The danger of not knowing the difference between “Free Will” and “Free Agency”. Read the difference –
https://www.monergism.com/inability-free-will-vs-free-agency
Reading a modern commentary by a so-called Bible scholar, one wonders if he is ignorant of the difference between Free Will and Free Agency, or intentionally deceptive, as he ignores the teaching of Calvinists like John Trapp and Charles H. Spurgeon whom he quotes out of overall theological context to support Arminian Free Will? IN WHAT SENSE IS THE PERSON DEAD IN TRESPASSES AND SINS?
https://enduringword.com/bible-commentary/ephesians-2/
From John Trapp (1601-1669), Puritan, from his commentary - https://studylight.org/commentaries/eng/jtc.html
“The whole man is in evil, and whole evil is in man. As the Chaos had the seeds of all creatures, and wanted only the Spirit’s motion to produce them; so our corrupt nature hath all sins in it, and wants but the warmth of Satan’s temptation to bring them into act, if God restrain not. Sure it is, we can stay no more from sinning, than the heart can from punting, and the pulse from beating. The first man defiled the nature; and ever since, the nature defiles the man. As poison put into a cup of wine disperseth itself, and makes it deadly; so original sin polluteth and poisoneth our whole man.” Gen. 3:7
Rev. 20:Ver. 5. But the rest of the dead] Dead in Baal worship, as Ephraim, Hosea 13:1; dead in sins, as Sardis, Revelation 3:1, I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead”
“He [man] hath by his fall brought upon himself a miserable necessity of sinning, so that he cannot but "do wickedly with both hands earnestly"; which though it be no excuse, but an aggravation rather of his actual sin (that he doth it out of the pravity of his nature)” Gen 8:21
“Spiritual arguments to a carnal heart are but warm clothes to a dead man. He hath brought a miserable necessity of sinning upon himself: his soul and all the powers thereof being but the shop of sin; his body and all the parts thereof tools of sin; his life and all his actions of both soul and body a trade of sin.” Rom 8:7
Charles Haddon Spurgeon in his Defense of Calvinism
https://www.chapellibrary.org/book/doc2/defense-of-calvinism-a[3
“I am bound to the doctrine of the depravity of the human heart, because I find myself depraved in heart, and have daily proofs that in my flesh there dwelleth no good thing. If God enters into covenant with unfallen man, man is so insignificant a creature that it must be an act of gracious condescension on the Lord’s part; but if God enters into covenant with sinful man, he is then so offensive a creature that it must be, on God’s part, an act of pure, free, rich, sovereign grace. When the Lord entered into covenant with me, I am sure that it was all of grace, nothing else but grace. When I remember what a den of unclean beasts and birds my heart was, and how strong was my unrenewed will, how obstinate and rebellious against the sovereignty of the Divine rule, I always feel inclined to take the very lowest room in my Father’s house, and when I enter Heaven, it will be to go among the less than the least of all saints, and with the chief of sinners.”
“I have my own private opinion that there is no such thing as preaching Christ and Him crucified, unless we preach what nowadays is called Calvinism. It is a nickname to call it Calvinism; Calvinism is the gospel, and nothing else.”
Charles H. Spurgeon, from Sermon on Col. 2:13-14:
"The kind of death here spoken of is spiritual death,—death as to higher things than can be grasped by the hand, or seen with the eye, or comprehended by the natural mind. Only the spiritual man knows what spiritual things are, for they have to be spiritually discerned You would not think of teaching a horse the wonders of astronomy, because there is no mind in the horse that could learn that science; neither can we, of ourselves, teach spiritual things to our fellow-men, because, until they are born again, born from above, they do not possess the faculty with which they can grasp spiritual things. Our Lord Jesus said to Nicodemus, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh,"—and therefore can only lay hold of the things that are fleshly;—"and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit;" and until a man is born of the Spirit, he is without the faculty of understanding and enjoying spiritual things. As far as spiritual things are concerned, man's understanding is dead. He can comprehend the highest and most wonderful of sciences, but he cannot,—or, what is tantamount to it, he will not—understand the things of God. He turns on his heel, and says, "I cannot make out what you mean." No, we know that you cannot, and we are not surprised at your lack of apprehension, for it is just what the Bible leads us to expect. We even find. those who consider themselves to be learned divines rejecting the gospel, and saying that it is not consistent with their philosophy. We never thought that it was, and we never imagined that they could receive the gospel until they are converted, and become as little children. The great reason why men reject; the gospel is because they are not born again, because they have not received the life of God into their souls. If they had, they would understand it so as to delight in it; but the understanding, spiritually, is under a cloud of night, which the Word of God calls "death."
So also is the human will dead to spiritual things. When a person is literally dead, he cannot will to come to life; neither does any man ever will to come to Christ till the Spirit of God gives him that will, for his natural will is exerted in quite another direction, as our Lord said to the Jews, "Ye will not come to me that ye might have life." The will is a slave, it is held in chains, it is set on mischief, and resolved not to subject itself to the will of the Most High. Not morally, nor mentally, but spiritually, the will of man is dead.
