This is something I’ve thought about before.
If God already knows the choices people will make, why do you think free will is still so important throughout Scripture?
Curious how others understand this.
I’ve thought a lot about this too. And the question that really blows my mind is…we have free will…But, God knows what will be…So, then, if our fates are predetermined, do we really have free will?
God’s foreknowledge does not negate human responsibility in Scripture. The biblical writers consistently present both truths simultaneously: God knows the end from the beginning, yet man is still commanded to choose, obey, repent, believe, and love. Divine omniscience is never treated as a denial of moral accountability.
Scripture repeatedly speaks in imperatives, which assumes meaningful human action. Moses says, “I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life” (Deut. 30:19 ESV). Joshua declares, “choose this day whom you will serve” (Josh. 24:15). Jesus commands people to repent and believe the gospel (Mark 1:15). These are not presented as theatrical commands, but as real obligations addressed to moral creatures.
God’s knowledge of future events is not the same thing as coercing those events. Knowing an action beforehand does not necessarily mean causing it in a forced sense. In Scripture, God can sovereignly ordain history while humans still act according to their own desires, intentions, and wills. A classic example is Joseph’s statement to his brothers: “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good” (Gen. 50:20). The same act involved genuine human intention and divine providence simultaneously.
The crucifixion itself is presented this way. Acts 2:23 says Jesus was “delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God,” yet Peter still says, “you crucified and killed” Him. God’s decree and human culpability coexist without contradiction in the biblical text.
Free will, or more precisely human volition and moral agency, remains important throughout Scripture because love, obedience, judgment, repentance, and faith are all covenantal realities involving the heart and will of man. God judges people for what they willingly do (Rom. 2:6–8), not for actions committed mechanically apart from desire or intention.
From a Reformed perspective, man’s will is real but fallen. Humans freely choose according to their nature and desires, yet apart from grace they are enslaved to sin (John 8:34; Rom. 8:7–8). Therefore Scripture emphasizes both man’s responsibility and God’s sovereign grace. Salvation is ultimately of the Lord, yet sinners are still genuinely called to repent and believe.
So in the biblical framework, God’s exhaustive foreknowledge does not make human choices meaningless. Rather, Scripture treats human decisions as the very means through which God accomplishes His sovereign purposes in history.
J.
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My understanding of this is, Earth is God’s University of Love. Where He is teaching us about love and how to love. So it seems to me that one can not learn about love unless they do have free will. One can not Love another without free will. So it was necessary for God to give us free will.
I see it this way. If I tell you I have a reservation at a restaurant tonight at 7:30, you know where I will be at that time, but it wasn’t something you ordained. I made the decision and you know about it.
God, being outside of time, sees the decisions all men will make before they are made. It isn’t that He’s caused us to make those decisions. He just knows what our decision will be and we are held responsible for that decision.
It’s helpful to me to frame this mind-bending question this way. Perhaps it will make sense to others, too:
I believe humans are made in God’s image, so I, as a human, do not want my children or spouse or friends to love me and be in a relationship with me because they have to or because I somehow forced or coerced them; I want them to choose to be one of my people.
I think the same is true of God and his nature. He gave us freewill because there is no other way we could truly love him and have a true relationship with him as his sons and daughters. He desires our hearts, not just our submission or cooperation.
Bestill,
re: “I see it this way. If I tell you I have a reservation at a restaurant tonight at 7:30, you know where I will be at that time…”
Actually, I don’t, I only know when you say you will be somewhere. I don’t know that when the time comes that you will actually be there. You could change your mind, get in an accident, have an emergency, etc.
Does the supreme being has any input into the creation of a person, and if so, does He know before He creates the person that He will eventually be casting the person into the lake of fire? And if so, why do you suppose He goes ahead and creates the person anyway?
I was asked to debate this question at an Arminian school several years ago with the head of the New Testament department. When he quoted John 6:44, I mentioned to him that the Greek verb translated “draw” in this verse is the same verb that is used in the book of Acts when some men in Philippi dragged Paul and Silas before the authorities for casting an evil spirit out of their slave girl (Acts 16:19). Those men did not try to entice them to come before the magistrates; they compelled them to come. The professor interrupted: “But there are references in the Greek poet Euripides (or somebody) where this same verb refers to drawing water out of a well.” Smiling to the audience, he asked, “And Dr. Sproul, does anybody compel water to come out of a well?” Everybody laughed, and I responded, “How do you get water from a well? Do you stand at the top of the well and call, ‘Here, water, water, water’? Or is that water dead in the pit and absolutely inert unless you lower the bucket into the water and you drag it up to the surface?”
