63. 自由意志 Free Will
作者: 史鮑爾 (R.C. Sproul) 譯者: 姚錦榮
摘自《神學入門》《Essential Truths of the
Christian Faith》p.170 , 更新傳道會出版
此時你正在讀這本書，這是出於你個人自由意志所作的決定。但你也可能反對這個講法，抗議說：「不，不是我選擇讀它，而是因為我要做作業，非讀不可；要不然，我才不讀！」也許是這樣吧，但是無論如何，你還是正在讀這本書。這時你可能寧願做其它事，但你仍選擇來讀這本書；你選擇了讀它，而不是選擇不讀它。
我不知道你為什麽要讀此書，但我知道你一定有某個原因；如果沒有原因，你就不會選擇去讀它。通常我們生命中的每個選擇都是有原因的，在考慮過種種因素後，我們若覺得在那一刻做某件事是有意義的，我們就會決定去做。我們做事時，有時帶著很強的願望，有時則未察覺自己的願望；但是願望卻在那裏，否則我們就不會選擇去做。這就是自由意志的本質――我們根據自己的願望作選擇。
美國普林斯大學第一任校長愛德華滋（jonathan Edwards）,在其《自由意志》一書（the freedom of the
will）(註1)中，定義說：「意志乃是頭腦藉以作決定的工具。」不錯，人類必須作很多選擇，我選擇寫作，你選擇閱讀。當我的意志決定寫作時，我便開始動筆。當我們把自由意志加入考慮時，問題就變得覆雜起來。這時我們需要進一步地問。自由是指做什麽的自由呢？連最頑固的加爾文派信徒也不能否定，意志使我們能自由選擇自己願作的事；而就是最執著的阿民念派信徒也會同意，意志不會使我們自由地選擇自己所不願做的事。
將這個論點應用到救恩方面時，問題則成為：人願望的究竟是什麽呢？阿民念派的信徒認為，有些願意悔改得救，有些人卻只想逃離神，結果使自己落在永遠的詛咒之下。但阿民念派並沒有清楚解釋，為什麽不同的人會有不同的願望。加爾文派的信徒則認為，全人類都想躲避神――除非他先被聖靈重生。重生會改變我們的意願，使我們能夠自由地悔改，自由地得救。
有一點很重要，也就是我們該知道的，那就是未重生者並不是因他們的意志受逼迫，才決定不重生的。他們的意志在未經自己同意之前就已改變了，但他們仍然永遠都有作選擇的自由。這樣看來，我們各個人都能夠自由地作自己決意的事，只是我們沒有選擇自己本性的自由。人無力宣告說：「我決定只選擇良善」，正如基督不能宣告：「我決定只選擇邪惡」一樣，這是我們自由意志的界限。
人類雖然墮落了，但人的意志並未消失，依然擁有作選擇的能力。我們的心思被罪汙染，我們的願望被惡欲的沖動圍困，但我們還是一樣地能思想、選擇和行動。然而有一件可怕的事臨到我們----我們失去了所有對神的願望。我們的思想和願望總是惡的；我們意志的自由變成一種詛咒。由於我們還能照心中的願望作選擇，我們便選擇犯罪，也正因如此，我們必須在神的審判台前，向他負責。
奧古斯丁說，我們雖然有自由意志，但是我們已失掉自由。聖經所謂最尊貴的自由，就是選擇擁有基督的自由，但是我們的心若未被聖靈改變，我們不會愛慕基督；沒有這份愛慕，我們便永遠不會選擇他。除非神覆蘇我們的靈魂，在我們心中賜下對基督的愛慕，否則我們永遠不會選擇基督的。
愛德華滋說（註2）墮落的人類擁有天然的自由（natural freedom,就是按照我們願望行動的能力），但失去了道德的自由(moral freedom)。道德的自由包括人對公義的追求、傾慕和渴望，然而這種傾慕在人墮落時失落了。
我的每一個選擇都是因某些因素而定，背後都有某些原因和願望，這聽來頗似命定論（determinism）,其實不然。命定論乃是說，我們一切的行動完全受一些外在的因素控制，使我們不得不做自己並不想做的事。那是一種強迫的行為，與自由正好相反。
我們是怎樣作出非強迫性的選擇呢？那是出自我們裏面的決定――是根據我們的本性的願望而來。決定是我們自己選擇的，是自己的決定（self-determination）,而自己的決定乃是自由非常重要的成分。
我們必須明白，只有當神在我們心中工作，我們才會選擇基督，而這也的確是神的作為，他改變了我們的內心，將渴慕他的心賜給我們――那原是我們所沒有的――然後我們才按照心中的願望選擇他。我們自由地選擇他，因為我們想要選擇他。這就是神恩典的奇妙之處。
總結
1、 我們的每個選擇都是有原因的。
2、 我們常常是根據在作選擇時那一刻最強的傾向而作出決定。
3、 意志具有作選擇的功能。
4、 墮落的人類擁有自由的意志而沒有自由。我們有天然的自由，但沒有道德的自由。
5、 自由就是自己決定。
6、 神借著重我們，改變了我們心中的性情，並將一種對 神的愛慕之心放在我們裏面。
思考經文：
申30：19-20；約6：44，65；約8-34-36；約15：5；羅8：5-8；雅1：13-15
註1.Jonathan Edwards,The Freedom of the
Will,ed.Paul Ramsey(New Haven:Yale University Press,1973),137.
