Can Fallen People Choose God? Total Depravity and the Human Will

If humanity is fallen, what happened to the human will? This often raises two confusing questions: Can human beings make choices? Can fallen human beings, by their own moral ability, choose God and embrace Christ? Fallen humanity certainly makes choices, but the Fall has destroyed humanity’s original moral ability to incline itself toward God. The issue is therefore not the existence of human choice, but the moral condition of the chooser.

1. THE TWO QUESTIONS ABOUT FREE WILL The debate over free will has more than one dimension. The first question concerns God’s sovereignty and human freedom: How can God be sovereign while human beings make genuine choices? But the second question is the one that is particularly important for total depravity: What effect did the Fall have upon human freedom? The Reformed position does not say that humanity lost the ability to make choices. Rather, humanity lost a particular kind of freedom: the moral ability to choose spiritual good and turn to God apart from divine grace. Human beings remain free to choose according to their desires. But: their desires have been corrupted by sin. That distinction becomes the foundation of Sproul’s argument.
2. THE FALL DID MORE THAN MAKE US IMPERFECT The Fall did not merely make human beings less than perfect. The question is much more serious: What happened to the human person when Adam fell? The Reformed answer is that the Fall produced a profound corruption of human nature. Note these three contrasting historical positions. Pelagius - Pelagius argued that Adam’s sin fundamentally affected Adam himself, rather than transmitting a corrupt nature to his descendants. Semi-Pelagianism - The semi-Pelagian position acknowledged that humanity was affected by Adam’s sin but maintained that there remained within fallen humanity a capacity to cooperate with God’s grace. In this view, there is still some remnant of moral ability by which a person can respond positively to God’s offer. Augustine - Augustine’s understanding was much more radical. The Fall so deeply affected human nature that God Himself must change the disposition of the sinner’s soul. This becomes the central issue of our discussion: Does fallen humanity possess the moral ability to move toward God, or must God first act within the sinner?
3. MORAL INABILITY This is perhaps the most important phrase in this subject. Moral inability is not physical inability. A person physically can: attend church, read the Bible, hear a sermon, discuss Christianity, repeat Christian words, make religious resolutions. The question is whether the fallen person possesses the moral ability to love God, submit to God, and embrace Christ from the resources of his or her fallen nature. The sinner is morally unable to do this. The problem is therefore not that God has placed a physical barrier between the sinner and Christ. The problem is that the sinner’s own fallen desires are opposed to God.
4. THE BONDAGE OF THE WILL This is a crucial distinction. Human beings are not bothersome make decisions. They exercise preferences. They act voluntarily. But voluntary choice does not equal moral freedom. A person chooses according to what he or she wants. The problem is: What does the fallen person want? If the heart is corrupted, the choices that flow from that heart will also be affected. In summary: We choose according to our desires, but sin has corrupted those desires. Therefore the sinner is genuinely choosing, yet remains in bondage to sin. Jesus says: “Everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.”— John 8:34. Paul similarly describes fallen humanity as being enslaved to sin. The important point is that slavery does not eliminate the will; it describes the condition governing the will.
5. JESUS’ WORDS IN JOHN 6 Jesus’ teaching in John 6. says: “No one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.” — John 6:65. Let’s examine the statement phrase by phrase. “No one.” This is universal. Jesus is not identifying a small category of unusually sinful people. He is speaking about humanity generally. “Can”-emphasizes that this concerns ability or capacity. The issue is not simply whether people will come. It is whether they can come. “Come to me.” Coming to Christ means embracing Christ in faith. “Unless”- This introduces a necessary condition. Something must happen before the person can come. “It is granted him by my Father.” The necessary condition is divine initiative. The conclusion is therefore: Fallen humanity does not possess the natural moral ability to come to Christ. God must grant that ability. This becomes one of the central biblical foundations of this discussion.
6. THE DIVINE INITIATIVE If fallen humanity cannot produce saving faith from its own corrupted nature, then salvation must begin with God. God’s initiative must be understood in these strong terms: unilateral , monergistic, independent, sovereign, The basic argument is: The sinner is spiritually dead. The spiritually dead cannot resurrect themselves. Therefore God must give spiritual life. Having been given life, the sinner is able to respond to Christ. This is why total depravity connects directly with regeneration.
7. REGENERATION MUST COME FROM GOD The argument is not that God saves people against their will. Rather, God changes the will. The sinner who previously did not desire Christ is given a new disposition. This is God changing: “the disposition of his soul.” The person then comes to Christ willingly. This is important. God’s grace does not merely drag an unwilling person into salvation. According to the Reformed understanding, grace changes the person so that the person willingly embraces Christ. Thus: Regeneration → new spiritual life → ability to believe → willing faith in Christ.
8. MONERGISM: GOD ALONE ACTS IN REGENERATION The theological term monergism emphasizes that regeneration is fundamentally the work of God alone. The sinner does not: earn regeneration, merit regeneration, produce regeneration, cooperate with God to cause regeneration. Rather, regeneration is an act of divine grace. This must be stressed: “Regeneration is a work of God alone.” The sinner’s response to Christ is real and necessary, but the ability to make that saving response is itself the result of God’s prior gracious work.
9. SPIRITUAL DEATH AND THE NEED FOR RESURRECTION Paul’s language in Ephesians 2 becomes particularly important: “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins.” — Eph. 2:1. This concept explains why regeneration is necessary. A dead person does not contribute to his own resurrection. The initiative belongs to the one who gives life. Similarly, according to the Reformed framework, the spiritually dead sinner cannot independently generate the spiritual life necessary to believe. God must act first. And when God acts, the sinner becomes spiritually alive and responds to Christ.
10. THE GRACE OF GOD DOES NOT DESTROY HUMAN FREEDOM This point deserves careful attention. A common objection is: “If God must change the sinner before the sinner can believe, then isn’t the person’s freedom destroyed?” The answer is essentially no. Because genuine freedom is not the ability to choose contrary to one’s deepest desires. Rather, people normally choose what they want. The problem with fallen humanity is that sin has corrupted what we want. When God regenerates the sinner, He does not turn the person into a machine. He changes the person’s heart. The person then desires Christ and comes to Christ willingly. So the sequence is: God changes the heart → the desires change → the will chooses Christ. The person’s choice remains genuine because it proceeds from the person’s renewed desires.
11. THE BIG QUESTION: WHO MAKES THE FIRST MOVE? This is ultimately the issue we need to confront. Is salvation initiated by: God responding to man’s decision? Or God enabling man to make the saving decision? The Reformed answer is the second. Human beings do not first create saving faith and then receive regeneration. Rather: God acts first in regeneration, and that gracious act makes saving faith possible. This is why we describe salvation as resting upon grace alone.
12. WHY THIS DOCTRINE MATTERS The doctrine changes how we understand salvation. If human beings possess the natural ability to choose God without God’s prior regenerative work, then salvation can appear partly dependent upon a person’s independent moral ability. But if fallen humanity is morally unable to come to God, then salvation must be entirely dependent upon divine grace. That produces a very different posture. The believer cannot finally say: “I was wise enough to choose God.” Instead: “God was gracious enough to give me life and faith.”