We are free to pursue and know the God of the universe. That means we can choose to have a real personal relationship with God. If we did not have a free choice in then we could not have a true relationship with God, we would just be robots.
Freewill began at creation. Genesis 2:16-17 says, “And the LORD God commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.’” God let Adam and Eve choose. They chose poorly, but it was their free choice nevertheless.
“Free will” is something the Almighty Awesome God has given to us.
Joshua said to the people: “But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD” (Joshua 24:15). They had an actual choice – they could choose to serve God or not! Joshua chose to serve God.
Jesus did not force anyone to be his disciple. Jesus gave us a choice: “Then He called the crowd to Him along with His disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be My disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Me” (Mark 8:43).
Paul talks about the choices we have in Galatians 5. He says in verse 13, that we were called to be free and, verses 13-17, tells us that the choice we have is to live to our desires or to follow the Spirit.
Peter presents Jesus as standing at the door knocking! But you have to open the door and let Jesus in (Rev. 3:20). Again, Jesus does not force his will upon you—you have to decide. You must open the door.
While God knows what happens and what is going to happen. But that does not make our choice an illusion. God created us with free will because His glory is greater when we see who God is and we worship Him out of love. True love is a choice. True love is an act of the will and if we could not choose to love God, then we would be robots and could not ...