So, too is it true of the affections that they are dead to spiritual things. Men, in their unregenerate state, will not love that which is good; alas! they will not love Christ. He is altogether lovely, yet unrenewed men see nothing in him that they should love. Holiness, purity, the will of God,—all these things are worthy of being loved, yet men do not love them; nay, they love the very opposite until the grace of God comes and quickens them."
https://www.biblebb.com/files/spurgeon/2605.htm
https://www.monergism.com/inability-free-will-vs-free-agency
Reading a modern commentary by a so-called Bible scholar, one wonders if he is ignorant of the difference between Free Will and Free Agency, or intentionally deceptive, as he ignores the teaching of Calvinists like John Trapp and Charles H. Spurgeon whom he quotes out of overall theological context to support Arminian Free Will? IN WHAT SENSE IS THE PERSON DEAD IN TRESPASSES AND SINS?
https://enduringword.com/bible-commentary/ephesians-2/
From John Trapp (1601-1669), Puritan, from his commentary - https://studylight.org/commentaries/eng/jtc.html
“The whole man is in evil, and whole evil is in man. As the Chaos had the seeds of all creatures, and wanted only the Spirit’s motion to produce them; so our corrupt nature hath all sins in it, and wants but the warmth of Satan’s temptation to bring them into act, if God restrain not. Sure it is, we can stay no more from sinning, than the heart can from punting, and the pulse from beating. The first man defiled the nature; and ever since, the nature defiles the man. As poison put into a cup of wine disperseth itself, and makes it deadly; so original sin polluteth and poisoneth our whole man.” Gen. 3:7
Rev. 20:Ver. 5. But the rest of the dead] Dead in Baal worship, as Ephraim, Hosea 13:1; dead in sins, as Sardis, Revelation 3:1, I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead”
“He [man] hath by his fall brought upon himself a miserable necessity of sinning, so that he cannot but "do wickedly with both hands earnestly"; which though it be no excuse, but an aggravation rather of his actual sin (that he doth it out of the pravity of his nature)” Gen 8:21
“Spiritual arguments to a carnal heart are but warm clothes to a dead man. He hath brought a miserable necessity of sinning upon himself: his soul and all the powers thereof being but the shop of sin; his body and all the parts thereof tools of sin; his life and all his actions of both soul and body a trade of sin.” Rom 8:7
Charles Haddon Spurgeon in his Defense of Calvinism
https://www.chapellibrary.org/book/doc2/defense-of-calvinism-a[3
“I am bound to the doctrine of the depravity of the human heart, because I find myself depraved in heart, and have daily proofs that in my flesh there dwelleth no good thing. If God enters into covenant with unfallen man, man is so insignificant a creature that it must be an act of gracious condescension on the Lord’s part; but if God enters into covenant with sinful man, he is then so offensive a creature that it must be, on God’s part, an act of pure, free, rich, sovereign grace. When the Lord entered into covenant with me, I am sure that it was all of grace, nothing else but grace. When I remember what a den of unclean beasts and birds my heart was, and how strong was my unrenewed will, how obstinate and rebellious against the sovereignty of the Divine rule, I always feel inclined to take the very lowest room in my Father’s house, and when I enter Heaven, it will be to go among the less than the least of all saints, and with the chief of sinners.”
“I have my own private opinion that there is no such thing as preaching Christ and Him crucified, unless we preach what nowadays is called Calvinism. It is a nickname to call it Calvinism; Calvinism is the gospel, and nothing else.”
Charles H. Spurgeon, from Sermon on Col. 2:13-14:
"The kind of death here spoken of is spiritual death,—death as to higher things than can be grasped by the hand, or seen with the eye, or comprehended by the natural mind. Only the spiritual man knows what spiritual things are, for they have to be spiritually discerned You would not think of teaching a horse the wonders of astronomy, because there is no mind in the horse that could learn that science; neither can we, of ourselves, teach spiritual things to our fellow-men, because, until they are born again, born from above, they do not possess the faculty with which they can grasp spiritual things. Our Lord Jesus said to Nicodemus, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh,"—and therefore can only lay hold of the things that are fleshly;—"and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit;" and until a man is born of the Spirit, he is without the faculty of understanding and enjoying spiritual things. As far as spiritual things are concerned, man's understanding is dead. He can comprehend the highest and most wonderful of sciences, but he cannot,—or, what is tantamount to it, he will not—understand the things of God. He turns on his heel, and says, "I cannot make out what you mean." No, we know that you cannot, and we are not surprised at your lack of apprehension, for it is just what the Bible leads us to expect. We even find. those who consider themselves to be learned divines rejecting the gospel, and saying that it is not consistent with their philosophy. We never thought that it was, and we never imagined that they could receive the gospel until they are converted, and become as little children. The great reason why men reject; the gospel is because they are not born again, because they have not received the life of God into their souls. If they had, they would understand it so as to delight in it; but the understanding, spiritually, is under a cloud of night, which the Word of God calls "death."
So also is the human will dead to spiritual things. When a person is literally dead, he cannot will to come to life; neither does any man ever will to come to Christ till the Spirit of God gives him that will, for his natural will is exerted in quite another direction, as our Lord said to the Jews, "Ye will not come to me that ye might have life." The will is a slave, it is held in chains, it is set on mischief, and resolved not to subject itself to the will of the Most High. Not morally, nor mentally, but spiritually, the will of man is dead.
So, too is it true of the affections that they are dead to spiritual things. Men, in their unregenerate state, will not love that which is good; alas! they will not love Christ. He is altogether lovely, yet unrenewed men see nothing in him that they should love. Holiness, purity, the will of God,—all these things are worthy of being loved, yet men do not love them; nay, they love the very opposite until the grace of God comes and quickens them."
https://www.biblebb.com/files/spurgeon/2605.htm
