For one thing, Heaven has no evil or sin in it. But it's interesting because the response used to justify the existence of free will is that one can't know good without knowing evil. Does that mean in Heaven the free will we currently enjoy will be limited or abridged? I can't think of any other answer.
I have such a hard time with 'faith'.
By way of explanation - no debate:
I think we can get caught up with philosophy over this. Free will is an illusion. No one actually has free will. We can't do what we like. In society we are bound by the laws of the land. We are also limited by our own conscience which informs us concerning what is right or wrong. Even God doesn't have absolute free will. He is governed by His own moral law. He is righteous in all His ways. For example, He cannot lie.
An unconverted person is in bondage to the law of sin and death. He cannot choose other than to sin. Even when he chooses moral actions, it will have the basis of selfishness. Even when he does loving actions, it is with the view of what he can get out of it for himself, even if it is the sense of personal satisfaction.
The definition of evil is the breach of the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments describe the perfect set of instructions for righteous living. Take just one commandment away, and they are incomplete. Add a commandment and then we have something superfluous that is already covered by one of the others.
God is bound to act so as to intend the best for the universe and everyone in it. He cannot do otherwise. Conversion to Christ involves total transformation of heart and life by the Holy Spirit. The convert is bound to be conformed to the image of Christ, to love God above all others, and to love others as he loves himself. This means that he wants to live a holy life and all his actions be righteous ones. Therefore he works to have his will totally in synch with the will of God for him. The Scripture says: "Be not unwise, but understanding what the will of God is." Therefore, he knows that being unaware of God's will for his life is being unwise, and that is not acceptable for him. Therefore he doesn't have free will in the sense that he can desire to God's will one day, and then not God's will the next.
That's what Paul is saying in Romans 7. He desires to follow God's holy and righteous Law of the spirit of life in Christ in his heart, but he finds another law in his flesh that struggles against it. It is that he wants to lay his flesh on God's altar, but it roars and struggles to get off and have its own way. Paul hates having the flesh warring against the Spirit, and so he gives full effort to buffet the flesh into submission.
If an unconverted person says he has free will to do has he pleases, tell him to try living a righteous life in Christ through faith. He will find that he won't be able to. He will go back into sinful acts every time. What this means in that he is bound to the law of sin and death, and therefore cannot do anything outside of it. This is why conversion to Christ is a miraculous work of the Holy Spirit in a person. This is what enables the person to forsake the works of the flesh and to have the fruit of the Spirit develop in his life.
Just a thought on faith. Faith has to have a foundation. It is not a matter of "I believe it, therefore it is true." That is the philosophical faith in faith, or existentialism. True Gospel faith has its foundation in the written promises of God in the Scriptures. This kind of faith says, "God has promises [such and such] in His Word and I believe them, therefore it is true for me."
Such as John 3:16: "God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whosoever believes on Him will not perish but will have eternal life." This means that if I turn to Christ and believe on and trust in Him, I won't perish but will be saved and have eternal life." So why does the person believes they are saved" Because John 3:16 says so.
