Man's Inability and Culpability

In Philippians 2, Paul urges the believers to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Php 2:12). It’s a little daunting, actually. “Me? Work out my own salvation?” It’s serious enough for Paul to include “with fear and trembling.” And I might say, “But I can’t.” It’s a good thing, then, that the sentence doesn’t end there. Paul follows it immediately with a “for” statement. “For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure” (Php 2:13). Ah! There it is! So … yes, I have to work out my salvation, and, yes, it’s hard work—frightening, even—but I’m not doing it alone. Indeed, God is doing it in me. Notice that God offers two components: to will and to work. He gives us the ability and inclination to choose it, and He gives us the power to do it. These are the two necessary pieces of anything we do. Do I want to? Do I have the capacity? God fills in those two. I can get to work now. This is all to illustrate the answer to the problem that people have with God’s Sovereignty and Man’s Inability. Scripture is not vague on God’s Sovereignty. He isn’t “sort of sovereign.” He works all things after the counsel of His will. So whether by allowing or causing, everything that happens is according to the counsel of His will. We see this in Joseph’s “You intended it for evil, but God intended it for good” (Gen 50:20). You see it in Jesus’s “For the Son of Man goes as it has been determined, but woe to that man by whom he is betrayed!” (Luke 22:22). And elsewhere. God lays human responsibility and His sovereignty side by side and works all things together for good (Rom 8:28). It’s the other side that gets sticky. Equally clear in Scripture is Man’s Inability. We are “dead in sin” (Eph 2:1-3), born in sin (Psa 51:5), hostile to God (Rom 8:7). We can’t understand the things of God (1 Cor 2:14) and can’t even see the kingdom of God without a supernatural intervention (John 3:3). So, if that truly describes humans—incapable of choosing God—how can God hold them responsible? The problem is we’re misunderstanding “inability.” The inability isn’t the lack of capability; it’s the lack of volition. It is what we call “moral inability.” Let’s try a parallel and see if you can understand this. A man comes into my home, puts a gun in my hand, and says, “If you don’t shoot your wife, I’ll kill you.” It would be right and reasonable for me to answer, “I can’t.” What would I mean? Do I lack the muscle to pull that trigger? Is there something wrong with my hand or some obstacle between me and her? No. I do not have it in me to shoot my wife. I don’t have the willingness to choose to do that because it would violate my nature. It is only my own nature preventing me from doing it. My lack of inclination. In the same way, the one thing that prevents anyone from coming to Christ is not something external preventing them. They have the capacity to say, “Jesus is Lord” (Rom 10:9) and there certainly is sufficient evidence for God and the truth of His Word (Rom 1:19-20; Psa 19:1). The only thing preventing anyone from coming is their own refusal to do so, their moral inability to choose Him. They lack the will. The reason people don’t come to Him is that they choose not to and the only way that can be changed is to change their wills. Only God can do that. The point, then, is not that sinners lack the capacity to come to Christ, but that they lack the desire. Their inability is rooted in what they love, not in what they lack. And because the will is bound to the heart, only God can free it. He grants repentance, opens eyes, inclines affections, and creates a new nature that delights in Christ. When He does, the one who once said “I can’t” now says “I will,” and he comes freely, joyfully, and genuinely—because grace has made him willing.