Much thanks to Alice Alfred for reminding me to use Scripture to talk about Scripture. It's one of my biggest beefs: people who don't use Scripture. It's such a big error that even I fall into it.
Romans 3:10 -- There is no one righteous, not even one. All of Paul's quotations in this section help us to know that we are at least totally depraved. We either have no free will or we have too much.
Romans 7 is Paul's famous passage where he wants to do right but he can't. What he does do, he hates. It's like he can't control his inner sinner at times.
Romans 1:24-- God gave them over to their sinful desires. So it seems there might be free will but it isn't the wonderful gift that the Arminians glorify. It's actually God's punishment. True freedom is when he captivates us to himself.
Ephesians 2:1 -- You were dead in your transgressions and sins. Last time I checked, dead people have no freedom.
Colossians 2:3 -- While you were dead in your sins, Christ made you alive with Christ. We could do nothing unless God awakened us. And again, dead people have no freedom, and our freedom is actually God's punishment, which is not freedom at all but slavery to ourselves.
1 Corinthians 5:22 -- As in Adam all die, so in Christ will all be made alive.
So free will is actually a glorious paradox. If God was so unmerciful as to leave us to our freedom, we would never choose him and remain dead, but since God awakened us to Christ, we are completely enslaved to him but completely who we were meant to be in him, finding complete life and life to the fullest.
Just like that Wham! song: I don't want this freedom, freedom from your loving.
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