From Anstey’s Doctrinal Definitions:
This term is not found in the Bible, but what it conveys certainly is. It means that man was created with a will that was free to choose the things of God or to reject them.
What most evangelical Christians do not accept that man has lost his power to choose in the things of God when Adam (the head of race) fell (Gen. 3). Man had a free will when he was unfallen, but he exercised his will to his own fall. J. N. Darby said, "Man was free in paradise, but then he was in the enjoyment of good. He made use of his freewill, and consequently became a sinner" (Letters, vol. 3, p. 316). The human race under Adam is now in a fallen state wherein man is captive to his sin-nature, and thus, he is no longer a free moral agent with a free will. He is captive to his sinful state and is in bondage to his sins, and thus apart from God working by quickening (new birth), none will come to Christ for salvation. Man in the flesh may choose to do this or that in the ordinary choices of daily life, but in spiritual things, he will never choose Christ.
Teaching that supposes that man in the flesh (since the fall) has a free will reflects a misunderstanding of the true condition of fallen man. It assumes that man in his lost estate still has some power of good in him to turn to God for salvation, if he chose to. However, this erroneous idea denies the total depravity of man, of which Scripture clearly speaks. The Bible teaches that man in his fallen state is:
J. N. Darby said, "Man, looked at as he is, without one pulse of life as regards God, is dead in trespasses and sins" (Synopsis— on Colossians, p. 48, Loizeaux Bros. Edition).
P. Wilson said, "God has faithfully told us that we are not only lost and without any strength to do anything about it, but that we were morally dead—dead toward God—that there is not one movement of our hearts toward Him" (Christian Truth, vol. 12, p. 250).
H. Smith said, "If we are dead, there can be no movement on our side towards God. The first movement must come from God" (Ephesians, p. 17).
A. P. Cecil said, "Before a man is born again he is looked at by God as dead in trespasses and sins. He has no more movement toward Him than a corpse has. You may speak to him about God, but he neither hears, responds, nor sees. He has neither faith nor repentance, nor anything else, till the Spirit's action, when he is quickened" (Helps By the Way, vol. 3, NS, p. 175).
A. H. Rule said, "Man is in a state of death, and if he is to have life, God must act sovereignly. God begins. Man himself is powerless as was dead Lazarus, until the life-giving Word is spoken....Humanly speaking, a dead man cannot hear or believe; nor could man or angel make him hear or believe. But God moves in the scene of death, and all is changed" (Selected Ministry, vol. 2, p. 210).
Most Christians will affirm that man in his sins is totally depraved and lost. However, when their doctrine as to how a person comes to Christ to get saved is examined, it will be found that they really believe that there is still something good in fallen man—even if it is but a little spark. Thus, they believe that man in the flesh is capable of responding to the gospel, if he chooses to. What they are saying, without realizing it, is that while man is bad, he is not so bad that he cannot do something to secure his own blessing. The truth is that before God imparts a new life to a person, he only has a fallen sin-nature (the flesh) in him. If man in his fallen state chooses or decides to come to Christ, then it's the flesh that did the choosing! This, however, will never happen because “the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be” (Rom. 8:77Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. (Romans 8:7)). Scripture states clearly that the needed action of God in new birth is not “of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man” (John 1:1313Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:13)). C. Stanley remarked, "It would be absurd to say that the new nature was begotten by the freewill of our old evil nature" (Things New & Old, vol. 33, p. 29).
The truth is that the flesh is not capable of responding to the gospel and being subject to God—and it never will be. The idea that man has a freewill today makes salvation the fruit of man's own will. It is a doctrine that has become synonymous with Arminianism. (James Arminius, 1560-1609 A.D., taught that all men are depraved sinners, but he did not see that their depravity was such that they could not choose to believe the gospel. He taught that though men are fallen creatures, they are still free moral agents, and thus they have the power to believe the gospel, if they choose to.)
J. N. Darby said, "Arminianism, or rather Pelagianism, pretends that man can choose, and that thus the old man is ameliorated by the thing it has accepted. The first step is made without grace, and it is the first step which truly costs in this case. I believe that we ought to keep to the Word, but philosophically and morally speaking, freewill is a false and absurd theory" (Letters, vol. 1, p. 315-316).
In reality, since the fall, man is no longer a free moral agent. He is captive to his sinful state and in bondage to the sins he commits (John 8:3434Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. (John 8:34)). Apart from God working in quickening (new birth), none will come to Christ for salvation. This does not mean that men are not responsible for what they do. A man chooses to commit his sins, and when he commits them, he comes into bondage to them, but he is still accountable for all that he does (Matt. 12:3636But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. (Matthew 12:36); Rom. 14:1212So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. (Romans 14:12)). Hence, not having a will that is free to choose Christ doesn’t mean that a man is not responsible for sinning. J. N. Darby pointed out that the sinner’s responsibility is similar to a man that has a debt of £100,000 that he is unable to pay. His inability to pay doesn’t absolve him of his responsibility in the matter.