When studying the sovereignty of God and human free will, there are a few TRUTHS that must be accepted first.

1. There ARE things humans DON’T have free will to do:
   • To be born
   • To know everything there is to know at all times
   • To NOT ever sin (in this life)
   • To be God
   • To be the perfect sacrifice for all sin
   • To create something from nothing
   • To avoid death from natural causes
   • To avoid all sicknesses and diseases
   • To stop aging
   • To be immaterial (in this life)
   • Breath in outer space without oxygen
   • To will ourselves to know all languages there ever was fluently
   • To will someone else back to life after their death
   • To will ourselves back to life after death
   • there are hundreds of thousands of examples of things that PROVE the limitation of “Free Will”
2. Holy Scripture is God’s Word
   • The explicit revelations are absolute truth
   • Scripture doesn’t contradict itself, thus any contradictions are in interpretation
3. God is all knowing and perfect in knowledge, or he is not God.
4. God is eternal, timeless, outside of time, is the author/creator of time, and is exists in the past, present, and future in eternity, or he is not God.
5. God cannot sin because he is perfectly right, good, and holy, or he is not God.
6. God cannot be ignorant of any knowledge or truth, or lack in knowledge or understanding, learn new truths, or he is not perfect and not God.
7. There are 2 simultaneous perspectives: our Earthly standpoint IN space time and God’s Eternal standpoint OUTSIDE of space time.
   • We are limited by our earthly standpoint; without Holy Scripture (the eternal standpoint) we can ONLY perceive “free will” from an earthly standpoint.

With these truths, we can then have a better and more proper grasp on what God himself reveals about US, humanity, his creation, through his Word, Holy Scripture.

Considering the truths above, we see that even “free will” is limited and is far from absolute. The weather doesn’t bend to our will. We, the human beings and creation of God, are not sovereign in this universe, we still unwillingly obey natural laws, like gravity, theory of relativity, thermal dynamics, and death, just to name a few. There is A LOT we cannot do, even if we try to will it through hard work and grit.

There are several illustrations we can use to highlight this truth. One example is The Prisoner. A prisoner in a jail cell has the freedom to pace back and forth in his cell. He can do jumping jacks, push ups, even try to climb the walls. He can take a nap, talk to himself, talk to his cell mate, or just sit in silence. He can choose how much or how little of his food he wants to eat; to accept or reject visitors; to build various types of relationships with other prisoners or not; to invent their own ideas and thoughts and converse with other prisoners about those ideas and thoughts. See, even the prisoner has Free Will and can exercise it.

Is being a “prisoner” a bad illustration? No. How can we say this, well let’s go to God’s Word about what HE reveals about our condition in HIS creation:

John 8:34 

Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.

Who is “everyone” Jesus is speaking of? God reveals this about EVERYONE as well:

Romans 3:10-12 (Psalm 14:1-3; 53:1-3)

as it is written:

“None is righteous, no, not one;
¹¹     no one understands;
    no one seeks for God.
¹² All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
    no one does good,
    not even one.”

Before ANYONE comes to KNOW Jesus Christ through faith, EVERYONE practices sin. Therefore, everyone’s starting point (natural state) in this world is slavery to sin. Since, God himself reveals to us that WE ARE ALL slaves to sin initially, WE ARE ALL (naturally) prisoners in our sins. Thus, we NEED freedom, we need Jesus.

Why do we start out in a prison of sin?

Psalm 51:5

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
    and in sin did my mother conceive me.

David didn’t exercise his free will to be “brought forth in iniquity” and he didn’t freely “choose” to be conceived “in sin.” THIS is the cause of our starting position and our initial standpoint, our natural state and nature we were born with, our natural sinful nature.

Jeremiah 17:9

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

Matthew 15:18-20

But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. ¹⁹ For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. ²⁰ These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.”

An interesting point here made by Jesus. Its not about what you freely and willfully do, such as choosing what kind of food to eat, that “defiles a person.” Not even exercising your free will to not wash your hands doesn’t “defile a person” either. Thus, its NOT what YOU DO or don’t do. You aren’t defiled because you exercised your free will to sin. The Free Willed choice to sin is the symptom… It’s the heart. The heart is sick. Evil thoughts alone make us defiled, without ever taking any freely willful actions. Have you ever had an inappropriate or knowingly sinful intrusive thought, but never exercised your free will on it? Still defiled. And your Free Will couldn’t have prevented that self defilement.

