Free Will Isn't As Free As We'd Like To Think

Do you remember when you first began to consider the claims of Christ? Up until that time, you didn’t seek to know Him. Maybe you had no interest whatsoever in spiritual things. Maybe you held a sense of religious respect toward Him, but following Jesus wasn’t high on your list of goals.

Then things changed. Do you remember when you found your thoughts moving, not away from Him, but toward Jesus? You found yourself thinking in ways you had never thought. Your interest in Christ began to grow until you were actually attracted to Him.

What brought about the change? Was it some spiritual virtue within you that had been lying dormant until now? Not according to the Bible. Remember the passage already quoted from Romans 3. Unless the Holy Spirit begins to draw people to Christ, “they never give God the time of day.” Jesus, Himself, said, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him . . .” (John 6:44).

You are a believer because the Divine Lover enticed you by His love. He miraculously stirred you to life and caused you to want Him. You would have never wanted Him on your own. It is His love alone that initiates and consummates our salvation.

Jesus loves you enough that He supernaturally seduced to you Himself. By revealing His beauty and his passion for you, He loved you until you loved Him right back! You are a Christian for one simple reason – Jesus Christ decided that He wanted you and wouldn’t give up until you were His.

What about your will in salvation? Don’t we exercise our own free will? Consider how the following marriage metaphor might help in answering that question.

Suppose a husband has a desire for physical intimacy with his wife one morning, but she’s not in the mood. However, he knows her well and understands what it takes to “put her in the mood.” So he determines to change her mind through the course of the day.

He has heard Gary Smalley say that “love making begins in the kitchen,” so he washes dishes after mealtime, telling her to relax, that he’ll handle it all. He has heard James Dobson teach that women want to feel valued, so he expresses sincere verbal appreciation for his wife. He remembers reading where Tim LaHaye suggested that women want romance, not just sex. So he leaves a red rose and a love note on his wife’s pillow before she goes to the bedroom that night.

All throughout the day and the evening, this husband diligently expresses love to his wife in non-physical ways. He takes these steps because he sincerely loves her. However, he does want a particular response from her. He acts toward her in ways that he knows she will understand as expressions of love from him.

That night, he holds her in his arms. He begins to tenderly kiss her. . . Maybe I should stop there. Do you know what happens then? Her will is changed. Because of her husband’s love for her and the effective ways he has expressed it all day, she finds that her will has been changed to align with His will.

On the next morning, after being ravished (see Proverbs 5:18-19) by her husband’s love, the question may be asked. Whose will was it that determined how the events of the night before unfolded – his or hers?

It’s true that she exercised her choice in the matter. However, the fact is that her will had been taken captive by her husband’s love until it became one with his will. You might say that his seductive love refused to be satisfied until her will was “brought to life” to align with His.

Jesus loves you so much that He orchestrated the details of your life to guarantee that your will which was “dead to Him” would be made alive. He gave you a will to know Him or you never would have wanted Him at all. The Bible says, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12-13).