Are our wills free or do we have free will?

The answer to this question is yes and no. When God created Adam and Eve He created them with a free will, to choose between good and evil. Before the fall, man’s will was absolutely free from sin – it was perfect. However, since man has peccability (i.e. the ability to sin), his will is always challengeable – particularly to sin which Adam and Eve committed plunging the entire the human race into sin and death.

Here is the status of our will/and or choices now; we are still free to choose, but due to our sin nature, we will not always choose what is right. Sadly, our choices are bound because of our sin so in essence our choices are not always free to choose what is ultimately right and good.

Our will is conflicted because of internal evil.  Listen to the Apostle Paul’s words:

“For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law that is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me (emphasis added).

For I know nothing good in me dwells, that is in my flesh. For I have a desire to what is right, but the not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good that I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep doing (Rom 7:15-19).

This is a masterpiece of instruction by Paul. It gets right to the heart and soul of our problem. 

Paul clearly admits that he desires to do the right thing, but does not because of the sin that dwells in him. His will to do good is bound by his sinfulness. What is the result? He does what he hates to do. In other words, sin often prevails over his desire to do good and please God.

Paul’s will like ours is free to choose, but sadly we often choose evil although within our spirits we desire to do good. Do you understand now how our wills our free and bound at the same time?

Yes, we are free to choose, but because of sin, our wills our incarcerated because of evil.

Is there any wonder Paul cried out, “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Answer? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Here’s the scenario: I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh the law of sin (Rom 7:24-25).

  

There is another passage worth mentioning to amplify my point regarding the human will. We find it in Galatians 5, but I say, “walk in the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit against the flesh, for these (the Spirit and the flesh) are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law” (vv 16-18).

This is revelation knowledge here! Once again Paul is revealing to us our dilemma. We as believers have an internal struggle, a tug-of-war going on within our own being. Our flesh is warring against the Spirit of God! Can you guess who’s going to lose?

What’s the answer to winning this war? We MUST walk in the Spirit (the Holy Spirit)!

Terrific! How do we do that?

Let’s look further in Galatians 5, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control against such things there is no law (vv 23-23).

Practicing these virtues from God, will earn us this victory we need to subject our will to the will of God. This way we want what God desires for us and not our own often selfish desires.

Insisting on our own way is always a losing battle. We see how tragically things ended when Adam and Eve exercised their choice to disobey the Lord – they were expelled from the Garden of Eden.

Yet, we continue to do what we want. Why? Because as Paul stated, sin dwells within me (Rom 7:17,23).  We are wretched human beings (although we sometimes do human benevolent things), that is a fact. No one is essentially good or seeks God (Rom 3:10-12).

Concluding, someone has said our wills our free in the sense that we are only free to choose our sin, but our wills are not free to choose what is good because we are by nature corrupt.

This is a sad commentary of mankind, but is also true.

The person who does not realize this about themselves is blind and will never call on the Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins, and salvation of their soul.