Free Will or Sovereign God? Part 2

God is sovereign;  man's will is not.  

"Free will" as it's modernly taught comes across sounding more like Judges, ie., everyone does what is right in their own eyes.  This is taught as "God doesn't want a bunch of robots, so He gives us free will."  We also hear it applied to wickedness, as in, "God didn't cause that bad thing; it's because we have free will."  Or, "don't be so worried about obedience; that can lead to legalism.  Just trust God and do what you like.  He gives us free will, and He gives us grace."  

God does not give us free will, setting us loose to do what we think best.  He grants us the freedom to choose.  

• "And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."   Genesis 2:16-17    
• "The Lord said to Cain, 'Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it."  Genesis 4:6-7

God put man in the garden and instructed him to cultivate it and keep it (service), and told him he was free --to eat of any tree He allowed.  But choosing to eat from one tree would lead to death.  

• In Romans 6:16, Paul teaches that "you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness".  

We are to "choose whom we will serve" (Joshua), sin and death ...or life and peace.  Through the Fall, we were all enslaved to sin and condemned to death.  Through believing in Christ' justifying work on the cross, we may be redeemed from sin's rule, freed to obey God's perfect wisdom and live in His provision, freed to present ourselves to God as living sacrifices.  

• 2Cor. 5:15 "and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf."  

We must choose either:

• to live freely in God's Kingdom, abiding by His rule and authority, entrusting ourselves to His provision, moving according to His purpose; 

• or to live by our own wisdom and will, dominated by self and sin, influenced by the ruler of this world, headed for death.

There are no other options.  

Thus, there are also only two camps of people, only two denominations, if you will.

• Those who are bondslaves to God, who "by perseverance in doing good" offer themselves as living sacrifices, chosen for His purpose, serving for His glory; or

• those "who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness", mastered by sin, destined for condemnation.

Therefore, God is absolutely sovereign, and has sovereignly given man freedom to choose.  But there is, Biblically, no such thing as free will as modernly expressed.