John Calvin on Original sin & the human will
Will in bondage; needs sovereign grace to be freed
When the will is enchained as the slave of sin, it cannot make a movement towards goodness, far less steadily pursue it.
THE POSITION
The will survives the fall but its soundness does not. Calvin's careful formula is that fallen man is 'deprived not of will, but of soundness of will' (Institutes II.iii.5) — he sins willingly, by his own inclination, and is nonetheless unable to move in any direction but evil. The remedy is therefore not assistance but replacement: 'Were it said that God gives assistance to a weak will, something might be left us; but when it is said that he makes the will, every thing good in it is placed without us' (II.iii.9). Turning to God is a transformation of stone into flesh, not a decision God helps along.
26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes and to carefully observe My ordinances.
17 OTHERS HOLD THIS
ABOUT THIS FIGURE
Reformer of Geneva and the most systematic of the first-generation Reformers. This entry rests on the 1559 Institutes of the Christian Religion in Henry Beveridge's translation, checked section by section, with Calvin's own commentaries on 1 John, John, the Harmony of the Evangelists, the Psalms and the Harmony of the Law used where the Institutes are thin.
Cite this page
"John Calvin on Original sin & the human will", Examined Doctrine, July 2026 edition, https://examineddoctrine.com/position/calvin/original-sin (archived at https://examineddoctrine.com/editions/2026-07/position/calvin/original-sin).