Love the Truth

FOUNDATIONS of the FAITH

The Sinful Nature (The flesh)

The nature of man is deceitful and desperately wicked Jer 17:9

It produces sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, heresies, envy, murder, drunkenness, orgies and the like. Gal 5:19-21

"For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies." Matt 15:19

There is no one who is righteous and all have turned away from God. Psalm 53:3
See also Rom 3:10-20

The mind and conscience are corrupted. Titus 1:15

The sinful nature:

All this is described in the phrase, "Dead in trespasses and in sins." Eph 2:1,5

From the above, it is clear that the mind of fallen man is subject to bias and limitations. A mind that is at enmity against God is certainly not the seat of a truly free will.

The natural man is not a puppet or robot. He can make a vast number of choices in the natural and physical sphere, and also in the sphere of the soul. From his own point of view therefore, his will appears to be free, but in all aspects of his relationship with God, that is the spiritual sphere, his will never makes choices outside the limitations set for it by the sinful nature.