, Gal. 5:19–21). The prevalent thoughts among free will advocates nowadays is that man, in his sinful natural state, has not lost his freedom to will, that free will and decision remain in him in spiritual things, and that God is waiting for the sinner’s permission, to exercise that will or decided to allow Him to save and come to Him. However, that would be a direct contradiction to the plain statement of Christ, “No man CAN come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him”… (Jn.6:44 KJV). If men are free and not under the bondage of sin, the question is, what is the sense of Christ freeing sinners from their sins? Christ said: “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall free indeed.” (Jn8:34-36 ). Is there any wise man in the Christian denominations who could say Christ is wrong for stating we are slaves of sin?

In further explanation and illustration of this, I prefer to quote Elder Tom Ross from his book, The Abandoned Truth, which says: 

“Man’s will is free only within the boundaries of his nature. It is free in only one sense; it is free to act according to its sinful nature but totally free from holiness. Romans 6: 19-20 states: I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmities of your flesh: for as ye have yielded (willfully submitted to) your member servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now(now that you are saved) yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were FREE FROM RIGHTEOUSNESS (emphasis Tom Ross). Jesus taught precisely the same truth in John 8:34; ..”Verily, verily, I say unto you, whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin”. Jeremiah 13:23 states: “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.” This truth can be illustrated in several ways. A. W. Pink wrote: I hold in my hand a book. I release it; what happens? It falls. In which direction? Downwards; always downwards. Why? Because answering the law of gravity, its own weight sinks it. Suppose I desire that book to occupy a position three feet higher; then what? I must lift it; a power outside of that book must raise it. Such is the relationship which fallen man sustains toward God. Whilst Divine power upholds him, he is preserved from plunging still deeper into sin; let power that power be withdrawn, and he falls his own weight of sin drags him down. God does not push him down, anymore than I did that book. Let all Divine restraint be removed, and every man is capable of becoming, would become a Cain, a Pharaoh, a Judas. How then is the sinner to move heaven wards? By an act of his own will? Not so. A power outside of himself must grasp hold of him and lift him every inch of the way. The sinner is free, but free in one direction only free to fall, free to sin…. The sinner is free to do as he pleases(except as he is restraint by God), but his pleasure is to sin… G. S. Bishop gave the following illustration: A man is free to use his hand. The man is free, but the hand is not free; the arm and muscles control it. The hand is the slave of the muscle, and acts as the muscle compels. In like manner, man is free to use his will, and is therefore always a free agent; but the will itself is not free. It is controlled by the affections, which are evil and earthly and sensual, and these again are controlled by the understanding and judgment, which call evil good and which are perverted, blinded, deluded, by the god of this world. (Tom Ross, Abandoned Truth, “The Doctrines of Grace”. Pg.48-49)

Prophet Isaiah illustrated vividly the sinfulness of man liken to a filthy rags and as a fallen leaves that has no ability and will to contrast the wind of sin.

Isaiah 64:6
“But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.”

7. Does the Natural Man by exercising his own will save himself ?

Answer:

Of course not. If a man can save himself by exercising his own free will, God would not suffer to send His only begotten Son to die at the cross of Calvary, and He would not have also sent the Holy Spirit to regenerate and give us a heart to know Him (Jer. 24:7). But the fact still remains that we are unable to save ourselves by just exercising our own will since it is under the dominion of sin and always loves to sin (Jer. 13:23; John 8:34) and cannot do what is pleasing in the eye of God (Rom. 8:8; 1 Cor. 2:14). That is why God, from eternity, ordained Christ to die for our sins (1 Peter 1:18–20) and send the Holy Spirit to make us alive and guide us in all spiritual things (John 6:44–45; 14:26). 

