1689 Baptist Confession of Faith, Chapter 9.2 The Power of the Will
Table of Contents
The Text
Joshua 24:15 (CSB) But if it doesn’t please you to worship the LORD, choose for yourselves today: Which will you worship — the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living? As for me and my family, we will worship the LORD.
The Chapter
Man, in his state of innocency, had freedom and power to will and to do that which was good and well- pleasing to God, but yet was unstable, so that he might fall from it.
The Confession
Man, in his state of innocency, had freedom and power to will and to do that which was good and well-pleasing to God
Ecclesiastes 7:29 (CSB) Only see this: I have discovered that God made people upright, but they pursued many schemes.”
Again, because we were made in the image of God, Adam and Eve had, not only the freedom of the will, but the ability to choose good because we were good. God is the source of good, he declared us very good, and therefore, what we did was good.
but yet was unstable, so that he might fall from it
Genesis 3:6 (CSB) The woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
Within that freedom comes boundaries and boundaries come in the form of the law of God. In our original free will, we could choose to go to the left or the right or straight ahead. We do not know how long Adam and Eve lived in perfection--chosen to go ahead straight--but they always had the ability to go left or right of center.
In Genesis 3, they chose to go not straight ahead but to fall.