"Slaves to Sin"

            "Jesus answered them,"most assurely, I say to you,

                        Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin"

                                             John 8:34

        Paul's defense of the Gospel before King Herod Agrippa II evoked a reaction in the king. According to The New King James Version translation of the Bible, the king told Paul, '"You almost persuade me to become a Christian.'" Other translation suggest the king was merely waving off Paul's call for a commitment. But no matter whether the king was under conviction or not, exchange raises an interesting question: could Agrippa have made the decision to place his faith in Christ then and there, on his own? In other words, did he have the ability to choose to believe? Put yet another way, was his will free to trust Christ? This question of the freedom of the human will has been matter of much discussion in the life of the church, for it is of crucial importance it has to do with how we are saved. Therefore, we will spend the next several days studying the development of the church's understanding of the freedom of the will by using Dr. RC Sproul's audio/video series Willing to Believe. 

       In John 8, Jesus promised that His disciple would know the truth and the truth would make them free. That did not sit well with the Jewish leaders. Who forgetting their nation's long enslavement in Egypt and their subjugation to Rome, declared they had never been. In bondage to anyone or anything. Jesus went on to explain that He was speaking of bondage to sin, which is the condition of everyone who sins. Even then, the Jews would not accept his words. Far worse than forgetting their history, they were forgetting the testimony of God's divine record. Which unfold for them the fall of man and all its ugly effects. Rather than God's Word, they had embraced a pagan understanding of humanity, an early form of humanism that had an exalted view of the inmate goodness of human nature.

       The Jew's view of human nature is absolutely dominant in our time. Most everyone will admit that nobody is perfect, but it is assumed that we merely stumble into the evil we commit, evil outside our own hearts. At his core, the world agrees, man is basically good. Tragically, the evangelical church has been seduced by this man-exalting vies as well. It is assumed that man is free to choose sin or obedience to God. But as we will see, the Word of God paints a radically different picture.

       What is your view of human nature? Is man basically good or basically evil? That is, is man inclined to obedience or rebellion? To prepare for our study, read Genesis 1-11. This is the story of the fall of man and the downward spiral of the human race into depravity ever more foul. Pray for understanding of this aspect of theology and life.