Because God created the earth and everything in it, he has every right to decide the path we are to take. The created do not get to complain to the Creator.
“Woe to him who strives with him who formed him, a pot among earthen pots! Does the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’ or ‘Your work has no handles’?”
—Isaiah 45:9[1]
Although we should submit to God and honor his Word and his will, we tend to try to make our own way through life, putting our own ideas ahead of biblical teaching. Many Christians do this unintentionally by adhering to the concept of an immortal soul that can be saved through free will. Most other religious systems on earth throughout history have promoted similar ideas regarding salvation, nirvana, heaven, or some other type of afterlife. Each religion establishes the means through which a person can earn the afterlife—usually by making choices, passing a test, or accomplishing some task(s). Salvation is not a free ride. It must be earned based on the concept of justice that is ingrained into every person who ever lived.
Meanwhile, some dispense with religion altogether. Everyone goes to heaven; there is no hell.
Yet another option is nothingness, as Carl Sagan asserted in his final book:
“ I would love to believe that when I die I will live again, that some thinking, feeling, remembering part of me will continue. But much as I want to believe that, and despite the ancient and worldwide cultural traditions that assert an afterlife, I know of nothing to suggest that it is more than wishful thinking.”[2]
In Cosmos, perhaps Sagan’s most famous book, he wrote, “The Cosmos is all that is or was or ever will be.”[3]
Most religions and belief systems present one of the following perspectives:
1. Everything is good; there is no such thing as evil (or vice versa).
2. Only the spirit realm is good; the physical realm is evil.
3. There is only a physical realm. No unseen (unobservable) realm exists.
4. The physical, heavenly, and/or spiritual realms are intertwined. Both good and evil exist in the mix.
5. The heavenly realm is veiled from the physical realm but is linked through the spiritual realm.
Biblical Christianity embraces the fifth perspective. God’s Word says the physical realm will be restored to its original state of perfection before the Fall—but this time the devil will be removed from the picture. In the future, the realms will merge so that the unseen will be seen on earth. God will physically dwell with us.
Before God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, his law had already been written on the hearts of humankind. It was ingrained into Adam, and by extension our human nature. And the law existed even before Adam’s fall into sin. The law is a definition of God’s love in action.
When Adam and Eve broke God’s law in the Garden of Eden, they received the death curse: no longer would they have access to the fruit of the tree of life. But before God carried out this law-based sentence, he offered them the first message of grace recorded in the Bible.
“I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.”
—Genesis 3:15
The first message of grace is that Christ will “bruise” the devil’s head. Undeserved grace also came to Noah before the justice of the flood: “But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord” (Genesis 6:8).
God first bestowed grace upon the nation of Israel by taking them out of Egypt; he reminded them of this gift as he was about to give them his law through the Ten Commandments:
“You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine.”
—Exodus 19:4–5
Passages that describe God’s names, nature, or attributes always trace back to his righteousness and/or graciousness. Sometimes one quality is depicted, and sometimes both attributes are shown to be working together.
God “cannot lie,” “does not change,” and “does not tempt.” We sometimes say that God “can do anything but sin.” God doesn’t seem to have, or want to have, free will to sin. A person can only choose according to his nature. God’s nature is only good so he won’t choose evil. We can only choose to sin based on our original nature (before being born again in the Spirit).
“[P]ut on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”
—Ephesians 4:24
God is true righteousness. Our righteousness can only come from God.[4] God only produces righteous acts because his nature is purely and eternally righteous. However, we act inconsistently because we have two natures residing in us (God’s Spirit and our sinful flesh).
“ So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.”
—Romans 7:21–25
As we have seen, “heart” is generally a metaphor for the mind, conscience, or inner being. Scripture tells of the Spirit coming to dwell in each; some passages speak to the heart metaphor, while the passage above speaks to Paul’s mind and inner being (which have the same meaning in this passage).
Paul’s “flesh” means the same thing as his “members”; both had been afflicted by the death curse. His flesh was his inherited nature, including his will and emotions. Paul wrote, “I want to do right,” but he could not. This is because he had a (cursed) “body of death.” The cursed body affects our human nature, causing our free will to chooses selfish acts. We can’t escape it.