註2.Edwards,The freedom of the Will,156.
Free
Will
At
this very moment you are reading these words because you choose of your own
free will to read them. You may protest and say, "No! I didn't choose to
read them. I was given an assignment to read this book. I really don't want to
be reading it." Perhaps that is the case. Nevertheless you are reading it.
Maybe there are other things you would rather be doing at the moment, but you
have made a choice to read it nevertheless. You decided to read it instead of
not reading it.
I
don't know why you are reading this. But I do know that you must have a reason
for reading it. If you had no reason to read it, you simply would not have
chosen to read it.
Every
choice that we make in life we make for some reason. Our decisions are based
upon what seems good for us at the moment, all things considered. We do some
things out of intense desire. We do other things with no awareness of desire at
all. Yet the desire is there or we wouldn't choose to do them. This is the very
essence of free will—to choose according to our desires.
Jonathan
Edwards, in his work The Freedom of the Will, defines the will as "that by
which the mind chooses." There can be no doubt that human beings do indeed
make choices. I am choosing to write, you are choosing to read. I will to
write, and writing is set in motion. When the idea of freedom is added,
however, the issue becomes terribly complicated. We have to ask, freedom to do
what? Even the most ardent Calvinist would not deny that the will is free to
choose whatever it desires. Even the most ardent Arminian would agree that the
will is not free to choose what it does not desire.
With
regard to salvation, the question then becomes, what do human beings desire?
The Arminian believes that some desire to repent and be saved. Others desire to
flee from God and thus reap eternal damnation. Why different people have
different desires is never made clear by the Arminian. The Calvinist holds that
all human beings desire to flee from God unless and until the Holy Spirit
performs a work of regeneration. That regeneration changes our desires so that
we will freely repent and be saved.
It is
important to note that even the unregenerate are never forced against their
will. Their wills are changed without their permission, but they are always
free to choose as they will. Thus we are indeed free to do as we will. We are
not free, however, to choose or select our nature. One cannot simply declare,
"Henceforth I will desire only the good" anymore than Christ could
have declared, "Henceforth I will desire only evil." This is where our
freedom stops.
The
Fall left the human will intact insofar as we still have the faculty of
choosing. Our minds have been darkened by sin and our desires bound by wicked
impulses. But we can still think, choose, and act. Yet something terrible has
happened to us. We have lost all desire for God. The thoughts and desires of
our heart are only evil continuously. The freedom of our will is a curse.
Because we can still choose according to our desires, we choose to sin and thus
we become accountable to the judgment of God.
Augustine
said that we still have free will, but we have lost our liberty. The royal
liberty of which the Bible speaks is the freedom or power to choose Christ as
our own. But until our heart is changed by the Holy Spirit, we have no desire
for Christ. Without that desire we never will choose Him. God must awaken our
soul and give us a desire for Christ before we will ever be inclined to choose
Him.
Edwards
said that as fallen human beings we retain our natural freedom (the power to
act according to our desires) but lose moral freedom.Moral freedom includes the
disposition, inclination, and desire of the soul toward righteousness. It is
this inclination that was lost in the Fall.
Every
choice I make is determined by something. There is a reason for it, a desire
behind it. This sounds like determinism. By no means! Determinism teaches that
our actions are completely controlled by something external to us, making us do
what we don't want to do. That is coercion and is opposed to freedom.
How
can our choices be determined but not coerced? Because they are determined by
something within—by what we are and by what we desire. They are determined by
ourselves. This is self-determination, which is the very essence of freedom.
To be
sure, for us to choose Christ, God must change our heart. That is precisely
what He does. He changes our heart for us. He gives us a desire for Himself
that we otherwise would not have. Then we choose Him out of the desire that is
within us. We freely choose Him because we want to choose Him. That is the
wonder of His grace.
1.
Every choice we make is for a reason.
2. We
always choose according to our strongest inclination at the moment of choice.
3.
The will is the choosing faculty.
4.
Fallen human beings have free will but lack liberty. We have natural freedom
but not moral freedom.
5.
Freedom is self-determination.
6. In
regeneration, God changes the disposition of our heart and plants a desire for
Himself within us.
The
Essential Truths of the Christian Faith devotional is excerpted from Essential
Truths of the Christian Faith Copyright © 1992 by R. C. Sproul. All rights
reserved.