“But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God[children of God], even to them that believe on His name: which were born, not of blood [not by bloodline], NOR THE WILL OF THE FLESH[decision of the flesh], NOR OF THE WILL OF MAN[decision of the man], but of God” (John 1:12-13).[emphasis mine]

“So then it is NOT OF HIM THAT WILLETH[ that decides], nor of him that runneth[that works] but of God that sheweth mercy”(Rom.9:16)[emphasis mine]

“For it is GOD WHICH WORKETH IN YOU BOTH TO WILL and to do His good pleasure” (Phil.2:13)[emphasis mine]

“Of HIS OWN WILL BEGAT HE US with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of His creatures” (James 1:18).[emphasis mine]

8. Is Faith a product of Freewill of man?

Answer:

No, of course. Faith is the result of God’s grace and cannot be the cause of grace. Acts 18:27 says “believed through grace.” Freewill advocates twisted Eph. 2:8 by saying that grace and salvation come through faith, so a man must first believe in Christ for him to be saved. But don’t get me wrong and say that faith is not needed in salvation; no, that’s not what I mean. Salvation is through faith in Christ alone, but that faith comes because of God’s grace, as it says, “For by grace, not of ourselves.”

When you ask them why they believed, why do they come to Christ? They become quite; they should accept the fact that faith is a gift from God and not of ourselves because man receives nothing except that it be given to him from heaven (Jn 3:27). Isn’t it enough that Christ says in Jn. 6:44, “No man can come to me except the Father who sent me draw him”?

At the course of this study as stated above Freewill apparently cannot produce a saving Faith.

Now let us briefly show biblical proofs on how faith comes to man. Remember these texts as we prove to you that in order for man to be saved, regeneration must take place first for him to believe in Christ. 

Romans 10:9-10,17
[9]That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt BELIEVE IN thine HEART that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
[10]For WITH the HEART MAN BELIEVETH unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
[17]So then FAITH COMETH by HEARING, and hearing by the word of God.

•Verse 17: “Faith comes through hearing; the question is, can a natural, unregenerate man hear God’s words in the sense of coming to spiritual discernment?” Our main text above 1 Corinthians 2:14 nullifies that, for it is foolishness to him, and no man can know them because they are to be spiritually discerned. 

Matt. 13:13 says “
Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand”.

•Another thing, as declared in Rom 10:9–10, that “believing starts in the heart.” Question: Can a natural, unregenerate heart believe in God? If naturally, by exercising free will, man can believe in God, then why would God renew, open, or give us a new heart to know Him? Notice these passages.

Ezekiel 36:26-27
[26]A NEW HEART also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
[27]And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.

Jeremiah 24:7
And I will GIVE them an HEART to know me, that I am the LORD: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall Return unto me with their WHOLE HEART.

Jeremiah 31:33
But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their HEARTS; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Acts 16:14
And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us: whose HEART the Lord OPENED, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul.

•It is very evident that God works in the hearts of His people so that they will believe and follow Him; man has nothing to contribute to his own salvation. Yes, a saved man can work OUT his salvation that is already experienced from within, he already has a renewed heart because God already works his heart to do the things he pleases.

Philippians 2:12-13
[12]Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
[13]For it is God which worketh IN you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

• In addition to this, if faith is the condition that grace and salvation may come, then it would be very cruel to know that every dead infant and the dead mentally disabled persons since birth were all damned in hell because they didn’t exercise their freewill to believe and learn about Christ? How would you accept that such innocents would be burned in hell forever?

But we believed that all infants died in infancy and all dead inborn mentally imbecile persons are wondrously and miraculously saved by Christ at the Cross of calvary and their spirit is regenerated by the Holy Spirit at their death.

Baptists theologians explained that:

A. W. Pink said in God’s Sovereignty p.158: An idiot or an infant is not personally responsible to God, because lacking in natural ability. But the normal man who is endowed with rationality, who is gifted with a conscience that is capable of distinguishing between right and wrong, who is able to weigh eternal issues IS a responsible being, and it is because he does possess these very faculties that he will yet have to “give account of himself to God” (Romans 14:12).

