Westminster Confession of Faith

Chapter IX

Of Free Will

1
God hath endued the will of man with that natural liberty, that is neither forced, nor by any absolute necessity of nature determined to good or evil.205
205
James 1:14Matthew 17:12Deuteronomy 30:19
2
Man, in his state of innocency, had freedom and power to will and to do that which was good, and well pleasing to God;206 but yet, mutably, so that he might fall from it.207
206
Ecclesiastes 7:29Genesis 1:26
207
Genesis 2:16-17Genesis 3:6
3
Man, by his fall into a state of sin, hath wholly lost all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation:208 so as, a natural man, being altogether averse from that good,209 and dead in sin,210 is not able, by his own strength, to convert himself, or to prepare himself thereunto.211
208
Romans 5:6Romans 8:7John 15:5
209
Romans 3:10Romans 3:12
210
Ephesians 2:1Ephesians 2:5Colossians 2:13
211
Titus 3:3-51 Corinthians 2:14Ephesians 2:2-5John 6:44John 6:65
4
When God converts a sinner, and translates him into the state of grace, He freeth him from his natural bondage under sin;212 and, by His grace alone, enables him freely to will and to do that which is spiritually good;213 yet so, as that by reason of his remaining corruption, he doth not perfectly, nor only, will that which is good, but doth also will that which is evil.214
212
Colossians 1:13John 8:34John 8:36
213
Philippians 2:13Romans 6:18Romans 6:22
214
Galatians 5:17Romans 7:23Romans 7:21Romans 7:18-19Romans 7:15
5
The will of man is made perfectly and immutably free to do good alone, in the state of glory only.215
215
Ephesians 4:13Hebrews 12:231 John 3:2Jude 24