jenniferalicechandler

God respects free will. He made us in His image. He made us into beings capable of choice. Free will is not the same as the human inclination towards sin. Free will is our capacity to make choices, our ability to choose God. Rejecting sin is not the same as rejecting a person. Sin is like a disease that’s killing us. Jesus restored and restores our ability to withstand our sinful nature and to choose God over sin with His sacrifice. He is the Good Shepherd who leads His sheep and rescues the lost sheep.

We lost our free will when we listened to Satan and rebelled against God. We then became slaves to our sin. When God granted us free will it wasn’t with the intent for us to use our free will to choose sin. We didn’t have sin when human beings were created by Him. Satan, as an external influencer, induced us to sin. We are like addicts, constantly drawn to various sins and oftentimes we use our free will to choose to give in to temptation and reject God.

Satan wants us to return to being slaves to our addiction to sin, to strip us of our free will, to make us mindless automatons incapable of real choice. He wants us to be condemned as he condemned himself when he rebelled against God. Satan is not our friend, and he doesn’t respect our free will.