Common Questions about Free Will
Curious?
[This is an excerpt from the appendix in my book where I seek to provide concise answers to the most common questions about God’s decree and regeneration as it relates to free will.]
Concise Answers to Curious Questions
Q: Is all evil attributed to free will?
A: Yes, in one sense, but no in another sense. Evil came about by a voluntary act of our first parents (Adam and Eve) to disobey the revealed will of God. This is the direct and immediate cause of all evil. However, evil can be conceptualized as the absence of something rather than the presence of something. Evil is the absence of God and His goodness. Like the hole in a t-shirt cannot exist unless the t-shirt exists, so evil cannot exist unless God exists in the first place, because God is the standard of all true morality and goodness. When God removes His hand of goodness from a situation, evil ensues. He decreed to permit the first fall to happen, and every other evil that followed.
Q: Is God the author of sin and evil?
A: No, God is not the author of sin and evil if what we mean by that is He is the immediate cause of a person’s sin and therefore, morally culpable. However, He does stand behind evil, just not in the same way that He stands behind good. Evil is actively decreed by God but comes about by His divine permission (not a bare permission as if he passively watches events unfold). While He sovereignly decrees all that comes to pass, He does so in a way that neither makes Him the direct cause of sin nor compromises His perfect holiness. He actively allows evil to come to pass, and at the same time, sin arises from the creature’s own will, not from any creation of evil by God.
Q: Did God decree the fall of man? Or did He merely know it would happen and leave it up to Adam’s free will?
A: God decreed the Fall, not merely by foreknowing it, but by ordaining it as part of His eternal plan for His glory. However, He did so in a way that did not violate Adam’s will—Adam fell freely, choosing to believe the deception of sin employed by the serpent. God’s decree ensured the Fall would certainly come to pass, but the responsibility remained with Adam because Adam did what He wanted to do.
Q: How is the will free in heaven if they can only choose good and cannot choose otherwise?
A: True freedom does not consist in the mere ability to choose between opposites like good and evil, but the unhindered ability to choose according to one’s nature. In heaven, the will is perfectly free because it is fully aligned with God’s holiness. Just as God is supremely free yet cannot lie, the glorified saints are free in the truest sense when sin is no longer plaguing their desires.
Q: If God has to grant us the gift of faith to be saved, how can a person still be held responsible for unbelief?
A: Man is responsible for unbelief because his nature is fallen, and he/she willingly reject God; they are merely doing what they want to do. Though faith is a gift of grace, unbelief is the sinner’s own doing, and they do so by default because of Adam’s sin.
Q: If God has to cause someone to be born again before believing in Christ, how is this not forcing people to believe against their will?
A: Regeneration does not force someone to believe against their will; it transforms and frees their will. In his fallen state, man freely rejects Christ, but in regeneration, God graciously grants a new heart, making him willing to believe. The sinner does not come kicking and screaming—he comes joyfully because his eyes have been opened to the gospel of Christ.