(The first five points are a copy and paste of the Westminster Confession of Faith Chapter 9)
“1. God hath endued the will of man with that natural liberty, that is neither forced, nor by any absolute necessity of nature determined to good or evil.
2. Man, in his state of innocency, had freedom and power to will and to do that which is good and well-pleasing to God; but yet mutably, so that he might fall from it.
3. May, by his fall into a state of sin, hath wholly lost all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation; so as a natural man, being altogether averse from that good, and dead in sin, is not able, by his own strength, to convert himself, or to prepare himself thereunto.
4. When God converts a sinner and translates Him into the state of grace, He freeth him from his natural bondage under sin, and, by His grace alone, enables him freely to will and to do that which is spiritually good; yet so as that, by reason of his remaining corruption, he doth not perfectly, nor only, will that which is good, but doth also will that which is evil.
5. The will of man is made perfectly and immutably free to good alone, in the state of glory only.”
Breathtaking! Is it not?
So, my will was totally free, free to love God, free to do good, not evil, before the fall. After the fall, my will is taken. Sin put my will in bondage so I cannot do good, part of good is desiring God and the things of God. Then when God, by His mercy and grace, quickens me from a spiritual death, He lets my will free, free to go back to it original nature, to seek God and to love God.
Even though my will is now free in Christ, it is not totally free (it gets influenced by a sin-stricken body I carry with myself everywhere, by the fallen material world I live in and by the devil who is in this world). My will will be “perfectly and immutably free to good alone” when I go to be with Christ.
Praise God! ///