We can see that, yes, we have Free Will, within the confines of our prison of our sin nature and sick heart. We can freely choose various habits, hobbies, choices of words, ideas, and have the freedom to seek all sorts of various desires and wants; but NONE of it alone pleases God:

Hebrews 11:6

⁶ And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

Right here, God tells us that it is IMPOSSIBLE to please him without faith in Christ. Thus, all the things we do prior to coming to faith in his Son (from an earthly perspective) do not please God. In fact, there are ZERO things, NONE, NOTHING we can do that pleases God in our initial starting point in this world. It is “IMPOSSIBLE” for us to use our limited Free Will and compel ourselves into pleasing him, it’s impossible. It is impossible for us to use our limited free will and NOT be conceived in sin and have a “desperately sick” sinful heart from birth (yet another limitation to our Free Will).

Now, as we grow up and exercise our free will to try and be a “good citizen of the community and do good things for humanity,” is THIS exercise what thrusts us into faith and earn the pleasure of God?

We still run into the problem of what God said in Romans 3:12 when he makes it explicitly clear “no one does good, not even one” so then what are all those “good deeds” people do striving to be good citizens of their communities? Well, God addresses this too:

Isaiah 64:6

We have all become like one who is unclean,
    and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.
We all fade like a leaf,

Besides the fact God has made it clear it is literally “impossible” to do enough “good deeds” to earn or merit any sort of favor or pleasure from God; He then tells us that those “good deeds” are polluted, corrupted, and disgusting to him, still.

So, our Free Willed “good deeds” alone aren’t what we think they are in God’s eyes.

It’s impossible to please him with our free will because all our free will choices are polluted, defiled, corrupted, incomplete, and lacking in perfect goodness and holiness. THIS is ANOTHER limitation to our Free Will.

Without faith in Christ, any and all of our free will choices still won’t be enough.

To drive the point home, God states:

Romans 8:6-7

For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. ⁷ For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.

Notice that very last statement in verse 7, “it cannot.” A mind that is “set on the flesh” (aka a slave to sin) is naturally “hostile,” “does not submit,” and “CANNOT“

That “cannot” is critical for properly understanding the limitations of Free Will. It, the carnal minded, cannot submit to God. When you combine those two concepts that God reveals, the impossibility to please him and the inability to submit to him, these are absolute limitations of the Free Will.

And THIS is the problem. The scary TRUTH that all of us, everyone, in our natural state, refuse to accept, understand, and consider. THIS is why people push the notion of a sense of superior free will to God or equal to God’s own. WE, in our natural state, want to and naturally desire to be control of our own destiny. We, in our natural state, want to be like God…

We want to tell God when WE want to be saved. We want to tell God when WE feel we are ready to follow him. We want to tell God when we think our free will choices are good enough for him and that he must accept them, or we tell him that HE is not God if he doesn’t accept our Free Will choices. THIS is the problem with the modern concept of mans free will before God.

But, God is gracious and provides more truths from an eternal perspective about our starting point and natural state to help us more accurately understand reality and better understand our natural state:

Ephesians 2:1

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins

Not only does God make it clear it is IMPOSSBILE to please him on our own and we are UNABLE to free well ourselves into his good graces, he tells us that we are DEAD in our sin. Dead.

What spiritual free will choice can be made by someone who is spiritually dead?

Why didn’t Lazarus just free will himself back into life? You may chuckle and laugh at this sort of question but this is the exact sort of expectation for those who believe they can free will themselves into spiritual life even though they are spiritual dead.

This brings us to the highlight of the debate: Do we out of our free will CHOOSE Salvation, or does God CHOOSE US for Salvation, or is it both? Again, from a sort of Earthly perspective we, of course, like to think we are the ones that freely choose our own salvation, but when we also consider the Eternal perspective, things appear to be different.

Romans 5:8

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

So, while we were running around making free will choices out of our desperately sick hearts, doing works that were polluted, corrupted, and disgusting to God, thinking we earned his favor; HE did something else. He sent his son to die on the cross FOR US, “WHILE WE WERE STILL SINNERS (willfully)”

Our free will did not cause this, except for the sin that demanded divine justice. God’s Will chose this. We are so disgusting in our sin, so offensive to God it was impossible for ANY free will choice to be considered actually “good.” Because of our sick hearts we are unable to do anything that pleased him. We are in such a bad state, we can’t even atone for our own sins and achieve peace with God. ZERO, NONE, NOTHING we can freely choose to do could ever atone for our own sin. Because of THIS, God had to do it himself – THATS how God shows his love for us. That is a major part of the Gospel. I some ways, the Free Willers diminish the gospel message to shine some light back on man instead of Christ.

