Free will is not free the way we commonly think its is. Most Christians that believe 'free will' is a position that allows for choices to be entirely self-derived (without ANY internal/external coercion or limitation) so as to be able to do any possible thing (imagined or unimagined), such as the ability to accept or reject Christ as Savior (apart from God's enabling). In the case of salvation, it assumes that the sinful will is somehow capable, by virtue of being "free", to be able to choose to believe in God and follow him through Christ. It assumes that men are autonomous, independent of any restrictions of law.
The only being in existence that is truly autonomous is God. He is autonomous in that His existence and behavior are not dependent upon anything other than Himself. He is completely self-contained and is independent of anything. He is transcendent in that he exists apart from and existed prior to the universe. Though men are created in His image, were are not like God in regards to autonomy. Free will violates the autonomous character of God by making God's decrees, such as the salvation of His people, conditioned and dependent upon the sinful man's supposed autonomous free will choice.
The fact is, a self-caused free will choice of an individual to trust in Jesus could lead to a denial of the legal substitutionary work of Jesus because the salvation of that individual would only be offered as a possibility, and not a guarantee, because the said salvation can only become effective based upon that individual's autonomous free will choice. So then because salvation can only be realized by a man’s autonomous choice, Christ's sacrifice on the cross, according to this idea of free will, did not actually save anyone.
In the Garden of Eden, the serpent advocated independence from God when he suggested that Eve should make the decision to eat the forbidden fruit so that she would know good and evil. In this, Satan was moving her away from complete dependence on God's word, to an independence from God's word. To believe that we are autonomous and independent from God, having the free will to overthrow His plans by our choices, is to sin against Him.
It's not that we do not have free will, the ability to make choices, certainly we do. However, since we are not autonomous, our choices are subject to the various laws and conditions that can influence these choices. This is especially true when dealing with the realm of the spiritual, where man has absolutely no authority.
Your right, we do not have Free Will, but we do have the ability to make decisions and choices, this then is called DOMINION, there is a difference.
Dominion God gave to man to order his life on earth, to have the control of God's Creation, and be the superior being in it, but that is where it ends.
Free Will on the other hand is what man thinks he has, because he has the ability to choose what color socks he will wear today.
Free Will only pertains to mans ability to resist sin, this is something which man cannot do.
Rom. 3:23
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
Rom. 5:12
Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
John 8:34
Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.
Man because of his fallen Nature is the slave of sin.
Sin is in the flesh of man, he will always tend to sin.
Man can only come to God, when God Draws him, at no time before that drawing of God, does man have (Possess) the ability to exercise his Free Will to come to God, otherwise those of us who have been drawn, would not have waited as long as we did before the gift of God's Grace came to us, and we Believed.
John 6:44
No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.
Mat. 11:27
All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.
Luke 10:22
All things are delivered to me of my Father: and no man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him.
Eph. 2:8
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
It is only by God's Grace that we have received Salvation, it is sure we did not come to our Salvation by an act of Free Will, therefore it is also sure, we do not have the ability to reject it by an act of our Free Will.
Eph. 2:9,10
9) Not of works, lest any man should boast.
10) For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus
The man who has received the Gift of God's Grace, his very Salvation, does not sin.
Rom. 6:2
God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
Paul says we are dead to sin.
Do you know anyone who has died and been buried who has continued to sin?
Rom. 6:11
Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
1John 3:9
Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
Rom. 8:3
For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
Be Blessed
