Supernatural Realm II - FREE Will

by Pastor Meng Chiam

Big Idea:
Choose wisely because what we do and what we choose matters for now and eternity.

I. If God is truly sovereign and had foreknown the disobedience of Adam & Eve:
a. Why did He still allow it?

b. Why didn't He stop the centuries of pain, suffering and death that would plague humankind as a result of the fall of Adam & Eve?

II. If it happen in Eden, under ideal conditions, what would prevent the restored divine human family of God from committing the same in the revived Eden or the new heaven & earth?




1. WHAT IS FREE WILL?

2 Corinthians 5:10
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive compensation for [a]his deeds done through the body, in accordance with what he has done, whether good or bad.

- The fact that God judges the deeds done while we are in this body must mean that we are fully responsible for the actions and choices and decisions we make here. To be held accountable for the actions, whether good or evil that we are free moral agents able to exercise free will. It's therefore becomes very important for us to know what free will is.

- Free will stated simply is the power/ability to choose to do what we want to do and to choose not to do what we don't want to do.

- Power to decide equally to turn to right or left, to finish or not finish. It means to be able to choose freely and independantly without being forced to decide one way or another.

Genesis 2:15-17
Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and tend it. 16 The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not [a]eat, for on the day that you eat from it you will certainly die.”

- Adam had freewill in Eden. For Adam to be held accountable, he must be equally capable of obeying or disobeying God's commands, that is he could eat just as much as he could refrain from eating. What should have govern his choice is the consequence that each action would bring. In this case, if he eat he will surely die, if he refrain from eating, he would not die.

- Humans are not held accountable for the fact that they can choose freely but for why they choose what they have chosen, knowing the consequence each choice bring.

What about Eve?

Genesis 3:6
When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took some of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband with her, and he ate.

- We choose a particular path because it appeals to us personally and that's why faced with the same possibility, each of us may, can and will choose very different paths. How we exercise freewill depends on how desirable a particular choice is to us. Our heart indeed directs the exercise of freewill, it is so important therefore to guard our hearts because it determines our choices whether in the major decisions of life or in the day to day decisions of how I would want to spend my time and my resources.

- Free will of itself is neutral. There is both the possiblity of doing good or evil. Hence if we sin, it is not because we have been given the freewill, what makes the difference is our nature and our desire that is we really choose what we want.

- All who come after fallen Adam has a tendency to choose that which is sinful because of the nature that has been corrupted, either by our independant wilful defiance or through the trickery of the rebel elohim, this corrupt nature use evil desires to go against all that is good and Godly.

Romans 3:10-12
“There is no righteous person, not even one; 11 There is no one who understands, There is no one who seeks out God; They have all turned aside, together they have become [i]corrupt; There is no one who does good, There is not even one.”

- Freewill alone does not predispose us to sin.

- Our sins are the result of our choices spurred on by our intentions, led by our desires and determine by our character and nature. free will only gives us the ability to express the purpose of our heart. When our hearts purpose are pure and Godly, our actions will be too.

III. Why didn't God make His imagers able to do good and to obey His commands? Wouldn't that have eradicate sin in the first place? Because that would not have been freewill!

2. WHY WAS FREE WILL GIVEN TO US?

- It was to image God

Genesis 2:19
And out of the ground the Lord God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name.

- This ability to freely make choices, to call a dog dog, and elephant elephant was an important element in co-reigning and representing God's authority over creation. This is how both the supernatural and natural beings participate in the Eden project of extending God's rule to the whole earth. By making decision and choosing both to means and the method to bring order into this world.

- Free will is not a status of the image of Yahweh itself. It is one of the attribute we share with God in order to represent Him as His imagers. It is a means to imaging but not the image itself.

- It was an act of God's love. It was given not out to test us nor cause us to suffer in decision nor to make us fail, not at all. Free will was given first so that we would not be robots. What satisfaction does it give the Creator if His creation does not respond freely?

- Yahweh would rather have free moral creatures who can choose to obey Him because they want to, rather than robots who obey Him because they cannot not obey Him.

- So that we can reciprocate His love, return His love.

Revelation 4:11
Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they [a]existed, and were created.”

- God's act of love towards His creation was an act of His free will. Love and the reciprocation of love can only be meaningful when both are acts of freewill, not by compulsion or forced.

1 John 4:19
We love, because He first loved us.

- Without freewill, 1 John 4:19 would make no sense, we would not be able to reciprocate God love. Love as we know is risky business. There is always a 50/50 chance humankind will fail, but love and forgiveness would have no place if we were not human, for to err is human.

- To love is to give permission for mistakes and the allowance for the recipient to respond freely.

- So that we will grow into Maturity

Proverbs 22:6
Train up a child [a]in the way he should go, Even when he grows older he will not abandon it.

1 Corinthians 10:23-24
All things are permitted, but not all things are of benefit. All things are permitted, but not all things [a]build people up. 24 No one is to seek his own advantage, but rather that of his [b]neighbor.

