What do we mean when we say Free Will? 

Free will is an often debated aspect of how humanity interacts and responds to the gospel call. 

By Free Will do we mean that people can choose to do or be whatever they want?
For example, I can’t simply choose to be President or chose to be an Astronaut, I am free to work towards those goals but that doesn’t mean I can simply choose to be these things. It also doesn’t mean I can just “CHOOSE” to fly off the rooftops. 

As it relates to salvation, even if we do have free will, that doesn’t mean I can simply just choose to be saved on my own accord, or choose to not be a sinner. Free Will is not a superpower in which we can suddenly defy physics, consequences, or reality. 

Although definitions of free will can be quite complex and vary drastically. A simple definition that we will use in this discussion is:

Free will is the ability to freely choose between available options.

Free will viewed biblically

From a biblical prospective, the biggest reason that Christians might oppose the idea of free will is because of the erroneous belief that it would somehow impose upon God's  Sovereignty .

Free Will and God's sovereignty are not in conflict; God is powerful enough to create a humanity who has true free will and the bible teaches and shows by example that God has sovereignly chosen to give us free choices.

Now because of the Fall, all of mankind was subjected to death, and while mankind was in this state, there would no option for mankind to find their way back to God through the law. Our free will was not taken from us in this state, no more than us not being able to flap the wings we don't have would impose on our free will status either. That action is just simply not an option for us. Similarly, humanity had no capacity to initiate or restore the broken relationship with the perfect God.

We are not free to save ourselves or even assist in saving ourselves. We were utterly and completely lost in our sin. Without Christ's death on the cross even having faith in God, belief, or repentance does not help. These things have absolutely 0 saving power in and of themselves. A guilty sinner who is aware that they should be rightfully judged by God is no less a sinner because of their awareness of their sin, acknowledgement of God, or even repentance of their actions.

We as humanity do not wield such faith or repentance as a tool to save ourselves. We might look only to those who have belief in false religions of those of Baal, Muhammad, and Buddha to recognize that their faith, belief, or repentance towards those things are empty and has done nothing to help save them from their sin.

For the saving power that we have in Christ is purely that, in Christ. My faith has no power on it's, own nor does my repentance. I am fully and wonderfully saved purely by the power and blessing of God who has chosen to save those who turn to Christ as Lord in belief and repentance. Faith and repentance are inherently powerless things that God has sovereignly decided would be the conditions in which he has laid before mankind to restore the broken relationship from the garden.

It is the very fact that he has chosen to save those who turn to him and come to him in Christ that makes faith and repentance powerful (1 Corinthians 1:21). We must not mistakenly look to those things as having the saving power, but only to God as having the saving power who has chosen to use those things. 

Free Will and Desire

There is another opposition to free will that asserts we merely have the illusion of free will but that we are bound to simply react on our greatest desires. Even when we do good, it is because our desire to appease God or our desire to not face consequences is greater than our desire for the sin.

This belief essentially says that we are just another beast of the field in God's creation. Under this reasoning, we may be the highest thinking beasts of the field, but we are still fated to act upon our greatest desires with no internal personal influence of libertarian freedom. This belief tramples the greatest gift that God has bestowed upon mankind which is that we are made in his image.

In fact, the garden story of Genesis is when the serpent uses this very line of thinking when he emphasizes the fruit being desirable(Genesis 3:6). The serpent is telling Eve that she needs to give into her desire and not choose to go against her desires, which is the very thing that God gave mankind to separate us apart from the beasts of the field. He made humanity in his image. With humanity, he did not create creatures who simply act on their greatest desires with no moral capacity. For animals, if they are hungry, they eat; if they want to mate, they mate - They simply act on their greatest desire in each passing moment. The very thing that separates us from the beasts is what the serpent attacked. The temptation to give in to our greatest desires and go against our morality. God gave us the gifts of desire which are not inherently evil but he also gave us the gift of being made in His image in which we have the moral capacity and freedom to act or not on those desires when it goes against morality.

Each day we are confronted with desires, are we being led by the desires of our flesh or are we being led by the Spirit of God. Romans 8:5-8, 12-14

We don’t train animals by instilling in them morality; they are trained by conditioning their behaviors through rewards and consequences - by manipulating their desires. If a lion kills a human that has wandered into it's territory, we do not condemn the lion in a court of a law. For we understand that the beasts of the field are not bound by morality as those made in the image of God.

The bible teaches us to master our desires, our flesh, and temptations - challenging us to overcome the desires of this world and to be spiritually minded. We must tame our desires

When God created humanity, he did so to have a relationship with them, not to meticulously control them. He was not looking for creatures who act on their greatest desires, he did that already with the animals. Similarly, he is not looking for heartless objects that do exactly as they were designed with a measurable and predictable cause and reaction relationship; he already made those things when he made the atoms, the stars, and nature.

He created Humanity -- in his image -- with the capacity to choose or reject him freely, with desires and the ability to chose among those desires; and, He loves us dearly and wants a true relationship with ALL of us and to give us purpose!

God's plans are to give us purpose and his plans are not dependent on us

As we discuss the impact of human free will and God's Sovereignty, even through our free will, His plans will come about regardless of our choice. God does not need us for his purpose, he created us to give us purpose. 

Esther is clear illustration of this.

Esther 4:14 
For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”

God raised up Esther for such a time as this.
Esther’s failure, would not have meant God’s failure.
God doesn’t need anything from you. There is nothing you can do to foil Him, or his Glory
He doesn’t NEED your heart, he WANTS your heart 
He doesn’t NEED you for his purpose, he loves you and wants to GIVE you purpose
that is why he gives us the choice and that is the gift he gave us when he made us in him image.

And this is why God knew the fall was going to happen but made mankind anyway. Our choices do not foil his plan—us having choices IS his plan.

Here is a quote from A.W. Tozer:

"God sovereignly decreed that man should be free to exercise moral choice, and man from the beginning has fulfilled that decree by making his choice between good and evil. When he chooses to do evil, he does not thereby countervail the sovereign will of God but fulfills it, inasmuch as the eternal decree decided not which choice the man should make but that he should be free to make it. If in His absolute freedom God has willed to give man limited freedom, who is there to stay His hand or say, “What doest thou?” Man’s will is free because God is sovereign. A God less than sovereign could not bestow moral freedom upon His creatures. He would be afraid to do so." 
~ A.W. Tozer

This beautifully captures the harmony between God’s sovereignty and human freedom. A God who is truly sovereign has the freedom to grant moral freedom to His creatures without fear of losing control.