What Do We Mean by Free Will?

Free will is an often debated aspect of how people respond to the gospel call.

By free will, do we mean that people can choose to do or be whatever they want? I can't simply choose to be President or choose to be an astronaut. I am free to work toward 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 a rooftop.

As it relates to salvation, even if we do have free will, that doesn't mean I can simply choose to be saved on my own, or choose not to be a sinner. Free will is not a superpower that lets us defy physics, consequences, or reality.

Definitions of free will can be complex and vary widely. The definition we use in this discussion is simple:

Free will is the God-given ability to make meaningful choices among available options, within our creaturely limits.

Free Will Viewed Biblically

From a biblical perspective, the biggest reason some Christians oppose the idea of free will is the belief that it would somehow infringe on God's sovereignty.

Free will and God's sovereignty are not in conflict. God is powerful enough to create people with true free will, and the Bible both teaches and shows that God has sovereignly chosen to give us real choices: "I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life" (Deuteronomy 30:19). "Choose this day whom you will serve" (Joshua 24:15). Jesus Himself lamented over Jerusalem, "How often would I have gathered your children together... and you were not willing!" (Matthew 23:37). Scripture records again and again men resisting God.

Because of the Fall, all of mankind was subjected to death, and in that state there was no way for mankind to find its way back to God through the law. Our free will was not taken from us, any more than our inability to flap wings we don't have takes away our free will. That action is simply not an option for us. In the same way, humanity had no capacity to initiate or restore the broken relationship with a 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 faith, belief, or repentance would not help. These things have no saving power in and of themselves. A guilty sinner who knows they should be judged by God is no less a sinner because of their awareness of their sin, their acknowledgement of God, or even their repentance.

We do not wield faith or repentance as a tool to save ourselves. Faith placed in a false god saves no one from sin; the saving power is not in the faith but in Christ, the One it trusts. I am fully and wonderfully saved by the power of God, who has chosen to save those who turn to Christ as Lord in faith and repentance. These are not powers we exercise but the conditions God has sovereignly set before mankind to restore the relationship broken in the garden.

It is God's choice to save those who come to Him in Christ that makes faith and repentance meaningful: "it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe" (1 Corinthians 1:21). We must not look to those things as having saving power, but only to God, who has chosen to use them. This is why faith is not a work.

Free Will and Desire

Calvinist theology usually affirms that people choose voluntarily: we always do what we most want, and no one forces us. But it also holds that our desires decide our choices, and that a fallen heart will never desire Christ unless God first changes it. On this view, often called compatibilism, our choices are willing, but we could never have chosen otherwise. Even when we do good, it is because our desire to please God, or to avoid consequences, is greater than our desire for sin.

We believe this reduces the image of God in us. Under this reasoning, we may be the highest-thinking creatures in God's creation, but we are still bound to act on our strongest desire in every moment. That is how the beasts of the field live: if they are hungry, they eat; if they want to mate, they mate. They act on their greatest desire in each passing moment.

The garden story points to something more. When Eve looked at the forbidden fruit, she "saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise" (Genesis 3:6). The serpent's temptation worked by stirring up desire and urging her to follow it rather than God's command. But Adam and Eve were responsible precisely because they could have done otherwise. God made humanity in His image, with desires that are not evil in themselves and with the moral capacity to act on them or not when they go against what is right.

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

We don't train animals by instilling morality in them; we train them by conditioning their behavior through rewards and consequences, by working with their desires. If a lion kills a person who has wandered into its territory, we do not put the lion on trial. We understand that animals are not bound by morality the way those made in the image of God are.

The Bible teaches us to master our desires, our flesh, and our 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 us, not to meticulously control us. He was not looking for creatures who act on their greatest desires; He already made those in the animals. Nor was He looking for objects that do exactly as they were designed, with a predictable cause and effect; He already made those in 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 choose among them. And He loves us dearly and wants a true relationship with all of us, and to give us purpose.

God's Plans Give Us Purpose, and They Do Not Depend on Us

As we consider human free will and God's sovereignty, it is important to remember that God's plans will come about regardless of our choices. God does not need us for His purpose; He created us to give us purpose.

Esther is a clear illustration of this:

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?
— Esther 4:14

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 His image. It is also why God knew the fall would happen but made mankind anyway. Our choices do not foil His plan; our having choices is His plan.

A. W. Tozer puts it this way:

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