Thoughts On Free Will - Part 1

Free to Choose but Not Freed From Consequences of Your Choice

Do we have a will? Yes we can make choices. We can choose to love or to hate. We can even choose to reject God.

Do we have a free will? In a sense yes, but it is limited free will.

Well, what is really free will? 

Wills are only free if freed from consequences. Hence there is really no such thing as free will, until we eliminate all consequences from choice.

Adam knows a thing or two about that.

Hmmm.... One can object and say “Free will does not mean that. It means to do as you please or else the idea of love would become null & void. One needs free will in order to love or we would just be robots obeying all God says to do. We are obviously not.”

No one is challenging not being free to love. But this notion that somehow if you are not able to do as you please (i.e. free will), it makes love null and void is erroneous. And no we are not speaking about us being made as robots to serve God.

On one hand, yes you are free to choose period. But that freedom gets adjusted by the consequences of your choice. It gives input to whether it was the right choice or not. That is key.  This is the difference between freedom and liberty.

The consequences are a feedback loop to the accuracy of the last choice and it gives you something to consider for the next choice. Each consequence either brings you life, or death. This accountability brings an overt limitation to the next choice.

So everytime you choose, the consequential feedback is life or death. If one wants to keep choosing towards death, then yes, you are free to choose death.

True freedom comes when your choices lead to life.



God Is Over and Works In Spite of Free Will

Romans 9:6-24 introduces the notion of Eminent Domain "So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy"

We have freedom to choose, but only God has Eminent Domain where he can step in at anytime.

Let’s look at this another way. Has God ever stepped in, in spite of your free will in any way? Absolutely. 

For example, God by His grace can create the circumstances around you to cause you to change his mind about Him and accept Him as your Savior. Does that make your acceptance of Him null and void?

What about in an extreme case, (but it takes only one case to disprove this notion that if free will does not mean to do as you please, it makes love null and void), when God orchestrated the circumstances around Paul's conversion, by blinding him? Does this lessen Paul’s conversion? Does this lesson Paul’s love for God?

Being free to choose does not mean free from consequences of that choice.

At the same time, having the ability to freely choose does not limit God to orchestrate circumstances and events to have you change your mind or to judge you and cause you to repent.



He did it all the time to Israel when he states that He kicked them out of the land as a consequence of their choice in order to repent. How free is that? Yet paradoxically it was free.

God does this to each one who comes to Him. He divinely orchestrates the events for you to change your mind about Him. When you don't, He can judge or discipline you to change your mind again. His goodness in this regard also leads to repentance.

Any time someone says this or that denies free choice, I doubt they really extrapolate logically what they are saying.

Home associations, TSA, the police, local town and planning, denies free choice (sometimes for good reason) but we don't complain.


To have your will truly free is to freely decide to align your preferences with the One who can free you from, orchestrate and determine all consequences of your actions. This is to be truly free.

True freedom comes when your choices lead to life. This is called Liberty.

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