Question: What does the Law of God teach about free will?

Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37.4

This psalm may seem like a kind of cart blanche for getting from God whatever we want.

In fact, it is the key to knowing the true freedom of our wills which is ours through Him Who sets us free (Gal. 5.1).

In the power of God’s Spirit we may learn to delight in the Lord, to have all our strongest and most positive affections directed toward Him – fear, love, hope, longing, anticipation, gladness, and all the rest. As the indwelling Spirit teaches us the things of Christ, He works to convict us of sin, righteousness, and judgment; to bring us into the very presence of God and His glory; to bring forth fruit, gifts, and power for holy living; and to transform us into the image of our Lord Jesus Christ (Jn. 16.8-11; 2 Cor. 3.12-18; Gal. 5.22, 23; 1 Cor. 12.7-11; Acts 1.8).

As this happens, as we increase in Christlikeness, we will know the joy the Lord knows within Himself, because we will be partaking of Him through Jesus Christ (2 Pet. 1.4). The joy of the Lord is full and complete, lacking nothing. The joy of the Lord follows from knowing Him unto righteousness and peace (Rom. 14.17, 18).

And when all our joy is in the Lord, what we will desire will be only more of the same. No lesser distraction or enticement will hold any thrall for us when, our hearts free from the power and persuasion of sin, we are delighting in the Lord at all times. Then we will be free in the Lord, to know the Lord and rejoice in Him, from which condition we will freely choose to obey Him – but only by the power of His indwelling Spirit.

So, do we have “free will”? In Christ, yes; by the power of His Spirit, yes; as we delight in the Lord, yes; and as we walk in His Law of liberty (Jms. 2.12) – emphatically, yes! Not completely, and not perfectly, but truly, and increasingly. If the Son sets us free, we shall be free, indeed!

T. M. Moore

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