Free Will?

I can across a blog post on free will this week and it reminded me of how I came to conclude that there is no such this as free will. However,  do not mean what most people would think I mean by this.

We all have a will (the capacity to make choices), but acts of the will (our choices) are never free. They are never free of consequences and they are never free of influences.

Every choice (act of will) has at least one consequence, sometimes more than one. Small choices usually have small consequences and big usually big. Sometimes a small choice can lead to a big consequence. A man decides to stay up and watch the late night movie, even though he has an early start in the morning, a small choice. A small consequence could be that the man is extra tired the next day. A big consequence is that the man falls asleep while driving to work, swerves onto the wrong side of the road and has a head with another car and kills a mother driving her kids to school. (of course,  the choice to drive while tried contributed to this consequence) This is an example of a choice leading bad consequences, there can also be good consequences coming from our choices. Whatever the consequence, we are responsible for the choices we make.

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23


We never make any choices free of influence. Every aspect of our lives influence the choices we make, our upbringing, biology, temperament, world view, past choices, friends, family, health, mood, etc etc etc, all play a part. Our choices are never free of influence. I am not saying that we cannot help the choices we make, an influenced choice is still a choice. What is important is that we be as aware as possible of the influences in our lives that lead to bad choices, and work to negate them, so we can make the best possible choice we can.


The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 2 Corinthians 4:4