You Take Away My Self-Control The Bondage of the Will, the Seduction of Sin, and the Sovereignty of Divine Grace Santamaria

 

You Take Away My Self-Control

The Bondage of the Will, the Seduction of Sin, and the Sovereignty of Divine Grace

A Theological Reflection from the Old School Predestinarian Baptist Absoluter Perspective

“Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.” — John 8:34

Introduction: The Terrible Attraction of Surrender

The 1984 recording of Self Control by Laura Branigan presents a haunting picture of a person gradually surrendering mastery over her own desires.

The song is filled with images of nighttime, fascination, temptation, fantasy, and the loss of personal restraint. Its musical energy creates an atmosphere of exhilaration, yet beneath that excitement lies a disturbing confession: the person who imagines herself free is increasingly controlled by something outside her command.

The song's famous refrain declares:

“You take my self, you take my self control.”

This short confession can serve as the foundation for a profound theological examination of human nature.

From the perspective of the Old School Predestinarian Baptists, particularly the Absoluter tradition, the central question is not merely whether human beings possess sufficient discipline to resist temptation.

The deeper question is whether fallen humanity ever possessed the spiritual independence it imagines itself to have.

Scripture describes man as possessing a will, yet simultaneously declares that he is enslaved to sin, spiritually dead apart from regeneration, and entirely dependent upon the sovereign grace of God for eternal salvation.

The song offers an artistic picture of the first kind of bondage. Scripture explains the deeper spiritual condition that no ordinary exercise of self-control can remedy.

1. The Opening Image: Nighttime and the Kingdom of Darkness

The song opens by presenting nighttime as an alternative world. Ordinary daytime obligations fade away, and the singer enters an atmosphere of attraction, fantasy, and escape.

The night seems to promise liberation from conventional restraints.

Yet Scripture frequently employs darkness as an image of spiritual blindness and alienation from God.

“And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” — John 3:19

The significant expression is that men loved darkness.

Their spiritual problem was not merely ignorance. Their affections were directed toward what opposed the light.

Here we encounter an essential distinction in Old School Baptist theology.

Fallen humanity does not simply lack sufficient information about God. It lacks spiritual life.

A sinner may understand many moral propositions. He may distinguish honesty from dishonesty and kindness from cruelty. He may even possess considerable religious knowledge.

Nevertheless, such knowledge does not produce regeneration.

The darkness described by Scripture concerns a spiritual condition that can be overcome only through the sovereign work of God.

Paul declares:

“For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts.” — 2 Corinthians 4:6

The comparison with creation is decisive.

Just as the original light came into existence through divine command, spiritual illumination originates in God's effectual power.

The spiritually dead sinner does not create the light by deciding to become alive.

God shines into the heart.

2. The Seduction of a World That Appears to Offer Freedom

As the song develops, the singer portrays nighttime as a realm where fantasy is more attractive than ordinary reality.

The experience is enticing precisely because it appears to offer freedom from limitations.

But the apparent liberation is accompanied by increasing dependence.

The individual becomes captivated by the very world that seems to promise independence.

This is the biblical paradox of sin.

Peter writes:

“While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption.” — 2 Peter 2:19

The promise of freedom may conceal the reality of bondage.

A man may believe himself free because he rejects religious commandments. Yet he may become enslaved to anger, sexual desire, pride, greed, or the approval of others.

Such captivity can be voluntary.

Indeed, that is what makes the matter so serious.

A person need not be externally forced to become a servant of his desires. He may willingly surrender himself to them.

Paul writes:

“Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey?” — Romans 6:16

This passage establishes a distinction between the appearance of liberty and actual spiritual freedom.

From an Absoluter standpoint, the natural man possesses the faculty of choosing. But this faculty does not grant him the ability to originate spiritual life or reverse the effects of the fall.

He chooses according to his inclinations, but those inclinations cannot regenerate him.

The sovereignty of God's grace is therefore not merely assistance offered to a weakened will.

It is the effectual work of God upon those who are spiritually dead.

3. The Refrain: When Another Power Takes Control

The song's recurring confession of surrendered self-control becomes increasingly significant as the musical intensity rises.

The singer recognizes that her independence is slipping away, yet the attraction remains.

Here the song intersects with one of the most difficult passages in Paul's writings.

“For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.” — Romans 7:19

There is an important difference between these two expressions.

The song describes a surrender to an alluring experience. Romans 7 describes a painful moral conflict.

Paul recognizes the goodness of God's law while acknowledging the continued operation of sin.

Within a traditional Old School Baptist interpretation, Romans 7:14–25 is frequently understood as depicting the conflict experienced by a regenerated believer.

The inward man delights in the law of God, yet the flesh remains subject to sinful inclinations.

Consequently, regeneration does not mean that the believer immediately loses every sinful desire.

Neither does it mean that his sinful conduct becomes morally insignificant.

The believer experiences conflict because spiritual life exists where sin still operates.

