What is the Christian view on free will?
Understand that the best fake products are the ones which most mimic the original. Many among us practice something that would shock the early apostles, just as Paul was so shocked at the practice of the Galatians that he referred to them as being under a spell. Some non-Christians have the misfortune of engaging with churchgoers whose version of Christianity is a severely watered-down version of Judaism plus a smattering of “in Jesus’ name” attached to every prayer point, and so many non-believers have that notion of Christians being a bunch of finger-wagging, hypocritical bigots who are against even people breathing through their mouth and who try to shove obeying the Ten Commandments and other laws down everybody’s throat but their own—
—quite the opposite of what Christ did when He walked the earth as man; and what He still does. Check out the ways of Christ in the gospels. Religious folk who thought they were being godly or good (like God) by their “free moral agency”hated and rejected Him and His message. But notorious sinners flocked around Him. He welcomed them all with open arms and in Him, we never remain the same. Just look at a snapshot of those who followed and received from Him— He was always welcoming of and at ease with outcasts, the scummy tax collectors and notorious sinners. In fact, it was these kinds of people who followed and received from Him! Those who thought they were good by themselves and could keep the law, they grieved Him and could not receive from Him. See this truth and His response to the severely religious leaders who could not understand how such a holy Man would associate with notorious sinners in Mark 2:17 below—
“15 That night Levi invited his fellow tax collectors and many other notorious sinners to be his dinner guests so that they could meet Jesus and His disciples. (There were many men of this type among the crowds that followed Him.) 16 But when some of the Jewish religious leaders saw Him eating with these men of ill repute, they said to His disciples, “How can He stand it, to eat with such scum? 17 When Jesus heard this, He told them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”
We can see that nothing has changed since that time. Some pastors are still telling notorious sinners that Jesus cannot even look at them much less help them because of the same sins that He came to save us all from as we see in His job description in Matthew 1:21—
“She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”
Also Titus 2:14— “He gave His life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us His very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds."
Let’s take our blessed brains to church— how can the Physician and Medicine (Grace- Christ Himself) whom God gave for man’s salvation from his terminal disease (sin nature) and its deathly sickness symptoms (acts of sin that lead to death) make man more sick (sinful) or punish us for the same sins that He came to save us from?
To answer the question on free-will:
Not so short answer
Christianity is about surrendering our free-will to God’s will through Jesus Christ. This is why we pray—-
“Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
This is why we sing— ”Tis no longer I that liveth but Christ that liveth in me.”
The one who thinks he can accomplish anything by his free-will/will-power/arm of flesh is still alive in himself, his will not yet or not totally surrendered to Christ; still pridefully plodding on in his human ability to do right like the boastful and God-challenging Peter right before he was humbled by his copious denials. Peter actually thought that Christ was confused and wrong on the matter of “There is none good but God” as well as his then upcoming denials. He thought that his free-will (human effort at choosing to do right) could achieve some good for him. The definition of “every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God” does not get any better than that. The dude exalted his own thoughts and his “free-will” against the knowledge that Christ his Maker shared with him, just as many who think their free-will can attain as much as a tittle of good for them today. Thank God for He restores and exalts the humble— those who see the futility of trusting in the will of man to do right or to live a godly life, and surrender their will to Christ.
Check out the message of those who usually tell you about “free-will” and how man is a “free moral agent” and blah blah blah — it is always channeled at getting you striving to produce good or develop godly traits (be good like God) by your own human effort (arm of flesh) at obeying the law aka the letter that kills and gives the knowledge of good and evil, this when Jesus Christ the Tree of Life says “There is none good but God” and gave His life for us to be godly like God; reminds one of the message of a certain serpent in Eden. Their message is always designed to hang the threat of unrighteousness and God’s wrath over your head for your inability to use your free-will to do good things or achieve godly traits — a wrath which God’s word tells us that a believer in Christ will never experience because of the sacrifice of Jesus—
Pretty long answer—
Most of us have heard about free-will— how believers still have it and how man is a “free moral agent”? Things like—
“Yes God saved you by Grace but you still have your free-will to decide your actions and face their consequences.”
But how can we sing “Tis no longer I who live but Christ lives in me” if we still believe that way or hold on to our willpower to do anything right?The one who does so is still alive in himself.