The body will not be transformed until the resurrection, when Christ shall return and lift our curse. Paul described elsewhere how his mind was being transformed to the mind of Christ in an ongoing process (Romans 12:1–2). Our own transformation is a similar work in progress.
Paul called his mind “the mind of Christ” in 1 Corinthians 2:16 and “my mind” in the passage above from Romans 7. Paul had the same mind as Christ. They were of “one” mind, sharing the same thoughts and concerns. In the same way, we may call our heart “God’s heart” or “my heart.” It is a shared heart; though it is a gift of God, it still ultimately belongs to him.
Paul associated his human will with his selfish desire to good. Like Paul, we try to please God in the flesh. But we can’t. Paul understood his death nature was completely corrupted by sin and restrained from doing good.
Romans 7 does not describe a single entity with a mixed nature or the ability to choose good. Paul could not detach himself from both his godly and human natures and decide whether he would do good or evil. He could only live fully in God’s nature or in his own. All actions would either be informed by the mind of Christ or Paul’s own flesh.
When Paul received the Spirit, his old nature did not disappear, even though in other passages he considered it drowned and buried. This is yet another echo of the “now and not yet” concept of salvation. Our sinful nature is “defeated” when the Spirit comes into our life, but we do not achieve our ultimate bodily purpose until the resurrection. In biblical language, when we drown and bury our sinful nature today, our sins are “covered” by God’s forgiveness.[5]
This Romans 7 passage presents the two dueling natures—God’s Spirit and Paul’s flesh—not an individual deciding between good and evil options. Free will does not have the power to change our nature, nor can it change Christ’s nature given to us. Nature wars against nature with no hope of reconciling the two.
Paul described a nature enslaved by death where “the law of sin” dwelt. Like Paul experienced, the old nature that we inherited from Adam is warring against the new nature in Christ that we received from God. There is a constant battle. There can be no merger between the Spirit and the “body of death.”
We know Adam and Eve had the ability to choose to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, so choice in itself was created “good.” Choice is good under the freedoms we have in Christ. These freedoms can’t be used to obtain salvation, nor should they be used to promote our own selfish interests. Rather, our freedoms allow us to bless and serve others, building God’s kingdom and enriching relationships. Our will is to be the same as God’s will. This was God’s intent. We should be devoted to truth, not enslaved to lies.
“So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, ‘If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’ They answered him, ‘We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, You will become free’?”
“Jesus answered them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.’”
—John 8:31–34
“For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”
—John 18:37b
In the passage above, Christ testified to the purpose of his life and ministry: Christ came to proclaim the truth. In response, Pilate asked, “What is truth?” Sinful nature can’t “hear” truth or distinguish it from lies.
Although the Gospel accounts do not say whether Christ fully or directly answered Pilate’s question, we know he gave his disciples the answer. Truth is God’s Word. In the two passages above, Christ first instructed the disciples to “abide” in his Word to obtain truth, then stated that those who “listen” to his Word are of the truth.
When we tell kids to “listen” to what we say, what we really mean is that they should obey. “Listening” or “hearing” is a good start, but then the message must be believed and finally acted upon. Listening also means doing what God commands. Listening, hearing, and abiding all assume follow-through, not just lip service to belief that includes no action.
“Everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.” Forgiveness from sin does not give us freedom to sin further. Freedom from sin is God’s desire for us. But until we receive God’s Spirit and Word and then follow the explicit instructions Christ gave, we will remain in enslavement.
True freedom comes from following God’s law.
“ If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.”
—John 15:10
This verse builds off of John 15:5, which states that we “can donothing” without abiding in Christ. Christ offers an image where he is the “vine” and the Father is the “vinedresser” or gardener. We in turn must stay connected to the vine for nutrition and growth.
John 15:10 and its description of conditional law combines nicely with Ephesians 2:10, a teaching on the nonconditional election of grace. This is another paradox; both truths are contained within the same gospel.
We are destined to do good works that God has prepared for us. Grace by faith is also based on God’s work.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
—Ephesians 2:8–9
We have to be very careful that we do not interpret our belief as the element that completes our faith. Faith is completed by obedience, not belief. We do get credit for belief (Genesis 15:6) and it is necessary for salvation, but we must go farther.
