“FREE WILL”
Does a sinner have his own free will to come to Christ? Jesus stated in John 5:40 “and you will not come to Me so that you might have life.” “Free Will” means the right of the creature to CHOOSE or do what he wishes.
Only Adam and Eve possessed absolute free will, and they lost it when they chose to eat of the forbidden fruit in the garden of Eden. They then lost this free will, and every human being since has been born without free will!
God has never told man He can do what he wants! We are COMMANDED “Thou shalt”, and “Thou shalt not.” (Exodus 20:1-18). Satan. With all of his “I wills”, in Isaiah 14:12-14, gives an example of what man or angel will do when left with his own free will. “How art thou fallen from Heaven, O’ Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I WILL ascend into Heaven, I WILL sit also upon the mount of the congregation in the side of the north: I WILL ascend above the heights of the clouds: I WILL be LIKE the most High.” So, its quite plain to see that the very first sin was the assertion of creatures will, or “free will.” Not only was Satan’s sin, but also Adam’s and Eve’s sin, when they rebelled against God. Eve rebelled against God because she responded to the temptation of Satan’s lie that when she ate of the forbidden fruit, “you shall be as gods, (or God), knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:15).
Today, as well as always, it is taught that God is ALLOWED TO DESIRE everybody’s salvation, but He is not allowed to CHOOSE whom He will save, and save them unless they “let” Him? They say He cannot save us unless WE are WILLING for Him to do so. and, of course, He is not allowed to MAKE us willing, as it would be “unjust” of God to violate our “free will.”
Does God ask anyone's permission whom He decides to act? He gives us that answer in Isaiah 40:13-15, “Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being His council, and who instructed Him and taught Him in the path of judgment, and taught Him knowledge, and showed Him the way of understanding? Behold, the nations are as a drop in a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance.”
Paul quoted God as saying, “I’ll have mercy on whom I WILL have mercy, and I WILL have compassion on whom I WILL have compassion, therefore, hath He mercy on whom HE WILL have mercy, and whom HE WILL, He hardeneth.” (Romans 9:15-18).
Did the gentiles of the early church exercise their “free will” when they were saved? The answer is given to us in Acts 13:48, “And when the gentiles heard this, they were glorified the works of the Lord: and AS MANY AS WERE ORDAINED to Eternal Life believed.” God gave us New Birth according to His OWN will, (James 1:18).
I believe God gives us a free will, but only permits us to exercise this free will in the limitation He chooses. Even though we THINK we are making our own choices, God is actually even putting those decisions into our hearts! We are told in Proverbs 16:9 that “a man’s mind PLANS his way, but the Lord DIRECTS his steps. Jeremiah confessed, “I know, O Lord, that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man to direct his steps.” (Jeremiah 10:23). We are able to make our own choices and plan whatever we will, but that those wills are not free to accomplish anything contrary to the plan of God and we do not have the power to reach our goals unless God allows it.
Jesus told about the rich man in Luke 12:18-21, who said, “I WILL do this; I WILL store all my grain and my goods. But, God said to him, Fool! THIS NIGHT your soul is required of you.: He was free to plan, but not to accomplish! We never chose to be be born, of what Race, country, parents, or gender! The Lord’s will is always accomplished, even though our wills seem to be satisfied.
In Psalms 37:4, though we are told, “Delight thyself also in the Lord; and He shall give you the desires of your heart, which IS HIM! He will become your delight! The truth of the Bible reveals that there is no such thing as “free will” today. The will is under bondage, and either serves God, or Satan! Those that serve God are those who believe in Christ, and in 1 John 1:12,13. it states that those who believe in Christ have been “born, not of the will of man, but of God.”
Jesus said in John 3:16, “That God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that WHOSOEVER would believe on HIM would not perish, but would have everlasting life.”
The fact of the matter is that only those God chooses to save are included in the “whosoever.” Only those the Father wills to come to Christ will actually come! Jesus said in John 6:37, “ALL that the Father giveth to me SHALL come to me; and him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out.” There are no “ifs” “maybes”, and or “buts”, about it, ALL THOSE (the Elect) He gives, WILL come!
Jesus further stated in John 6:45, “It is written in the prophets (Old Testament), that they (the Elect), shall ALL be taught of God. Every man therefore, that hath heard, and hath LEARNED OF THE FATHER, cometh to Me.”
Only the Holy Spirit can take these things of Christ and show them to us. “It is the Spirit that makes alive, the flesh profited nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” (John 6:63). If God does not intervene in our lives, we will never become thirsty and willing to “take the water of life freely.”
Who calls the shots, God, or man? “I, even I, am He, and there is no God with Me. I KILL AND I MAKE ALIVE; I WOUND AND I HEAL; neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand.” (Deut.32:39). “Behold, He breaketh down, and it cannot be built again; He shutteth up a man, and there can be no opening.” (Job 12:14). “He doeth according to HIS WILL in the army of Heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none san stay His hand, or say unto Him, what doest thou?” ( Daniel 4:35).
“Who hath saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to OUR WORKS, but according to HIS OWN PURPOSE and GRACE, GIVEN us in Christ Jesus, before the world began.” (2 Timothy 1:9). “And the Lord said unto him, who has made man’s mouth” Or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind” Have not I, the Lord? ( Exodus 45:7). “I form the light, I, the Lord, do ALL things.” (Isaiah 45:7).
“The Lord killeth, and maketh alive: He bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up.”( I Samuel 2:6). “And it shall come to pass, that like as I have watched over them, to build, and to plant, saith the Lord.” (Jeremiah 31:28). In the light of these Bible passages, it is quite plainly taught that not man’s will, but God’s will determines the outcome of all events, including salvation!
When anyone wonders whether to exercise his “free will”, he may hear the Lord’s instruction in 1 Samuel 15:22,23 “to obey is better than sacrifice and to hearken than the fat of Rams For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as inequity and idolatry.”
God never FORCES anyone to act against free will. He has allowed them, however, and He may change their minds by His working of inner grace or outward providence! He will never force a human being into thoughts, words, or deeds, but there is a good illustration taken from a children’s song which tells the story of hornets stinging the Canaanites, causing the pagans to flee the land. The chorus goes like this: “God never compels us to go, Oh no; He never compels us to go; God does not compel us to go, against our will, but He just makes us willing to go!”
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Blessings!
Marked Elect
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