Free will means that our choices are our own, that no outside force or influence can so infiltrate our thinking as to void our choices. Many times, this is debated in the context of God’s sovereignty, that, for God to be absolute ruler of the universe, His choices must overrule all others. Thus, free will is only an appearance. This is the doctrine of Calvinism.
What answers this apparent dilemma is the Bible’s concept of love. Love does not “seek its own” (1 Corinthians 13:5). In other words, in order for love to be love, it will not be self-willed. It is not about self. For love to be true, it must always have some other as its object and reason. Real love is totally caught up in caring for the one loved.
That God is love is a major declaration of Scripture (Exodus 34:6-7; 1 John 4:8, 16). That we are to mirror that love to those around us is also a clear teaching of Scripture (John 17:26; Ephesians 5:1, 2; 1 John 4:11). Yet, love must always be a free choice of the will for it to be real. Forced or manipulated love is not love at all but simply a control mechanism for the exercise of raw power. So, real love demands a will free to choose.
When we learn that Jesus did not come of Himself but that He was sent (John 8:42), yet He could always call on God to escape the cross (Matthew 26:53), we get the point. Though the choice was hard, still, to go to the cross was always Jesus’ own choice, which choice demonstrated His love for the Father (John 14:31). True love is demonstrated by freewill.
Therefore, it is with us. Though God is certainly Sovereign and all powerful and will always be true to Himself (2 Timothy 2:13), He chooses to be bound by our choices because He loves us.
[Editor’s Note: God did not make robots, which could only function according to their programming. This is clear from the very beginning when God created Adam and Eve and presented them with the choice to obey or not to obey (Genesis 2:16-17). The rest is history (Romans 3:23)! ~ Louis Rushmore, Editor]