Faith is a pure gift that flows out of God’s righteousness. Our belief is based on God’s work. In the verse preceding the passage above, Paul explains that we are saved by Christ’s past work resulting in spiritual salvation at the present time. Verses 8–9 focus on grace and do not mention actions we must take to finalize faith, nor do they mention salvation at the second coming—but we can’t take them out of context. These are bookended by verses that speak to these precise “missing” ideas. Make sure that you read Ephesians 2:8–9 along with its grounding verses, 2:7 and 2:10.
Faith is not complete until we act upon what we say we believe. Paul states that we are not saved by our works in Ephesians 2:9, but then adds in verse 10 that we were created to do good works. The truth is that Christ’s work is given to us. His righteousness passes through us like a conduit; it is reflected by us like a mirror. Rather than trying to perform our “own” good works, we emulate Christ’s perfection.
This is the intent of God’s will for our lives, that we would love and keep his commandments. His Word states his will.
We should not be confused with the past-tense wording of “have been saved” in Ephesians 2:8. Paul is not speaking of the resurrection in the future. He is speaking of being “lifted” or “raised,” as he mentioned earlier in verse 6. This is a spiritual resurrection that we receive at baptism when we are born again in the Spirit. But we will not receive physical resurrection until the “coming ages”; we must wait for the time when grace is fully shown (Ephesians 2:7).
Free Will and God’s Image
Free will obviously relates to freedom. What else does Scripture say about it?
“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”
—2 Corinthians 3:17
“For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.”
—Galatians 5:13
“Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.”
—1 Peter 2:16
There is a clear difference between spiritual freedom and freedom in the flesh. We should notice in these passages that freedom enables us to do good works. We do not receive total freedom to do literally anything, as God’s nature cannot sin. Freedom also refers to our rescue from the slavery of death.[6]
“ But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.”
—James 1:25
The law of liberty? This sounds crazy at first, but God’s freedom is indeed constricted. Here we see law and freedom working side by side. Freedom in Christ comes from grace.
Biblical teachings about freedom state that we have a limited freedom of choice.
· We do not have a choice to change or add to God’s gifts of grace.
· We cannot change the nature of Christ in us.
· God’s will is displayed in his Word. His Word predefines our destiny.
· We do not have freedom in Christ to sin. We are predestined to do good.
· Once we believe the gospel as-is, God commands us to use our freedom to choose variations of good works within his nature.
· God is holy (or pure, perfect) and requires us to be holy by his Spirit.
Sin is considered slavery or bondage. We say that we have free will in human nature, but it only allows us to do evil and is the opposite of freedom in Christ.
· We do not have a choice to change our sinful nature nor to do good.
· Sinful nature can only be covered (or buried, drowned) by the new nature until our full transformation on the day of resurrection.
· Our sinful nature remains in us, causing us to choose selfish acts until then.
· Our nature only gives us the freedom to choose among sinful variations.
The flesh is not free to do good, and the Spirit is not free to sin. Once we believe the biblical concept of a dual nature residing in us, we can see that we are to live by the Spirit only and reject our sinful nature. This is true freedom. The “perfect law.”
God shows us examples in his own nature. Is God free to lie or do evil? No, Scripture states God is only good and cannot lie. God does not have the freedom to choose sin, so how can we claim that our free will is able to choose good?
In Scripture, nature and will are connected. Nature defines who we are. We cannot change who we are by nature nor who Christ is. In Christ, we have the freedom to choose among variations of good works; in the flesh, we have the freedom to choose among variations of sin.
God’s nature is purely righteous. His will is fixed, based upon his nature only to do good. Yet there is relational flexibility within the fixed will; he loves us and wants us to love, so he invites us to complete his desired will.
Galatians 5:24–25 kills a few birds with one stone. If we have been baptized (our flesh has been crucified, drowned, and buried), then we should live by the Spirit and keep in step with God’s commandments.
