The ability to make decisions without being coerced by external forces. Scripture stresses that people are confronted with free choices between good and evil and commands them to choose good. However, it also notes that limitations are placed upon human actions through the enslaving power of sin.
Freedom of the will
Freedom of the will to choose between good and evil
Deuteronomy 11:26–28 See also Deuteronomy 30:15–16, Deuteronomy 30:19; Joshua 24:15; 1 Chronicles 28:9; Jeremiah 26:3; Ezekiel 18:21–23
See, today I am setting before you a blessing and a curse — a blessing if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I am giving you today, but a curse if you disobey the commandments of the LORD your God and turn aside from the path I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known.
Freedom of the will to seek and find God
Isaiah 55:6 See also Amos 5:4; Acts 2:21; Romans 10:11; Isaiah 28:16; Revelation 22:17
Seek the LORD while He may be found; call on Him while He is near.
The effect of sin upon freedom of the will
Sin prevents human beings from breaking free from its bondage
Romans 7:14–20 See also Romans 6:16, Romans 6:22, Romans 7:25 Paul stresses that it is only through Jesus Christ that human beings can be freed from servitude to sin.
We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do. But what I hate, I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I admit that the law is good. In that case, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh; for I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do. Instead, I keep on doing the evil I do not want to do. And if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
Sin hardens human hearts
Hebrews 3:13 See also Daniel 5:20; Romans 1:21; Ephesians 4:17–19
But exhort one another daily, as long as it is called today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.
God hardens human hearts
Exodus 9:12 See also Exodus 4:21, Exodus 10:20, Exodus 14:4, Exodus 14:8; Deuteronomy 2:30; Joshua 11:19–20; Romans 1:22–24, Romans 9:17–18
But the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he would not listen to them, just as the LORD had said to Moses.
Human beings harden their own hearts
1 Samuel 6:6 See also Exodus 8:15, Exodus 8:32; Psalm 95:8; Proverbs 28:14; Hebrews 3:8, Hebrews 3:15, Hebrews 4:7
Why harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened theirs? When He afflicted them, did they not send the people out so they could go on their way?
Related themes
Dictionary of Bible Themes © 1999 Martin Manser, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, via Bible Aquifer. Formatted for this site, with Scripture from the Berean Standard Bible.