Most Christians will say without hesitation:
“Of course we have free will!”
But what do they mean?
If “free will” means the ability to choose between wearing a red shirt or a blue one, sure. You make real choices, shaped by your nature, your mind, and your desires. No one’s denying that.
But if “free will” means the ability to choose spiritual good apart from God’s sovereign grace, then the answer is not just no… it’s Scripturally impossible.
“Jesus answered them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin.’”
—John 8:34 (LSB)
“The intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth.”
—Genesis 8:21 (LSB)
“There is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside, together they have become worthless; there is none who does good, there is not even one.”
—Romans 3:11–12 (LSB)
Man is not free in the way modern evangelicals claim. He is in bondage to sin, spiritually dead (Eph. 2:1), and unable to please God (Rom. 8:8). His “choices” are real but they flow from a nature that is hostile to God (Rom. 8:7).
A man dead in sin will always choose sin. Not because God forces him to but because his will is enslaved to darkness.
That’s why Jesus said:
“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him.”
—John 6:44 (LSB)
“You did not choose Me but I chose you.”
—John 15:16 (LSB)
We don’t need our “freedom” preserved. We need it rescued. We need a new heart (Ezek. 36:26). A resurrection. A sovereign, supernatural deliverance from the God who “works all things according to the counsel of His will” (Eph. 1:11).
Biblical salvation is not about free will, it’s about free grace.
Semper Reformanda
Some will object, “But love must be free to be real! If God forces us, it’s not love!”
They may quote Joshua 24:15—
“Choose for yourselves today whom you will serve…”
Or point to Revelation 3:20—
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock…”
But Joshua wasn’t asking idol-worshipers to exercise libertarian freedom. He was confronting a covenant people already claimed by Yahweh. And Revelation 3:20 is not a plea to unbelievers but a rebuke to a lukewarm church.
These texts don’t teach free will. They expose the responsibility of man within the sovereign claim of God.
“So then it does not depend on the one who wills or the one who runs, but on God who has mercy.”
—Romans 9:16 (LSB)
“For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”
—Philippians 2:13 (LSB)
Truth That Withstands
Man is not free in the way the world insists, he is enslaved to sin and dead to God until Christ makes him alive. The will is real, but it is not sovereign. God alone is truly free. And only His grace can set the captive free.