Christianity is all about letting go of that free-will (self-will, really) and surrendering utterly to God’s will which is for us to trust utterly in Christ and not our silly efforts to save ourselves from anything, even our sins. It’s telling God that we know that we will mess things up if we are left to make decisions based on our own logic, prevent ourselves from doing certain things or run our affairs on our own. This reminds me of an incident that my dad used to tell me about. He was driving to work one day when he saw a child sitting close to the road. A dog was standing beside the child, and biting him at intervals. It would bite, pause and then bite again; just biting away at the child in a relaxed manner. That is the best that man’s “free moral agency” or self-will can do— produce no good and even get him in trouble. All of the time, it fails its user who thinks anything good can come of it, just as it did Peter with his denials and even Paul who wrote of said free-will (ability to choose to do good) aka willpower in Romans 7:18 —
"For I know that nothing good lives within the flesh of my fallen humanity. The longings to do what is right are within me, but will-power is not enough to accomplish it."
But Pride in the arm of flesh (human effort at choosing right) that will fail says:
"No, I can. God must be wrong. I still have some good in me. I can keep the law, do my best to be godly (be like God) and overcome sin by my will-power or free moral agency.”
But in Christ Jesus, as “little children” of the Almighty, our will utterly surrendered to Him, often we are like little children who want to go out to play not knowing that danger lies ahead; but our Heavenly Father knows and restrains us no matter how much we cry and moan and strive to do or get what we think we want. Our will is surrendered to Christ. So “the love of Christ constrains us.” This is life in Christ--
"Trust in the Lord completely, and do not rely on your own opinions. With all your heart rely on him to guide you, and he will lead you in every decision you make. Become intimate with him in whatever you do, and he will lead you wherever you go." Proverbs 3:5-6
This Way, the thoughts of His Spirit in us become our action. He does not let us crawl out into the road only to get mauled by dogs as those who depend on their free-will do but for His mercy that still keeps many safe. He puts His hedge around us always. And this benefit we have by His Grace alone—
“For here’s what I’m going to do: … I’ll pour pure water over you and scrub you clean. I’ll give you a new heart, put a new spirit in you. I’ll remove the stone heart from your body and replace it with a heart that’s God-willed, not self-willed. I’ll put my Spirit in you and make it possible for you to do what I tell you and live by my commands. …You’ll be my people! I’ll be your God!” Ezekiel 36:24-28—
All we need to do is let go of our silly efforts to save ourselves aka “self-will” and trust God’s word that He Himself will make it possible for us to do what He tells us and live by His commands. Only He can do this. And this we do by Grace, even asking for the willingness to be willing and able to surrender to His Grace. See His counsel to us in Isaiah 30, something that the overly-religious Pharisees and many churchgoers today still refuse to follow—
Rushing off on horseback is a metaphor for trusting in one’s free will and not Christ. God is a just God and will not share His glory with anyone. He gets all the glory because He did all the work of saving us, even salvation from sin and death. So no man can glory or boast of anything pertaining to our salvation in Christ Jesus. In heaven, we will sing—
“Worthy is the Lamb that was slain”
—and not “worthy is the Lamb and me, I also played my part with my free-will by not sinning and doing good things.” The one who is standing, it is by God’s mercy alone, for there is no good in man of himself. Only in Christ do we have life and live right. This is the message that God’s Grace Himself Jesus Christ taught. And the religious Pharisees rejected Him because they thought they did good all by themselves. They had no idea that God’s mercy was the “Skeleton” that was propping them up from devolving into the helpless mass of sins-ridden flesh that man is of himself. They thought that they were being good by their free-will.
The spirit of the antichrist is not necessarily anti-God. Having that mindset of the super-religious but Christ-rejecting Pharisees is why a human being can look down at others whom Satan is sifting with trials as he did Peter with his denials, and call them "sinner" and demand obedience or godliness of such based on free-will. Beloved, let us not be found on such ground. Let us take our cue from David who wrote in Psalm 16:2–
“I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.”
See The Passion Translation— “I said to Yahweh, “You are my Maker and my Master. Any good thing you find in me has come from you.””
Anything that man can boast of doing in his strength or present as why God who gives us ALL things FREELY with Christ (Romans 8:32) should bless, save or deliver, it is a dead work. But when your believing is right, right living (works of faith) will follow. Take the Word of the One who declares every believer righteous through the blood of Jesus, “even though we are guilty of many sins” for it—
“And the result of God’s gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man’s sin. For Adam’s sin led to condemnation, but God’s free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins. For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ.” Romans 5:16-17.
