Chris Knight
This is one of those questions Christians have been discussing for centuries. So if it makes your head hurt a little, welcome to the club. There are very intelligent theologians who have written very large books about this, which apparently proves that nobody has figured out how to explain it in 600 words of less.
From a Wesleyan-Arminian perspective, I believe God is completely sovereign and completely omniscient, while also giving us a genuine ability to respond to Him. God knowing what I will choose is not the same as God making the choice for me.
Think about knowing someone you love really well. After enough years of marriage, I can sometimes predict what my wife is going to say before she says it. That does not mean I made her say it. (Pro tip for husbands) Pointing out that you knew what your wife was going to say beforehand rarely improves the conversation.
God’s knowledge obviously goes infinitely beyond ours. He does not make educated guesses about tomorrow. He knows everything perfectly. Yet Scripture consistently treats our choices as meaningful. Joshua told Israel, “Choose today whom you will serve” (Joshua 24:15, NLT). Jesus looked over Jerusalem and said He wanted to gather its people to Himself, “but you wouldn’t let me” (Matthew 23:37, NLT). Those passages sound like real invitations involving real responses.
Wesleyan theology helps us understand this through what is called prevenient grace. That simply means God’s grace comes before our response. Because sin has affected every part of us, we do not naturally wander toward God on our own. God takes the initiative. He seeks us, draws us, convicts us and graciously enables us to respond. His grace makes our response possible without making it mandatory.
Free will does not mean we have unlimited freedom. I cannot wake up tomorrow and freely choose to be 25 again. Believe me, there are mornings when my knees and I have discussed the possibility. We have gotten nowhere.
There is some mystery here and I am comfortable admitting that. Scripture seems perfectly comfortable holding two truths together. God is sovereign and our choices genuinely matter. We do not have to make God smaller to make human responsibility real and we do not have to turn people into spiritual robots to keep God sovereign.
That makes this more than a theological debate. If our response really matters, then when God calls, we should respond. When the Holy Spirit convicts us, we repent. When He leads us, we follow. When Jesus says, “Come, follow me” (Matthew 4:19, NLT), we have a decision to make.
God is sovereign enough to remain completely in control while allowing us to genuinely choose whether we will trust and follow Him. The question, then, is not simply whether our will is free. The more personal question is this. What are we doing with the freedom His grace has given us?