Free Will and Choice
To be or not to be, that is the question; what is the difference between free will and choice? Free will has been declared by sinful man in rebellion against God because man is at enmity with God. Mankind is a stubborn mule in his being that wants to go his own way. This is because of sin, and the sin that is within all mankind. In the beginning of every man, did your will bring about your conception? Did your will bring about your birth? And will your will determine the moment that you die? The answer is no. This is God’s will that determines all; it is the only will in the universe and in our creation. It is God’s perfect will, and this will is shed upon all mankind through His perfect Son Jesus Christ. When God created Adam during the whole course of Adam’s life before the fall, God never declared a ‘free will’ for Adam. Instead, God controlled Adam’s environment. God controlled everything around Adam. God’s will and not Adam’s will gave Adam a help mate in Eve because man could not will a help mate. The will of God is part of His determinate counsels. It is the supreme act of all His tangible creation that He wills things into existence. This, Adam could never do, and man, in sin, cannot perform such a will. God never declared ‘free will’ for Adam. He gave Adam choice.
God has acknowledged man’s sinful will which is centered in man’s rebellious heart. It is a will of sin, and not a will of righteousness, therefore, it cannot be free, for man’s will is under the bondage of sin. If we want to declare man’s will we have to define it properly: man’s sinful will. And without going through the entire history of humanity, man’s will brought him to the judgment of God in the book of Genesis. God brought a flood on the entire world because of man’s bondage to sin, and man’s bondage to his sinful will. This above all things shows that mankind does not have a free will.
We have taken the word ‘choice’ and converted it into the word ‘will.’ I believe that this was man’s attempt to show that his will is greater than God’s will, but this is man’s concept, this is man’s belief and not God’s. God sees His will as supreme. We also see this when He cast Satan down. Satan saw his perverted will above God’s will. Did Satan have free will? No, the result of his rebellion was a sinful will.
Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. (Ezekiel 28:15)
By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. (Ezekiel 28:16)
The supreme will of God cast Satan down to the ground. When Satan declared that ‘I will ascend,’ God declared, You will descend. So much for Satan’s free will. If Satan had, what the world terms ‘free will,’ and it was given of God, then God could not have cast him down because it would have been God who allowed him to have free will.
The same with Adam, if God had given Adam free will, it would have been a license to do whatever he wanted to do without penalty. However, God never gave Adam free will, God gave Adam a conditional habitation that if Adam obeyed, he would live, however, if he made the choice to disobey God’s command then Adam would surely die. God is a righteous God. When He sets up a condition for man, man must obey God, or suffer the consequences.
The term ‘free will’ is the devil’s ploy to overthrow the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is not man who saves himself, it is God’s will, and God’s conditions that saves man. The whole creation is subject to God’s divine will, even mankind. Show me one person who has decided for themselves (according to their will) that they would be saved. God does not give us a will to be saved, He gives us choice. For it is with the heart that man believes. No man can will his way into heaven, for man does not have the righteousness to do this. However, religion wants mankind to believe that he has a free will and because of his self-appointed will, he can trump God’s will. (Sorry) It is choice not will! Man’s will is mentioned in the Bible, however, it is never mentioned as being free. And in most cases, it reveals man’s bondage to sin. Even in the new birth, man’s will cannot obtain new birth.
But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: (John 1:12)
Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:13)
We cannot will ourselves to be saved, not by blood, or by the will of the flesh (which is under sin) or the will of man (who is a fallen creature), it is only by the will of God that we can be born again. This verse alone shows the perversion of the self-proclaimed will of man. And I am sure that I do not know the full depth of this perversion. Yet, I do know God’s will, and that God’s will is supreme. How could there be any other will in competition with the supreme will of God? If the creation and the heavens bow to God’s will, how can man say that his will is not perverted and a figment of his imagination. Even the Son of God in Gethsemane said to the Father, Nevertheless not my will, but Thy will be done. (Luke 22:42) Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. Also in Matthew Chapter 6, in what is commonly called the Lord’s prayer, the Lord Jesus proclaimed in verse 10, ‘thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.’ There are not two wills here, there is only one will and that is God’s will. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what [is] that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. (Romans 12:2)
Obedience to God is the only way that man can accomplish the perfect will of God. I cannot say that it is by my will that I can accomplish the perfect will of God because my will comes in conflict with God’s will. God’s will is the only perfect will, and man’s will is not will, but rebellion. Man is the transgressor. It was man who made the choice to sin. And so now, man in his vanity and haughtiness believes that he has a will of his own. So, there you have it.
We could write more words; we could show every instance where man exercises his perverted will against God’s will. And show that this has no foundation because mankind cannot usurp something that belongs completely to God and not to man.
Make the choice, get off the couch and study your Bible, and if you have a dispute with me and what I have written, then prove to yourself that man has a free will, and that free will was given of God. I am confident that if you pray in the power of the Holy Ghost, God will open your eyes to the fallacy of man’s free will. So, God’s will is not man’s will, and man’s will is not God’s will. The simplicity of the entire thing is that the ‘I will’ in Scripture belongs to the Almighty and cannot be usurped by man. Amen.
I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, [that] I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: (Deuteronomy 30:19)
And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD. (Joshua 24:15)
The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)
Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord GOD: and not that he should return from his ways, and live? (Ezekiel 18:23)
© Copyright 2018, Michael Haigh
Article may be used, but not for gain. Freely ye have received, freely give.
All Scripture references are from the King James Bible. (KJB)