Our humanity or free-will or “free moral agency” aka “the arm of flesh” will always fail us, even when we deploy it towards doing what seems right and godly (like God) based on the available knowledge of what is good and what is evil. Going that way has always been God’s definition of pride and disobedience. God does not want us dependent on our self-will or human effort at obeying the law for the attainment of godliness aka “be like God.” That has been Satan’s doctrine since Eden. Just like the tree in Eden, the law which many try to use their free-will to live by gives the knowledge of good and evil and kills too. See the forbidden fruit as a typology for the law which many churchgoers are trying to obey in order to be godly (be like God) in Romans 7:8-12 (MSG)—
8-12 "Don’t you remember how it was? I do, perfectly well. The law code started out as an excellent piece of work. What happened, though, was that sin found a way to pervert the command into a temptation, making a piece of “forbidden fruit” out of it. The law code, instead of being used to guide me, was used to seduce me."
Satan’s strategy has not changed since Eden. Adam and Eve were created in God’s likeness. See this in Genesis 1:27–
"Genesis 1:26-27-
26 "Then God said, “Let us make human beings so that they are like us..... 27 So God created human beings in His own likeness. He created them to be like Himself. He created them as male and female."
Adam and Eve were already like God, but Satan sold to Eve the deceit that she had to strive to be what God already made she and Adam to be (godly, like God) by human effort and through dependence on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil— a type of the law.
Check out the message of those who usually tell you about “free-will” and how man is a “free moral agent”— it is always to get you striving to produce good or develop godly traits (be good like God) by your own human effort (arm of flesh) at obeying the law when Christ says “There is none good but God.” It is always to hang the threat of unrighteousness and God’s wrath over your head for your inability to do so— a wrath which God’s word tells us that a believer in Christ will NEVER experience because of the sacrifice of Jesus—
Those who threaten believers with how their free-will can land them in God’s wrath have not surrendered theirs to Christ. They are still alive in themselves and so cannot claim that they no longer live and Christ lives in them. Just like the tree in Eden, the law/letter kills and gives the knowledge of good and evil. The same religious deceit of Satan still being peddled by pulpit-manning mouthpieces of Satan in some places of worship today.
Beloved, in Christ, we are a new creation — created to “be like God,” but with better covenant blessings than Adam and Eve: we are joint heirs with Christ. Christ suffered and died to make us godly like God. See the result of His suffering which He accomplished for us in Isaiah 53:11–
"After He has suffered, He will see the light of life. And He will be satisfied. My godly servant will make many people godly because of what He will accomplish. He will be punished for their sins."
Beloved, understand that Jesus did not have any sins of His own. Our sins or ungodlinesses is why He went to the cross and He paid it all in full to get us off the hook of ungodliness and make us GODLY forever. We who are a new creation in Christ, made godly/righteous by Christ’s obedience, let us not fall for the same seemingly moral but deathly deceit which Satan is still marketing through his pulpit-manning mouthpieces today— that horrid doctrine that promotes using free-will (human effort aka the arm of flesh) to attain godliness or expecting punishment when we are weak, mess things up or fail in certain areas of life. So watch what you are hearing in your local church:
The spirit of the antichrist is not necessarily anti-God. In fact, as it was with the severely religious but antichrist Pharisees who rejected and sought to kill Christ, carriers of the antichrist spirit are often found shouting about the need to love God, about how bad sin is and the need for man to use his free-will to be good or godly (be like God) from the rooftops. But as Satan their father preached to Eve in Eden, their own way is never through what ChrIst has done but what man must do by his own strength. The word “antichrist” is translated from two Greek words—
Anti — meaning “replace” or “in place of” and
Christos — meaning “Christ” = “Anointed”
“Antichrist” simply refers to anyone who tries to REPLACE what CHRIST has done to make us righteous, free us from the imputation, guilt, condemnation and penalty of sin (death plus its symptoms of earthly ills,) to save us from our sins and to grant us eternal life in Himself with what MAN must do by his useless will-power or effort aka the arm of flesh.
God gave His own Son to make us godly— like Himself. He wants us to surrender our will to Him and to put our trust utterly in Him to lead us. So at every crossroad, we follow His counsel in Proverbs 3:5-6 —
Also Proverbs 16:3
Outside His will, everything falls apart. The Christian life is one of distrusting one’s ability to produce even an atom of good based on free-will, and utterly surrendering our will to Christ. This is God’s Way of Salvation— our will utterly surrendered to Him in Christ Jesus. We no longer live. Christ lives in us. His will and not our will be done in us because we have surrendered ours to Him.
When your believing is right, right living will follow.
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