Desire is part of our will in the flesh. It is what we want. Our desire is only selfish. But God calls us to keep in step with what he desires. God desires us to exercise humility (Psalm 51:16–17), to pursue knowledge of God (Hosea 6:6), and to obey (1 Samuel 15:22). His commands reflect his will.
God’s law is perfect because he is just. God can’t choose evil as it violates his will. Neither can we choose righteousness and violate our nature. Adam was punished for acting out his choice, and now we all live under the curse of death.
Adam was originally supposed to listen to God and act according to God’s Word. Adam’s free will in itself was not the problem. The problem was that he listened to and believed Satan’s lies instead of believing every word that came out of the mouth of God. He used his free will and rejected God.
Today we are in the same situation. With the gift of God’s Spirit inside us, we have the opportunity to listen to God’s Word and believe and obey. Or we can choose to listen to the deceiver and attend to our own selfish desires. We must be a servant to truth or lies; we cannot choose freely between the two.
Since Adam rejected God’s truth for Satan’s lies, we have inherited his sinful nature. This is the “body of death.” Instead of violating his own law or removing our free will, God cursed us to die. Sin and death are now related.
The curse of death is paramount to understand. There was no curse when God created Adam and Eve; he called it into being as punishment for their sin. We inherited their mortal nature. Notice in Genesis 3 that God’s main punishment was to evict humanity from the garden that held the tree of life. Only the fruit from this tree had been keeping humans from death. Sin itself is based upon a lie that we are inherently immortal, but only God can sustain eternal life. Adam did not have an immortal soul. He had conditional immortality, just as we now have in Christ.
“Then the Lord God said, ‘Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—’therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken.”
—Genesis 3:22–23
Christ came to destroy the works of the devil and will finally destroy the last enemy—death—after he returns. The devil’s lie led to the death curse for all humanity. This prompted God to send Christ to earth.[7] Christ will redeem his people so that we may have an eternal relationship together (Revelation 21:3). Death and sin cannot exist if this is to happen (Revelation 21:4).
God cannot sin, God cannot choose evil, and yet Adam was given the ability to choose evil. Adam’s nature was in the image of God, but he was not God replicated. Adam was not begotten of Spirit. Death came into humanity once Adam acted sinfully, but note that Adam had fallen into a deceived mindset before physically taking the bite. Sin is a result of believing lies and the one who spreads them. Adam’s sin proved he was not God in human flesh; he had not received the “full” image of God. Christ, however, is called the second Adam, and he does indeed bear the fullness of the Father. Numerous passages speak to the fullness of Christ’s divinity within his glorified body.
“For in him [Christ] the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.”
—Colossians 2:9–10
We cannot know the mind of God (1 Corinthians 2:11–13) under human nature, but Scripture states that God cannot choose to do evil because his nature forbids it. His very nature defines what goodness is.
As God’s righteousness begins in his mind and then moves to action, sin begins in our heart. We can sin through our thoughts (Matthew 5:27–28) or words (Psalm 59:12), not just our physical actions. All these self-centered thoughts and desires are sinful and lead to sinful actions. This pattern of sinful thought leading to sinful deed first played out with Satan himself before humans were ever created.[8]
Actions come from the heart, where motives are developed. An important part of any investigator’s work is determining the motive that led to a given crime. He must understand the mind of his suspect. Depending on the crime, this attempt at empathy may be a deeply horrifying exercise. How anyone could anyone conceive of such a thing?
In a positive sense, we are equally perplexed by the goodness of God. His motives are not our motives. His thoughts are not our thoughts.[9]
How are we motivated? Do we do good because we can choose to do good? Can goodness come from within our own heart? We would not need a new heart if we could obtain goodness from within our own nature or if God could rinse it clean. But the truth is that our heart is motivated to act selfishly. God’s nature is entirely different. He is motivated to act righteously and to give us his righteousness.
We have the same type of free will that Adam possessed. He was created into his human nature, and we were born into ours, inheriting the curse of death that Adam first received.
Scripture teaches that we are sinners not because we choose to commit sinful actions, but because our human nature cannot produce anything else. How else does the nature into which we were born (Psalm 51:5) differ from God’s nature?
God’s Freedom from Temptation
We can be tempted to sin. Go