Episode Focus: Free will, human responsibility, God’s sovereignty, saving grace
Audience: Christians concerned that Calvinism denies human choice or turns people into “robots”

One of the most common objections to Calvinism is the claim that it destroys human free will. Critics often argue that if God sovereignly saves, then human choices must be meaningless or coerced.

In Episode 5 of The Closet Calvinist Podcast, we examine what Scripture actually teaches about human responsibility, the condition of the will, and God’s sovereign grace. Rather than denying free will, biblical Calvinism explains why the human will needs to be freed by grace in order to truly choose Christ.

Does Calvinism:

• Deny human free will and moral responsibility?
  Or

• Teach a biblical understanding of the will that explains humanity’s need for grace?

• How the Bible speaks about human choice and responsibility

• Why Scripture does not describe the will as morally neutral

• The effects of sin on human desires and decision-making

• How God’s sovereignty and human responsibility coexist

• Why regeneration precedes faith

• True freedom as Scripture defines it

• Deuteronomy 30:19 — “Choose life”

• Joshua 24:15 — “Choose this day whom you will serve”

• Acts 17:30 — God commands all people everywhere to repent

• Romans 10:9–10 — Call to believe and confess Christ

• Jeremiah 17:9 — The heart is deceitful

• John 8:34 — Everyone who sins is a slave to sin

• Romans 8:7–8 — The flesh does not submit to God

• Ephesians 2:1–3 — Dead in trespasses and sins

• Proverbs 16:9 — Man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps

• Proverbs 19:21 — The Lord’s purpose prevails

• Genesis 50:20 — Human intent and God’s intent

• Acts 2:23 — Christ crucified by God’s plan and human hands

• John 1:12–13 — Born of God, not of human will

• John 3:3–8 — Born again by the Spirit

• Ezekiel 36:26–27 — God gives a new heart

• Acts 16:14 — The Lord opens Lydia’s heart

• John 8:36 — If the Son sets you free, you are free indeed

• Romans 6:17–18 — Freed from sin, enslaved to righteousness

• Galatians 5:1 — Christ has set us free

Calvinism does not destroy free will.

Scripture teaches that people choose freely according to their nature—and apart from Christ, that nature is enslaved to sin. God’s grace does not violate the will; it liberates it.

True freedom is not the ability to choose anything we want.
True freedom is the ability to choose Christ.