In this light, arguing that someone can freely choose to come to Christ in faith because they have it in them to do a good work by choosing to please God by choosing to have faith, diminishes the extent of God’s love (aside from contradicting all the things God has already revealed, stated above).

2 Corinthians 5:17

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Here’s another problem with having a sort of possibility to freely choose faith and will yourself into salvation (besides the fact that God already said it is “impossible”), WHY then do we NEED to become a “new creation” if we could just make better, gooder, free will choices (besides the fact that God says we are spiritually dead)? You would have to admit that someone could possibly make a habit of making good free willed choices, and thus, wouldn’t need Jesus… as long as they stuck with their good habitual free choices until death… Jesus who?

Plus, would you want to keep the same Free Will that disgusted God in the first place? Wouldn’t you want a NEW will, one that hates sin, repents of sin, and is a “slave to righteousness”?

Wait, a “slave to righteousness”?

Romans 6:19

I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

Massive statement here. God explicitly and absolutely makes it clear that we have “natural limitations” which directly effect our “free will”. But he doesn’t stop there. He goes on to reveal that we are pardoned (the Judge’s choice, not ours) and transfer from a prison of sin to freedom in a assisted living home of righteousness, where we CAN now do things in faith that DOES please God. We are more free to pursue the things of God and ARE FREED from the chains of sin. We are free indeed, in Christ, not in ourselves.

The illustration is an “assisted living home” because we are taken OUT of the world (prison), but still go back into the prison as a light to freedom for all the other inmates still in chains; but now instead of not having the free will to avoid sin being chained to it, now we have the ability to fight and resist our sin and never be chained up by sin ever again until the day he comes to pick us up from the assisted living home to live with him for all eternity.

But the question remains: WHO initiates and compels the FAITH that frees us from slavery to sin?

Again, most Free Willers will claim THEY DO, because they have to be the ones that are in control of their will and destiny (despite all the eternal truths listed above) or, they claim, God isn’t loving, and we can’t genuinely love back. They use the typical logical fallacy, the strawman argument like “We aren’t robots, therefore we must have free will” and at the same time fail to accept that explicit truths in Holy Scripture. They will even cherry pick verses that do support Free Will while completely avoiding reconciling all the verses discussed above.

Their malicious characterization assumes the argument is that here is NO FREE WILL. As discussed, that is dishonest and untrue. The prisoner in his cell, chained up by sin DOES have Free Will still. The existence of free will IS NOT contested. It is the EXTENT of that Free Will that is.

Let’s restate this:

Free Will exists

So, let’s continue to examine the ETERNAL perspective of this debate for a more complete and proper understanding.

An extra dose of humility is needed in this debate:

John the Baptist said in John 1:27, 30 “even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie…This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.’” If he isn’t even worthy, what makes we are worthy enough in our own free will choices?

Being able to make a “good enough free will choice of faith” puts US on PAR with Jesus, which is blasphemy. God the Father is pleased with his Son, while we are sinners (Matthew 3:17) and even Jesus says “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.” (Mark 10:17). So, if NO ONE IS GOOD, how then do YOU, a sinner, have the free will to do something on par with God and propel yourself into saving faith? THAT is pride and arrogance- one of the ugly heads of the Free Will issue.

So if we circle back to the limitation of Free Will to be birthed, in this world and in the next (being spiritually dead from birth) let’s look at what Jesus said about being able to SEE and ENTER the Kingdom of God. Do we choose freely this?

John 3:3-10

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again^[b] he cannot see the kingdom of God.” ⁴ Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” ⁵ Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. ⁶ That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.^[c] 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You^[d] must be born again.’ ⁸ The wind^[e] blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” ¹⁰ Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?”

So, if anyone has NOT been born of the Spirit (v.6) than they CANNOT even SEE the Kingdom of God. If you cannot SEE the kingdom, how can you freely choose it? How can you freely choose Jesus as your Lord and savior if you can’t see him as a lord and savior? If you cannot ENTER the kingdom, how can you freely choose faith, enter it, and be saved? How can you choose to enter a Kingdom you can’t see and know nothing about, all by way of your free will?

Then Jesus drops a mic and makes it clear it is NOT a human decision or action of spiritual birth because not only can we, being spiritually dead, no SEE or ENTER the Kingdom but we “do not know” when or where that Spirit give birth to us, UNTIL HE DOES. Then, poof, we are born spiritually alive, NOW able to SEE the kingdom; just like we were born here on earth and able to see the physical world.

