The Impotency of the
Human Will
Does it lie within the province of man’s will to
accept or reject the Lord Jesus as Saviour? Granted that the
Gospel is preached to the sinner, that the Holy Spirit convicts
him of his lost condition, does it, in the final analysis, lie
within the power of his own will to resist or yield himself up
to God? The answer to this question defines our conception of
human depravity. That man is a fallen creature all professing
Christians will allow, but what many of them mean by “fallen” is
often difficult to determine. The general impression seems to be
that man is now mortal, that he is no longer in the condition in
which he left the hands of his Creator, that he is liable to
disease, that he inherits evil tendencies; but, that if he
employs his powers to the best of his ability, somehow he will
be happy at last. O, how far short of the sad truth!
Infirmities, sickness, even corporeal death, are but trifles in
comparison with the moral and spiritual effects of the Fall! It
is only by consulting the Holy Scriptures that we are able to
obtain some conception of the extent of that terrible calamity.
When we say that man is totally depraved, we mean that the
entrance of sin into the human constitution has affected every
part and faculty of man’s being. Total depravity means that man
is, in spirit and soul and body, the slave of sin and the
captive of the Devil — walking “according to the prince of the
power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of
disobedience” (Eph. 2:2). This statement ought not to need
arguing: it is a common fact of human experience. Man is unable
to realize his own aspirations and materialize his own ideals.
He cannot do the things that he would. There is moral inability
which paralyzes him. This is proof positive that he is no free
man, but instead, the slave of sin and Satan. “Ye are of your
father the Devil, and the lusts (desires) of your father ye will
do.” (John 8:44). Sin is more than an act or a series of acts;
it is a man’s make-up. It has blinded the understanding,
corrupted the heart, and alienated the mind from God. And the
will has not escaped. The will is under the dominion of sin and
Satan. Therefore, the will is not free. In short, the affections
love as they do and the will chooses as it does because of the
state of the heart, and because the heart is deceitful above all
things and desperately wicked “There is none that seeketh after
God” (Rom. 3:11).
- A. W. Pink
