The above expression is interesting. To some people it is the right, the entitlement, that must be guarded at all costs. Many people are willing to sacrifice God's power, His knowledge, and His freedom to will and act, on the altar of man's free will. Great works have been written on the subject: Martin Luther responded to Erasmus' Diatribe on Free Will with his monumental work, On the Bondage of the Will. Jonathan Edwards produced a masterpiece called The Freedom of the Will. Both of these works are still studied and pondered by serious Bible students today with wonderful results.

Jesus teaches that we have free will. The unbelieving Jewish leaders whom he addressed in John 8 give us a clear example. He told them: "Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire" (John 8:44). These Jews wanted (willed) to carry out their father's (the devil's) desires. They had the freedom of will to choose to do exactly what they wanted to do. Jesus did not deny them that power. However, all the freedom of the will in the world could not change the fact that they belonged to the devil. They could not will themselves out of that predicament, no matter how they chose, because the saving language of Jesus was unclear to them. Jesus made it even more pointed in the 47th verse: "He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God."

Paul's teaching in Romans is exactly in line with what the Lord taught. He writes: "Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God" (Romans 8:5-8). Thus, the question is on what is our mind set? If the mind is set on the flesh, we will willingly and freely choose to serve the sinful nature. We have free will to choose what we want. However, with a mindset of flesh, we cannot (1) submit to God's law nor (2) please God.

What both Jesus and Paul are teaching is not that we lack free will; but that without a new birth of the Spirit which changes our hearts and our very identity, we lack the ability to hear, understand, submit to, or please God. (See also 1 Corinthians 2:14 and John 6:44,65.)