Jesus rebukes Nicodemus for not comprehending this. As a teacher, what is he teaching? He studies scripture and is teacher of the law… but, from an earthly perspective with humanistic ideas injected. Clearly he isn’t teaching the full council of God in scripture because he doesn’t understand. Kind of like the Free Willers of today. They neglect understanding the full council of God and teach a man-centric earthly perception of Free Will.

A massive point here that also needs to be made is the fact that it is THE SPIRIT that gives spiritual life to all those who are dead in their sins. ZERO mention of any sort of humanistic self-willed choice to be spiritually born.

The command to believe on face value would seem like we have some say in believing and faith… but, Holy Scripture doesn’t contradict itself.

Philippians 1:29

For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake,

The saving faith to believe in Jesus, was GRANTED. No mention of someone choosing for themselves and taking it. And then, God just drops the bomb on the whole debate:

Ephesians 2:8-9

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Let us reiterate this statement in 2 parts:

“this is not your own doing”

“it is a gift of god”

When you exercise your Free Will to DO SOMETHING, you are doing something of your own will. If you exercise your Free Will to MAKE a CHOICE of your own, you are doing something on your own.

Free Willers MUST reconcile THIS very verse.

Some might say “well, we have to ‘receive’ the gift that is offered” BUT THAT is a gross mischaracterization of what is explicitly revealed. THAT would still be YOU DOING SOMETHING, i.e. choosing to and receiving a gift. Some gifts are so precious, wonderful, and beautiful that they can only be received out of pure joy and gratitude without a second thought of choosing it or rejecting it. So glorious is the gift it is as if rejection isn’t an option and doesn’t exist.

The notion that someone may debate in their own mind and consider rejecting the gift that has been given diminishes the glorious, wonder, and beautiful grace of God. Do you really not value the glorious, wonder, and beautiful grace of God that much? Well, the answer is yes, our flesh and earthly minds do that.; but our born again spirit man WILL absolutely receive it out of pure joy and gratitude without a second thought. Just listen to what Jesus says about it:

John 6:27, 29

Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal...Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.””

Eternal life is GIVEN to US by God. It is signed and sealed for all eternity by God Almighty, not your Free Will choice. And if that wasn’t clear enough, Jesus directly and explicitly declares what the WORK of GOD is: faith

FAITH, believing in Jesus Christ and his works is a WORK OF GOD, not a free willed work of man. This is as explicit as it gets. Thus, it CAN NOT be a Free Will of the sinner to choose to believe and or choose to receive or reject the gift of faith.

But, Jesus doesn’t stop there, he continues on revealting the TRUTH about THE WORK OF GOD:

John 6:37-40

³⁷ All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out ³⁸ For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. ³⁹ And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. ⁴⁰ For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

Since we are on the topic about Wills, God’s Will is clearly stated here. First, God The Father GIVES people to Jesus and those people WILL COME to him, and those people will NEVER be cast out.

In all of this, there is ZERO mention of human Free Will, only the will of God the Father.

God WILLS people to come to HIS SON and WILLS THEM TO BELIEVE, and, they do. Period. Can’t read this any other way. Their Free Will in faith in Jesus have ZERO effect or even a mention in the slightest. These are ABSOLUTE statements made by the Son of God.

John 1:12

¹² But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, ¹³ who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

We become Children of God, adopted by God the Father as his own and given the righteousness of Christ because of HIMSELF.

“not of blood” – your family tree, heritage, ethnic background doesn’t save you.

“nor the will of the flesh” – including your own free willed fleshly efforts, works, deeds, body modifications, no amount of bible verse tattoos, healthy eating, regular fitness routines, donating a kidney, etc.

“nor of the will of man” – including your own free willed choices, fasting, hours upon hours of prayer, bible memorization, peek mental discipline, etc.

“but of God” – GOD CHOOSES to adopt you not based on anything you’ve freely chosen to do or say.

ALL THESE VERSES must be reconciled within the Free Will discussion to have a more full, honest, and proper understanding and perception OF THE THINGS OF GOD.

Because Free Will IS LIMITED, one of the many limitations of human Free Will is in SALVATION.

You can freely choose what kind of sin you want to do

You can use your free will to establish different habits

You can freely choose what color shirt you want to wear to church.

You can freely choose all sorts of things in this world.

BUT

You cannot save yourself with your free will.

You cannot choose to will yourself into saving faith.

And to argue that you can, is literally stealing God’s glory because of all the verses mentioned above. It also heading down the road of self-idolatry and blasphemy.

Psalm 3:8

Salvation belongs to the Lord;
    your blessing be on your people! Selah