“The Bible talks about God holding us accountable on judgment day for whether or not we have received Christ. He certainly wouldn’t insist that we make such a choice if we didn’t have free will, and yet, there are so many passages of scripture which suggest that if God did not first do a work in our hearts with his Holy Spirit, we would never make this choice.
John 6:44 says “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.”
So which is it? Do we have a free will or don’t we?”
It is true that human beings, left to their own devices, would never seek out God. But it is also true that when God reaches down to us through His Spirit, we are free to “abort” that process. We know this is true, because Jesus even gave a name for such refusal. He called it “The Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.” (Matt 12).
The Bible illustrates this phenomenon in John 3:19 “And this is the verdict. Light has come into the world. But men loved the darkness instead of the light because their deeds were evil.”
“Still, if God is drawing us, He gets credit for our decision as well as our salvation. It still seems like there is little, if any, free will involved.”
Imagine a man drowning in an ocean. The Coast Guard comes along and drops a rope ladder for him to grab on to and eventually climb up on. Little do they know, this man is attempting to commit suicide. He has no intention of being rescued, so he rejects the ladder. But then, supposing they put a net around the man against his will and start hauling the net upward toward the helicopter by rotating a connecting wire rope drum? Now, if the man merely sits still, he will be rescued. The Coast Guard and their equipment are doing all the work for him. And yet, if this fellow is still determined to die, he could pull out a pocket knife, cut a hole in the net while he is in mid air headed toward the helicopter, and plunge to his doom. These are the two options. He cooperates with the rescue process by doing absolutely nothing, or he interferes with the process.
According to this multiple choice scenario, who gets one hundred percent credit for the rescue should the man keep the knife in his pocket? The Coast Guard obviously. But if he does cut that hole in the net, who is one hundred percent responsible for his own demise?
In a similar vein, when we are saved, God gets all the credit. But if we reject His influencing Spirit, we get all the blame.
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