Freedom of the Will

Lesson One

if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.  

John 8:36

18^th century cleric Jonathan Edwards, who is said to be one of the greatest theologians and philosophers America has yet produced, defined “The will as simply the mind’s faculty of choosing.” We will choose what we want at any particular point in time, though a fraction of a second latter we may regret the actions that come about as a result of our choice. Whether or not we act upon that choice also depends on our ability to do so. The choices that humans have made throughout history differed before the Fall of Adam, after the Fall and after one has been born anew. That is the context in which we should view either the freedom or the bondage of our wills. Over the next few weeks this blog spot will address the state of the human will under each of those three separate conditions.

Pre-fall: When God created Adam He gave humans a free will; freedom to chose right from wrong; to choose good from evil. This is revealed to us in Genesis 2:15-17: The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 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.”

Using his free will Adam chose the wrong instead of the right; the evil instead of the good. As a result of his disobedience, Adam, his wife Eve (who also chose to disobey God’s singular command) and all of their off spring became sinners, fell from grace and fellowship with their loving, Creator God and lost their ability to choose things considered divinely good as opposed to that which God considers evil. As proof of their fallen state, when the two heard God moving about in the Garden of Eden they hid from Him; they were even afraid of the One who had been their friend. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.  But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?”  He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” Genesis 3:8-10.