Free Will? If there is no choice, then there is no faith needed.How interesting is it that the scholarly ones were those who rejected Christ, yet a woman with a condition that had tortured her for 12 years reached out and touched Christ. He turned to her and said: “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.” Luke 8:48I follow the Scriptures, which teach that God gave man a choice. To follow Christ or reject Him. How that all works is not my problem. My task, commanded by Jesus Himself, is to go and tell the world what God did for them, leaving the choice to them.
From the beginning, the very reason for the tree in the middle of the garden was to give God’s incredible creation, one in His Own image…a “choice” to exercise that quality that only humans have. A free will to obey or disobey God. God could make all the robots He wants. Only obedience, no choice.
However, with man, He gifted us with a will that could choose to obey or not. He gave us the channel for that will, called faith. From Genesis to Revelation, there are countless examples of humans using that channel for success or experiencing failure because they chose not to believe.
Obviously, it was not her “faith” that healed her, it was Christ! But her faith was the channel that Christ used to allow His power to do so.
If you remove choice from humans concerning eternal destination, then you end up with this clear truth: If God set up salvation in a way that man has nothing to do with it – including a choice – then God not only chooses all that go to heaven, but He also chooses all that go to hell. You cannot have it both ways.
When I engage with “five-pointers” who have led themselves to believe they have solved the “Mystery” of salvation because they treated another fallen man’s theory as inspired, yet when it comes to going to "hell," then it is blamed on man's free will.
The So What: Man’s theories are exactly that - theories! The Word states that God chooses, man makes a choice, and once in the family, forever in the family. Here is how I process “election”: When I meet someone who tells me they have no relationship with Christ, then they are not elected…Yet!