Where are the limits to our free will vs. God’s free will? We will attempt to examine this in this brief blog.
First off, I must make you aware that, as it is normally taught in most conservative evangelical denominations of christianity, the teaching concerning “Free will” is a huge part of the religious deception that is in the “church system”, probably as early as 300 AD or so, possibly sooner, as apostasy set in long time ago.
I hope you will give this video a watch (by Martin Zender) as he shows how ridiculous that we can somehow use our willpower to save ourselves. Summarizing: it is that we can somehow wake ourselves up from being dead in trespasses and sins, blinded by the God of this age (Satan) along with not choosing to seek God (“There is no one righteous, no one who seeks after God”), sinful (from Adam’s curse of being mortal & ignorant/falling short of God’s perfection by design, being created lower than the angels), & with God’s “wrath abiding on us”, & then we can somehow have the strength of mind or willpower to “repent” and be saved… And to boot, we are all lost sheep, needing a loving Shepherd who knows the pathway to home.
So in actuality, all of Salvation (the process of making us to be a whole being, made in God’s image, bearing his likeness, and becoming more like him in this age/eon) is completely by God’s doing (by the free gift of grace, and not by our works, lest any man should boast) as he chooses to call each one when he deems it is our time to “repent” & have faith, lovingly into a relationship with him through life in his son, Jesus the Messiah (Yeshua ha Mashiach), & thus seeing a brand new way of life unfold in front of our eyes, and being born again (“baptized” by his spirit into his body, cleansed by the spirit, washed, regenerated, awakened to truth, given a heart/mind of flesh instead of stone, identified with him in so many ways, etc.) and it is all by his spirit calling us, wooing us, & gently leading us by “Godly sorrow” to this “repentance” (“metanoia” = change of mind.)
This idea of repentance comes from this Greek word “metanoia” and it is often used elsewhere indicating it is not a groveling and turning away from sin on our own willpower alone. This change of mind which has to come from the spirit, then leads to a changed heart (God takes out the heart of stone and gives us a heart of flesh) which, in turn, gives us the ability to please God with good works, and a changed life. See Malachi 3:1-3 for a very telling story of God’s purging fire being in the Israelites lives to where eventually even those “evil” Levites would once again bring acceptable offerings unto Yahweh.
Jesus basically tells us that “There is no way that we can come to faith in God through Jesus unless the spirit draws us”….and also no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the spirit. No one of whom the Father has committed into his hands will Jesus ever lose. Who has he given into his keeping? “All things have been committed to me by my Father” he also says elsewhere.
So as in 1 Corinthians 15:22, where it says: “As in Adam all have died (or all die), so in Christ shall ALL be made alive.” and then later in the same chapter, God is said to be eventually in control of all things, with ALL things in subjection unto him, even all of our thoughts, or any rebellion put under him, all authorities and dominions are put under him, and then finally death itself is brought to an end, and then Christ Jesus hands the kingdom over to his Father, so that the great culmination of history will come to play out….. that of God being “ALL in ALL”. What a glorious day, when every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess “Jesus is Lord” to the glory of God the Father.
Martin Zender tells it like it is, so be prepared for a bit of his being tough on those that are not yet familiar with this truth, but perhaps he has to shock us a bit to get us to see this, as our forefathers passed down this teaching of unlimited “Free will” to us. No one of us humans are really to blame today. It is part of a system of “doctrines of men” that Paul warns us about.
Yes, of course, we have a limited free will, especially in living out an abundant life, & we need to make wise choices in life, to “seek first his kingdom principles” and assist other to do so as well, being ministers of reconciliation.
Martin’s book is so eye opening also. See below for a link to the Youtube video: The 99.9% Syndrome and you can also purchase Martin Zender’s book “The Really Bad Thing About Free Will” located in our resources/ books section… see https://forbiddentheology.com/resources/#books .