- Freedom or freewill is willing self-limitation so as not to encroach or violate the free will of one's neighbour.

- Having faith for oneself doesn't mean I can jeopardise the lives of others.

- Genuine free will is never only to act in freedom but also to refrain from acting if one so decides and chooses. If there is a problem with freewill, it is not that God has given us the freewill, it is when we don't use the discernment or wisdom in exercising our freewill.

IV. Did Yahweh then need members of His divine human family to consciously make the choice to disobey just because they could because He could accomplish His purposes? Of course not, the risk of creating image bearers who might freely choose rebellion was something God foresaw, but He did not decree. God's sovereignty ensures that even the folly of seen and unseen beings cannot derail His plan for the Edenic vision.

3. HOW DOES FREEWILL WORK IN RELATION TO GOD'S WILL? - We need to understand first the Foreknowledge and Predestination of God - God's Foreknowledge is His ability to know events before they occur, and Predestination is God's pre-ordaining of such events so that they occur.

V. If God knows all things ahead of time, why doesn't He stop or why doesn't He disallow calamities from happening? eg, auto accidents or a person being at the exact wrong place at the exact wrong time? Why doesn't God intervene in cases like that? Answer: How is the gift of freewill compatible with predestination of God's Foreknowledge if events are already foreordained, how can we still have the free will to decide independantly?

1 samuel 23:10-13
Then David said, “Lord God of Israel, Your servant has heard for certain that Saul is seeking to come to Keilah to destroy the city on my account. 11 Will the citizens of Keilah hand me over to him? Will Saul come down just as Your servant has heard? Lord God of Israel, please, tell Your servant.” And the Lord said, “He will come down.” 12 Then David said, “Will the citizens of Keilah hand me and my men over to Saul?” And the Lord said, “They will hand you over.” 13 Then David and his men, about six hundred, rose up and departed from Keilah, and they went wherever they could go. When it was reported to Saul that David had escaped from Keilah, he gave up [a]the pursuit.

- Israel future king David had been on the run from king Saul, hiding at Keilah whose inhabitants David delivered from the philistine. David appealed to God's foreknowledge (which he did right). God in His foreknowledge answered "Yes" to both questions. God's foreknowledge here did not predestined David to a premature death, it actually helped prevent it. David made plans following God's revelation, the foreknowledge of God did not lock David into his future but gave him insight on which to make better decisions. David was still able to exercise his freewill freely but also wisely and escaped from the clutches of Saul.

Acts 21:10-14
As we were staying there for some days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. 11 And he came to us and took Paul’s belt and bound his own feet and hands, and said, “This is what the Holy Spirit says: ‘In this way the Jews in Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and hand him over to the Gentiles.’” 12 When we had heard this, we as well as the local residents began begging him not to go up to Jerusalem. 13 Then Paul replied, “What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound, but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” 14 And since he would not be persuaded, we became quiet, remarking, “The will of the Lord be done!”

- Paul example is opposite of David's. Here Paul was set to go Jerusalem, despite whatever consequences the spirit of God had revealed. What we've learnt from David and Saul example is Divine foreknowledge does not necessitate divine predestination. David decided to change course, while Paul remained fully on course

- God knows the end, but does He dictate the means? God did not predestined the fall of the divine human beings, although He foreknew it and when it happened, it grieved Him. The risk of bestowing freewill who is His human imagers was the price He would pay in sending His son to redeem us.

VI. Did the rebellion of His divine being derailed God's original plan? No. Because there is another attribute of God. His sovereignty. God's sovereignty means that all outcomes are in His hand.

Genesis 50:20
As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about [a]this present result, to keep many people alive.

Romans 8:28-30
And we know that [a]God [b]causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. 29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters; 30 and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.

- What God has purposed for His loyal believers will come to pass.

- The sovereignty of God is able to encompass all things, whether beneficial, good or otherwise and ensures that in the process, we become more and more like His son Jesus Christ.

Acts 2:22-23
“Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a Man [a]attested to you by God with [b]miracles and wonders and [c]signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know— 23 this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of [d]godless men and put Him to death.

- Jesus trusted God

Hebrews 10:7
Then I said, ‘Behold, I (Jesus) have come (It is written of Me in the scroll of the book) To do Your will, O God.’”

- Freewill is only truly free when we align ourselves to God's will!!

- God's Will = Our Will

Yahweh in His sovereignty is fully in charge of every outcome without the need to control every aspect of human and divine activity.

a. Freewill is a gift from Yahweh for us to represent Him as His imagers.

b. Free will is neutral, how one exercises it depends on one's nature which affects one's character, colours, one's intentions, limits one's choices, and determine one's actions.

c. We are to grow in wisdom and maturity in our decision-making, learning to choose that which is good and loving.

d. God's foreknowledge and predestination do not excuse human responsibility for their choices.

e. God's sovereignty ensures that ultimately His will is done, and that His loyal believers will be conformed to the image of His Son Jesus.

f. Free will is only truly free when we align ourselves to God's will.

Choose Well and choose Wisely because what we do and what we choose matters.