3. On the freedom of will in man

      "God created the soul," writes Basil the Great, "and not sin. Its primary good was to be with God and to be united with Him through love. Having fallen away from Him, she began to suffer from various and manifold ailments. Why is there a general acceptability of evil in it? On account of free striving, which is most befitting of a rational creature. Not being bound by any necessity, having received from the Creator a free life, as created in the image of God, it understands the good, knows how to enjoy it, is endowed with freedom and the power to observe the life that is natural to it; but also has the freedom to deviate from the beautiful...

      But, they say, – the saint continues, – why is sinlessness not given to us in the very structure, so that it would be impossible to sin, even if we wanted to? For the same reason, why do you not consider the servants to be in good order when you keep them bound, but when you see that they voluntarily fulfill their duties to you? Wherefore it pleases God not that which is compulsory, but which is done voluntarily, but virtue proceeds from volition, and not from necessity, and volition depends on what is in us; and what is in us is free. Therefore, whoever reproaches the Creator for not having made us sinless, does nothing else but prefer an irrational, immovable nature, and having no strivings, to a nature endowed with volition and self-activity" (The Creation of the Holy Fathers. VIII, 151, 156).

4. The internal cause of the origin of sin lies in the freedom of human will

      An indication of the origin of sin from the freedom of man can be found in the Holy Scriptures: a) the Old and b) New Testaments, and c) in the teaching of the Holy Fathers of the Church.

      (a) Thus, first of all, in the words of Moses to the people of Israel: "Behold, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil" (Deut. XXX, 15). From these words it is clear that the choice between life and good, on the one hand, and death and evil, on the other, depends on the person himself, therefore, if he chooses evil, he does it voluntarily, and not forcedly.

      Such appeals of Moses to the people of Israel, such as: If you will listen to the voice of the Lord your God, carefully fulfill all His commandments (Deut. XXVIII, 1; cf. XXX, 10, 16), or: "If you do not listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do not strive to keep all His commandments and His statutes" (Deut. XXVIII, 15; cf. XXX, 17) can also serve as an indication of the origin of sin in human freedom. Such appeals show that whether or not to fulfill the commandments and decrees of God depends on the person himself, namely on his freedom. All the punishments that God inflicted on individuals and nations for their sins, and in particular the people of Israel, can also serve as evidence of the origin of sin from the freedom of man. In fact, if sins were not free, if they occurred necessarily, under the influence of an evil creature or some other cause, then God would not accuse them of sinners and would not subject them to punishment for these sins. If God imputs sins to sinful persons, it means that they have their main cause in these persons themselves, in their freedom, as a result of which they deserve guilt and punishment.

      b) In the New Testament, Jesus Christ Himself very clearly acknowledges that the internal cause of the origin of sin lies in man himself, namely in his freedom, when He calls the heart of man, this center of his inner life, the source of sinful actions. "Out of the heart," says the Saviour, "proceed evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, perjury, blasphemy" (Matt. XV, 19). This means that the inner root of sin lies in man himself, in his inner being, in his inner desire, which is not necessarily conditioned by any external influence. Up. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans says: "The night is past, and the day is at hand, and so let us put on the works of darkness and put on the armor of light." As in the daytime, let us behave decently, not giving ourselves up to feasting and drunkenness, nor to voluptuousness and debauchery, nor to quarrels and envy (XIII, 12-13). If it were not in the power of man, not on his freedom, to lead a virtuous or vicious life, then the Apostle would not have made such an exhortation as he did in the passage quoted, would not have invited Christians to reject the works of darkness, to remove the indicated vices from themselves, and to live a virtuous and pious life. Therefore, the above passage can serve as a confirmation that the vicious, sinful life of a person depends on himself, on his freedom.

      Thus, in both the Old and New Testaments, there are fairly clear indications of the origin of sin from the freedom of man.

      c) In accordance with the Holy Scriptures, the Fathers of the Church believed that the main, internal cause of the origin of sin was in man himself, namely in his freedom. Thus, St. Basil the Great, in refutation of the teaching of the Gnostics and Manichaeans about the origin of evil, says: "Do not seek evil outwardly, do not imagine that there is some original evil nature, but let each one recognize himself as the culprit of his own wickedness" (Works of St. Basil the Great in Russian translation, part I, p. 30). In another place, in refutation of the fact that God is the author of evil, he says: "It is not God who is the cause of evil, but ourselves; for the beginning and root of sin is that which depends on us, our freedom" (ibid., part IV, p. 145). St. Basil the Great also expresses this idea very clearly in the following words: "In the proper sense, evil, that is, sin, is the evil most worthy of this name, depends on our will, because it is in our will either to refrain from vice, or to be vicious" (ibid., p. 150).

      In the same way, St. Gregory the Theologian clearly acknowledges evil as proceeding from ourselves and at the same time from the devil, when he says: "Evil has neither a special essence nor a kingdom, it is neither beginningless nor original, it was created by God below, but is our work and the work of the evil one, and it has come into us from our negligence, and not from the Creator" (The Works of St. Gregory the Theologian in Russian translation, Part III, p. 320). St. Gregory the Theologian clearly expresses this idea in the following words: "Ruse is the destruction of hard iron, and I, a suicide, have planted destruction in myself - sin, by my own design, following the insidious suggestions of the envious" (ibid., part IV, p. 228).

      In the same way, Blessed Theodoret acknowledges that sin arises from our freedom, when he says: "Since the choice of good and contrary depends on volition, then justly some receive victorious crowns, while others are punished for arbitrary sins" (The Works of Blessed Theodoret in Russian translation, part I, p. 39).