Can We Really Exercise Free Will?

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HeIsHere said:
Yes agree, it is not about free will (philosophy and neuroscience) per se, but about being born with the "ability" to respond positively to the Gospel message, this is really the crux of the matter.
The ability to exercise faith in Christ Jesus because of the inherent power and truth of the Gospel message.
Saving faith is not a gift

Monergists argue if faith is not a gift then it is meritorious (a work) and they are wrong. They make faith to be something that earns, or merits to us the grace of God and herein lies their error. As well, faith is not the object which is where they err.
They say that saving faith is something good therefore it must come from God, again they are adding an attribute to saving faith that scripture does not.
It is quite clear that Faith in and of itself has no value, no merit.
The value of faith is in the object of the saving faith.

Christ Jesus is the object of faith.

Faith exercised in Christ Jesus actually cancels out boasting because it acknowledges there is nothing we can add to the "Paid in Full."

Monergists cannot see this because their brains are wired to the false interpretations of scripture they have accepted.

16 For this reason it is by faith, in order that it may be in accordance with grace, so that the promise will be guaranteed to all the descendants, not only to those who are of the Law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, - Romans 4:16

They read in the "gifted" faith even though it is not there.
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Evidently faith is the antithesis of boasting......

Rom 3:27
Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.
 
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lrs68 said:
Choosing Life wasn't part of the Law or Commandments that were designed to show why we need God. Choosing Life is choosing Life over Death and that is within everyone's ability to do.
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We are told how to live a life that is pleasing to God. Yet many times we fail, because we are fallen creatures. But, when we are told to choose life rather than death, FWers tell us that [God would not ask us to do something that we are unable to do].
The sad fact is that we ARE UNABLE to do this without being brought to newness of life!
And that, my friend, is a work of God.
 
BillyBob said:
Why are we told to do what is right with God, yet we continue to sin?
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Here you go!



If we confess/acknowledge to self our sins, he is faithful and just
and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

1 John 1:9​


When we sin?
We cause a short circuit in our filling of the Spirit.

1 John 1:9 is the circuit breaker!

We are to use it as often as necessary to get us back into fellowship with God, so He can keep us growing forward in grace and truth.

When saved, we are still stuck in a state of being that sinning (mentally) will happen, like someone cutting us off in traffic.
1 John 1:9 is presenting the blood of a sin offering. We are to accept God's forgiveness and realize he purifies us of that wrongdoing.
Walking in guilt is like a cancer to the spiritual life.

But, you must find yourself an excellent pastor teacher to mature!
The Bible is not written in such a way that it becomes the ultimate self-help book.
A good pastor will clarify what you can not understand while reading it for yourself.

Don't think such teachers are easy to find.
For we must be led by grace to find one.
Pride will gut it out and never learning what is needed to rest from self-determination and plugging.
 
Jordon said:
There is much to say about this, as many suggestions have been made aware already on as to why and how people can respond.

And how there able to respond, I've heard many view points, some that at first require a good old study.

But for the unsaved person its no doubt a bigger battle to overcome sin, but scripture does make reference that even cain had it within him to rule over sin.

What is it that can cause the natural man to do the right thing is very much widely debated. But it's clear all tho Adam and eve fell in the garden, God did not abandon them completely, and continued to communicate with them and then there children and there children,

However there could me many reasons that could work together also, one being mankind is born with the knowledge of Good and evil, or that God in time of nurturing all new children when there born, are given some kind of enabling to respond.

Some beliefs I've read that the commandments being written on stone tablet also represents the foundations of the earth including the earthly heart of stone, I'm not so sure about that belief myself, and I'm more inclined to believe a unique relationship takes place between newborns and God through out there upbringing with some kind of enabling.

But by the looks of this belief, has been around the block here many times, and it won't even be acknowledged by some people here.

Which when you think about it, when it's not even acknowledged, all it's really doing is leaving God out, .as I see the reasons it's not accepted including ideas like it's all about me and what I can do.

A foolish thought and really a prideful one from some people, but not all people.
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God is never left out, it is His plan of salvation and salvation is the gift which He accomplished completely on our behalf.
 
studier said:
Elaborate, please.
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I don't have time right now.i was just heading out when I saw this , I'm just coming of night shifts work and starting day shift work tomorrow.

So I'm really busy now but I will soon.

Bye for now
 
studier said:
If you see God's will as being free - free will - then how is free will undefined?
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God does not have a sin nature. He is not inclined to sin as humans are. Surely you have some understanding of this? Yes? No?

Ah, but you are up to playing your favourite hypocritical game of semantics. I hope Jordon avoids that trap with you.
 
rogerg said:
Rufus, do I misunderstand you, or are you saying you believe there are prerequisites to receiving God's grace besides that someone had been chosen for it?
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Yes, I am saying that! It's quite the paradox, isn't it? :)

Scripture is quite clear, explicit and specific on this matter. God opposes the proud (man's natural, evil disposition of the heart) but gives grace to the humble (Jas 4:6; 1Pet 5:5) which supernaturally flows from God's gift of the Fear of the Lord (Prov 15:33). Even God's elect do not come into this world in a state of humility! So, how do they wind up being gifted with God's precious grace? Jesus Christ is how because he was the paragon of humility. So, as the elect's Federal Head, God's grace comes to them through their perfect Representative. All that the elect have comes through their Federal Head. Therefore, Christ, in this sense, is the prerequisite to his Father's grace. All that the Father has chosen in eternity and given his grace to (again, in eternity) are the humble ones based entirely on Christ's merits. While election from a horizontal standpoint is unconditional, another paradox is that it's also conditional in a vertical sense since all grace is conditioned solely on the merits of Christ's perfect, holy, righteous life and work of atonement.

Does this make sense to you?
 
studier said:
If you see God's will as being free - free will - then how is free will undefined?
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Human free will is not defined correctly and any will we may have is limited Gods will is defined correctly and its free.

Bye for now
 
Then there is the absurd argument receiving a gift is a work. The discussion is somewhere around here too! :rolleyes:

Faith.JPG
 
Weird. Oh, well, my position is that if God gives you something, you have it.

And of course, faith is a gift even though that is denied by some in the FW crowd.

Like HeIsHere, who contradicts and denies quite a bit of Scripture, actually.
 
HeIsHere said:
Yes agree, it is not about free will (philosophy and neuroscience) per se, but about being born with the "ability" to respond positively to the Gospel message, this is really the crux of the matter.
Click to expand...

Then it seems like the definition or at least the parameters of "free" are simple to establish and the expanded philosophical and neurological noise is just to maintain desired confusion and argument.

Those who seem to value maintaining the confusion seem to me to be like those who value functioning in the darkness.
 
Jordon said:
I've explained already the only will that I see being free is God's 😊
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As I have been suspecting.

Some apparently see free will as needing to be omniscient and omnipotent.
God has given us our own domain to reign in.
One which we are to exercise free will. Not in His domain.


So God created mankind in his own image,​
in the image of God he created them;​
male and female he created them.​
​
God blessed them and said to them, ​
“Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. ​
Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every ​
living creature that moves on the ground.”​
​
Genesis 1:27-28​

That requires free will to accomplish, according to what has been granted to man to exercise it.

.......
 
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