Paul concludes:

“O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” — Romans 7:24

Notice that Paul does not ultimately ask what independent power of self-discipline will save him.

He asks who shall deliver him.

His answer directs attention to Jesus Christ.

Here is the fundamental difference between the song's captivity and the gospel's deliverance.

The song presents a person losing control to an intoxicating attraction.

The gospel presents salvation originating in a Redeemer whose power does not depend upon man's natural capacity to save himself.

4. The World of Fantasy and the Deceitfulness of Sin

Another part of the song portrays the nighttime experience as a dreamlike world in which ordinary distinctions between appearance and reality become uncertain.

The singer knows that the attraction involves illusion, yet continues to embrace it.

This corresponds remarkably well to the biblical description of sin as deceitful.

“But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.” — Hebrews 3:13

Sin rarely presents itself merely as destruction.

It offers pleasure, satisfaction, recognition, power, intimacy, or relief.

Its attraction frequently depends upon concealing the consequences of surrender.

James explains:

“But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.” — James 1:14

The process begins within the desires of the individual.

Temptation finds something in human nature to which it can appeal.

This observation is important for understanding divine predestination.

The Absoluter conviction that God's eternal purpose encompasses all events must never be confused with the claim that God is morally responsible for the creature's sinful inclinations.

James expressly declares that God does not tempt men to evil.

The creature acts willingly and remains accountable for his conduct.

God's sovereign government is not diminished by human responsibility, nor does divine predestination transform wickedness into righteousness.

Joseph told his brothers:

“But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good.” — Genesis 50:20

The brothers intended evil.

God governed the event for good.

Both propositions are affirmed without making the moral intentions identical.

The same principle applies to the ordinary struggles of human life.

No sinful desire can overthrow God's purpose, but the sinner remains responsible for yielding to it.

5. The Repetition of Desire: Why Knowledge Does Not Produce Deliverance

One of the song's most striking features is repetition.

The singer returns again and again to the same captivating experience.

There is recognition, surrender, and renewed attraction.

This resembles the experience of individuals who repeatedly resolve to abandon destructive conduct but discover that resolution alone does not always overcome desire.

A person may know that anger is destructive and still indulge it.

He may recognize the consequences of greed and continue pursuing wealth without restraint.

He may understand that resentment poisons relationships and nevertheless preserve his bitterness.

The human will is not always master of the passions it acknowledges.

But Old School Baptist theology requires a further distinction.

Natural self-control and spiritual regeneration are not the same thing.

Unregenerate people can exercise remarkable discipline. They may abandon harmful habits, demonstrate courage, maintain fidelity, or perform acts of generosity.

Such conduct is meaningful and should not be dismissed.

Yet it cannot create spiritual life.

Ephesians 2:1 describes the people whom God quickens as previously dead in trespasses and sins.

A dead sinner cannot produce the divine life that he lacks.

The doctrine of immediate regeneration insists that spiritual life originates in God's sovereign power, not in human effort, persuasive preaching, religious excitement, or the exercise of an autonomous free will.

This does not make preaching, instruction, correction, or moral discipline meaningless.

It places them in their proper relationship to eternal salvation.

They do not constitute the efficient cause of regeneration.

6. The Stranger in the Night: The Divided Human Person

The song also develops the imagery of a fleeting encounter in the night, an attraction that seems powerful even though its permanence is uncertain.

The singer's identity appears divided between the ordinary daytime self and the nighttime self that yields to fantasy.

This provides a useful illustration of a theological distinction, though not a literal explanation of the song.

In Romans 7:22–23, Paul writes:

“For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind.”

Within the Old School Baptist understanding of the regenerate believer's inward conflict, this describes the continuing opposition between the flesh and the spiritual life imparted by God.

The Christian is not perfected in his conduct at regeneration.

He continues to experience temptation, weakness, and the painful consequences of sin.

Yet the life of God within him is not extinguished by those failures.

Eternal salvation rests upon God's unchangeable purpose, not upon the believer's fluctuating degree of moral success.

This truth provides profound consolation without granting permission for disobedience.

The apostle declares:

“Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid.” — Romans 6:1–2

A correct understanding of sovereign grace must preserve both the certainty of salvation and the duty of obedience.

7. The Moment of Surrender and the Doctrine of Absolute Predestination

The central drama of the song is voluntary surrender.

The singer is not portrayed as being physically compelled to participate in the nighttime experience.

Rather, desire becomes sufficiently powerful that ordinary restraint is relinquished.

This raises the question of how willing action relates to divine predestination.

The Absoluter Old School Baptist tradition maintains that God's eternal purpose is comprehensive and certain.

No event occurs beyond divine knowledge or independent of God's sovereign government.

Yet human beings act according to their own intentions.

Their moral responsibility remains intact.

The crucifixion provides the supreme biblical example.