T. P. Simmons on his “Systematic Study of Bible Doctrines p.178-179” – The fact that human responsibility is dependent on knowledge explains why dying infants and native imbeciles will be saved. They are mentally blind to the principles of righteousness, and, therefore, are not responsible. This is the kind of blindness that the Pharisees thought Jesus meant in John 9:39. And Jesus perceiving the thought of their hearts, said unto them: “If ye were blind (in the sense you have in mind), ye would have no sin” (John 9:41). There are but three kinds of blindness: physical blindness, mental blindness, and spiritual blindness. Certainly the Pharisees did not suppose that Jesus meant they were physically blind. And certainly Christ did not mean in His reply to say that they were not spiritually blind. See John 12:37-40; 2 Cor. 4:3,4. He could have meant but one thing, and that is that if they were mentally blind, they would have no sin. Infants and imbeciles are mentally blind, as already stated, and are, therefore, not responsible for their conduct. It is for this reason that we believe they will be saved through the blood of Christ without the exercise of faith in the body. However, since they have a sinful nature, we must believe that it will be necessary for them to be regenerated and thus brought to faith in Christ. The Bible makes it clear that this is necessary before one is fit for the presence of God. But it does not tell us when it will take place with reference to infants and imbeciles. We are of the opinion that it will take place at the time of the separation of the spirit from the body in the hour of death. See also Deut. 1:39 as to personal responsibility of infants.

John Gill on his Body of Divinity” says- The truth of all this might be illustrated and confirmed by the case of infants dying in infancy; who, as soon as they are in the world, almost, are taken out of it. Now such a number as they are, can never be thought to be brought into being in vain, and without some end to be answered; and which, no doubt, is the glory of God, who is and will be glorified in them, some way or another, as well as in adult persons: now though their election is a secret to us, and unrevealed; it may be reasonably supposed, yea, in a judgment of charity it may rather be concluded, that they are all chosen, than that none are; and if it is allowed that any of them may be chosen, it is enough to my present purpose; since the election of them cannot be owing to their faith, holiness, obedience, good works, and perseverance, or to the foresight of these things, which do not appear in them.

C. H. Spurgeon “The New Park Street and Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit”, Volume VII,pahina 300-301.- Among the gross falsehoods which have been uttered against the Calvinists proper, is the wicked calumny that we hold the damnation of little infants. A baser lie was never uttered. There may have existed somewhere, in some corner of the earth, a miscreant who would dare to say that there were infants in hell, but I have never met with him, nor have I met with a man who ever saw such a person. We say, with regard to infants, Scripture saith but very little and therefore, where Scripture is confessedly scant, it is for no man to determine dogmatically. But I think I speak for the entire body or certainly with exceedingly few exceptions and those unknown to me, when I say, we hold that all infants are elect of God and are therefore saved, and we look to this as being the, means by which Christ shall see of the travail of His soul to a great degree and we do sometimes hope that thus the multitude of the saved shall be made to exceed the multitude of the lost. Whatever views our friends may hold upon the point, they are not necessarily connected with Calvinistic doctrine. I believe that the Lord Jesus, who said, “Of such is the kingdom of heaven,” doth daily and constantly receive into His loving arms those tender ones who are only shown and then snatched away to heaven. Our hymns are no ill witness to our faith on this point and one of them runs thus. “Millions of infant souls compose The family above.” Toplady, one of the keenest of Calvinists, was of this number. “In my remarks,” says he, “on Dr. Nowell, I testified my firm belief that the souls of all departed infants are with God in glory, that in the decree of predestination to life, God hath included all whom He decreed to take away in infancy and that the decree of reprobation hath nothing to do with them.” Nay, he proceeds farther and asks, with reason, how the anti-Calvinistic system of conditional salvation and election or good works foreseen, will suit with the salvation of infants? It is plain that Arminians and Pelagians must introduce a new principle of election and in so far as the salvation of infants is concerned, become Calvinists. Is it not an argument in behalf of Calvinism, that its principle is uniform throughout and that no change is needed on the ground on which man is saved, whether young or old? John Newton, of London, the friend of Cowper, noted for his Calvinism, holds that the children in heaven exceed its adult inhabitants in all their multitudinous array. Gill, a very champion of Calvinism, held the doctrine, that all dying in infancy are saved. An intelligent, modern writer, (Dr. Russell of Dundee), also a Calvinist, maintains the same views and when it is considered that nearly one—half of the human race die in early years, it is easy to see what a vast accession must be daily and hourly making to the blessed population of heaven.

God bless..