Jesus’ point in John 6:44 is that people cannot come to him unless they are compelled to come by the Father—unless God drags them. If you are in Christ, that is exactly how you came to Christ. The Holy Spirit dragged you there. He did not drag you kicking and screaming against your will, because he had changed your will before you came. Had he not changed the disposition of your heart, had he not put into your heart a desire for Christ, you would still be a stranger and an alien to the kingdom of God, because your will, while free from coercion, is still in bondage to sin. That will that you think is so free is, in fact, a slave imprisoned to yourself. You are your own slaveholder. Your will is enslaved to your dispositions, to your desires, which, the Bible says, are wicked continually, prior to conversion.
That sounds like determinism. B.F. Skinner, in his book Beyond Freedom and Dignity, argued that human decisions are the result of materialistic determinism. He claimed that people have no control over their destiny and no real freedom, because their decisions are determined by the physical forces around and within. I am saying that you do have freedom in the sense that you have the capacity to do what you want to do, but that you are also subject to a kind of determinism, which we call self-determination.
Self-determination is virtually synonymous with freedom or liberty. To be self-determined means that you are not forced or coerced to do something against your will; you are able to do what you want to do; you determine your destiny and make your choices, so it is the self that determines the will. But the problem is that the self is fallen and spiritually dead. It gives us desires and inclinations that are sinful. If we accordingly make sinful decisions, they may be made freely (from coercion), but they are still made in bondage to sin. Therefore, the capacity to make our own decisions does not give us the liberty we need.
Sec. 4. When God converts a sinner, and translates him into the state of grace, He freeth him from his natural bondage under sin; and, by His grace alone, enables him freely to will and to do that which is spiritually good; yet so, as that by reason of his remaining corruption, he doth not perfectly, nor only, will that which is good, but doth also will that which is evil.
Sec. 5. The will of man is made perfectly and immutably free to do good alone in the state of glory only.
https://www.monergism.com/free-will
John Calvin and later Reformed thinkers like Francis Turretin and Jonathan Edwards grounded this view in Scripture and classical Christology.
For example, Jesus Christ had a true human will, yet He could not sin (impeccability) and could not act contrary to the Father’s plan, yet He acted freely and willingly. This serves as the supreme biblical example that freedom and necessity are compatible.
Key Biblical Arguments
Reformed theology points to several scriptural themes:
The bondage of the will to sin: Apart from grace, fallen humans are “dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1), “slaves to sin” (John 8:34; Romans 6:16-17), and unable to come to Christ unless the Father draws them (John 6:44). The will is not eliminated, but it is bound by a sinful nature so that people “will only evil” until God regenerates them.
Necessity without compulsion: Calvin distinguished between “necessity” and “compulsion.” Just as God necessarily does good because of His nature (yet freely), and the devil necessarily does evil because of his fallen nature (yet voluntarily), so fallen humans sin necessarily but not under external force. Their wills are inclined toward evil by nature.
Objections and Counter-Arguments
Some non-Reformed scholars argue that Scripture explicitly teaches free will in the sense of voluntary, self-determined choice. They cite terms like “freewill offering” (Hebrew nedabah, used 26 times in the OT), and NT passages where people act “of their own accord” (2 Corinthians 8:3, 17; Philemon 14) or “as he has decided in his heart” (2 Corinthians 9:7). They argue that these texts show humans making genuine, non-compelled decisions that are not exhaustively determined by God.
Summary
In Reformed theology, Scripture teaches that:
Humans have a will and make real, morally accountable choices.
Fallen humans are spiritually unable to choose God apart from sovereign, efficacious grace.
God’s eternal decree and human responsibility are both true, held together as a biblical “antinomy” or paradox rather than resolved by philosophical speculation.
True freedom is compatible with God’s sovereign determination, as perfectly exemplified in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
J.
It’s an illustration to explain how our free will and God knowing what we will do fit in together. It’s not a perfect illustration because I don’t think that’s possible. The point was that we make our decisions and are responsible for our decisions and God knows beforehand what decision we will make.
Besttill,
re: “The point was that we make our decisions and are responsible for our decisions and God knows beforehand what decision we will make.”
But, does the He have any input into the creation of a person, and if so, does He know before He creates the person that He will eventually be casting the person into the lake of fire? And if so, why do you suppose He goes ahead and creates the person anyway?
God created Adam and Eve and then told them to go and multiply. Procreation. All of Adam’s offspring and down the line were in his fallen image.
“When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth.” Genesis 5:3
Only Adam and Eve were created by God as were the first animals. He gave us all the responsibility for bringing forth young.
We see references to Judas in the Old Testament and how he would betray Jesus. Since God lives in eternity and see the past, present and future, then yes, He is able to see who will say yes to Jesus and who will refuse. For God’s purpose and agency, He knows Satan is the god of this age and lets it be so. I don’t think we’ll know His full purpose until the day we’re with Him, but I believe it has something to do with our own agency. Our ability to choose and our desire to choose Him is very important to God.
We can only understand what we’ve been given. Now we see in part, but then face to face. Some things we just accept without fully understanding it and we do so because He said so.