Peter declared that Christ was delivered according to God's determinate counsel and foreknowledge, while simultaneously condemning those who crucified him through wicked hands (Acts 2:23).

The crucifixion was neither an accident nor a defeat of the divine purpose.

Nevertheless, the wickedness of those involved remained wickedness.

Thus, God's absolute decree does not excuse moral surrender.

A man cannot justify his indulgence by declaring that whatever happens must have been appointed by God.

Such reasoning confuses God's secret purpose with the creature's revealed obligations.

Deuteronomy 29:29 distinguishes between the secret things belonging to God and the revealed things governing human obedience.

The Christian must never use the first to abolish the second.

8. The False Master and the True Lord

The song's central image is one of transferred mastery.

Another attraction has become dominant.

The individual who imagined herself independent now acknowledges the power of something else.

This is precisely the kind of moral contradiction exposed in Romans 6.

Paul distinguishes between serving sin and serving righteousness.

The contrast is not between absolute human independence and religious dependence.

It is between different masters.

The gospel does not offer the natural man an autonomous sovereignty equal to God's.

It proclaims deliverance from sin through Jesus Christ.

Christ declares:

“If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” — John 8:36

This freedom cannot be purchased through natural willpower.

Neither is it created by a preacher's persuasive success.

It arises through the redeeming work of Christ and the effectual application of that redemption by the Holy Spirit.

The elect are not saved because they first conquered every sinful desire.

They are saved because Christ accomplished their redemption.

That eternal salvation is certain because its foundation rests in God rather than man.

9. Temperance: The Self-Control That Comes from the Spirit

The contrast between the song and Scripture becomes especially clear in Galatians 5:22–23.

Paul includes temperance among the fruits of the Spirit.

Temperance concerns restraint, discipline, and mastery over one's impulses.

But Paul identifies it as spiritual fruit.

He does not make it the independent cause of spiritual regeneration.

This distinction is essential.

The believer is not instructed to become spiritually alive through the successful cultivation of self-control.

Rather, self-control belongs among the qualities appropriate to the spiritual life bestowed by God.

The same apostle who teaches divine sovereignty also commands believers to walk in the Spirit.

Such commandments are genuine duties.

They do not imply that eternal election depends upon man's obedience.

The Christian's failures may affect his conscience, fellowship, relationships, and earthly experiences without overturning the eternal covenant of grace.

Thus, the certainty of salvation must never be confused with the harmlessness of sin.

10. The Final Refrain: The Difference Between Captivity and Redemption

As the song returns to its central refrain, the impression of captivity becomes almost inescapable.

Desire continues to govern the singer's experience.

There is no clear theological deliverance in the lyrics, nor should one be invented.

The song remains an artistic portrayal of attraction and surrendered restraint.

Nevertheless, it provides a powerful contrast with the Christian gospel.

The singer describes a person overcome by desire.

Paul describes a Redeemer who overcomes sin and death.

The singer appears caught within an experience she cannot fully govern.

The Christian confesses that salvation is governed by the eternal purpose of God.

The singer's repeated surrender expresses instability.

Christ's accomplished redemption establishes certainty.

Paul writes:

“For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” — Philippians 2:13

This statement brings the theological discussion to its conclusion.

The deepest spiritual question is not whether fallen man can develop greater natural discipline.

It is whether he possesses the power to produce the spiritual life upon which eternal salvation depends.

The Old School Baptist answer is unequivocal.

He does not.

Regeneration is the sovereign work of God.

Redemption is the accomplished work of Christ.

The preservation of the saints depends upon divine faithfulness.

And the believer's duty remains to resist sin, practice temperance, and walk according to the revealed Word.

Conclusion: When the Human Will Meets the Sovereignty of God

Self Control is memorable because it describes a contradiction familiar to human experience: a person seeking freedom discovers herself increasingly dependent upon the object of her desire.

The song makes no explicit Christian theological claim. Yet its portrayal of surrendered restraint provides an unusually vivid illustration of the limitations of human self-mastery.

From the Old School Baptist Absoluter perspective, the human condition is deeper than the song's romantic and psychological imagery.

Fallen humanity is not merely weak.

It is spiritually dead apart from sovereign regeneration.

The believer is not merely a person who has developed greater natural discipline.

He is one who has received spiritual life through the immediate operation of the Holy Spirit.

And the certainty of eternal salvation does not depend upon the unstable achievements of human self-control.

It rests upon the eternal purpose of the Father, the accomplished redemption of the Son, and the effectual work of the Holy Spirit.

The song speaks of the surrender of control to an alluring power.

The gospel speaks of liberation through a sovereign Redeemer.

The tragedy of sin is that man imagines himself free while serving his desires. The glory of grace is that God delivers his people without depending upon their supposed ability to deliver themselves.

“For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.” — Romans 11:36

Note: The song is discussed in its original thematic progression, using one brief lyrical quotation and paraphrases of its other passages. This preserves the distinction between the copyrighted lyrics and the theological interpretation.