What is Biblical Free Will
One of the most important ideas a person can hold, and one that I have researched more than any other, is the way one understands the reality of human free will. It seems intuitive. We make choices, and if we are not coerced in some way, those choices are free. But, surprisingly, this is not as cut-and-dried as it appears to be. For most of human history, philosophers have adopted one prominent view of human freedom, and the church has largely followed suit. The problem is, this widely held definition of freedom is philosophical self-defeating and, what’s worse, unbiblical.
Before we address this false view, I will posit a biblically constructed understanding of free will. Scripture is clear that we make our choices from our hearts. Evil actions come from an evil heart and good actions come from a good heart (Luke 6:45, see also Matt 7:17-20; 12:34-35). Those who chose to give freewill offerings in Israel we moved by their heart to do so (Ex 35:22-23, 29). God judges our hearts, and we are to repent for our evil heart postures before God (Acts 8:20-22). Moral culpability before God lies in the intentions of the heart (Prov 16:2, 1 Sam 16:7, Jer 17:10, Num 35:22-23, Ex 21:12-14). It was also the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart that caused his free choice to not let the Hebrews go (and it was the softening of the Egyptians’ hearts that caused their free choice to relinquish their treasures to the departing Hebrews).
It is also in the story of Pharaoh that we see an important point that is often missed when discussing the Bible’s understanding of free will. This is the realization that the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart is seen to be important. In other words, if Pharaoh’s heart didn’t directly and sufficiently cause his free choices (for which he was held morally responsible) to keep the Israelites as slaves, then it wouldn’t be a big deal that his heart was hardened. If he had the internal ability (what Jonathan Edwards would later call the “moral ability”) to choose against his heart, then his heart being hardened would hardly be relevant. However, the Scriptures are clear and very much emphasize the fact that Pharaoh’s heart was hardened. It doesn’t even much matter for this conversation who did the hardening. That his heart was hardened, and that this (inevitably) caused his choices is all that matters.
In the end, the biblical understanding of free will must be one that places the heart at the center. My best stab at a definition at the current time is this: One is (biblically) free in their choices if they are able to choose according to their heart. One would only choose against their heart if they were externally coerced to do so. Moreover, in the Bible, it is assumed that one will (one might say must) choose according to their heart. To say otherwise would negate everything the Bible says about our motives, spirits, desires, and character.
Coincidentally, this is also the understanding the Bible gives of God’s free will. God always does as he pleases. Can God sin? The Bible is clear that he cannot. But why? Because it would contradict his character, his heart. He would never want to sin. Such determinative character is consistent with God’s having free will. And so it is with us.
The Popular and False View of Freedom
So what is this popular and false view of freedom? It’s academic name is “libertarian freedom". It’s claim is simple: One is free if and only if one has the power and (internal) ability to choose to do otherwise. In a given circumstance, if one makes a choice to do “A”, then in the exact same circumstances, they could just as easily have chosen to do “not A.”
To see how this is different than the biblical definition above, image a child desperately does not want to kill their mother. Suppose this is a deep desire of their heart (one that hopefully we can all identify with). During a sweet, intimate moment with their mother, they decide to hug their mother. If libertarian free will is true, then, given the exact same sweet, intimate moment, the child instead chooses to murder their mother. This is what libertarian free will says must be possible.
I use such a hyperbolic example to show the main philosophical problem with this understanding of freedom. Libertarian freedom cannot explain how motives or heart posture cause free choices. Indeed, one must function as a totally indifferent internal agent at all times for this type of freedom to be true. While desires or one’s heart may influence a libertarian choice, they cannot necessitate it. But then, what actually causes our choices? That question must have a vacuous non-answer for libertarian freedom to be true. Indeed, as soon as one posits an answer to that question, that is, as soon as one starts to give a sufficient reason for a choice, it ceases to be a free choice in the libertarian sense. The only answer is “no reason.” And this simply philosophically unacceptable.
Jonathan Edwards writes a masterful work entitled “The Freedom of the Will” in which he methodically and exhaustively shows the philosophical impossibility to libertarian freedom. I cannot due justice to all of his arguments here. However, to my knowledge, no one has ever successfully refuted his arguements.
More damaging that the philosophcial impossibility of libertarian freedom is the fact that it is foreign to Scripture. In fact, in the one instance where libertarian freedom would have suited the biblical authors if it were true, it is no where to be seen. When Paul offers the problem of evil and why some people are lost when others aren’t, he certainly could have offered people’s ability to choose against God in a libertarian way (this is the libertarian answer to the problem of evil, one which I reject). Instead, Paul’s argument goes as follows:
What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means! For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it depends not on human will or exertion,[b] but on God, who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.
You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?”
At no point does Paul even hint that some are lost, or that evil exists, because God gave man some sort of libertarian free will. Rather, God is shown to be sovereign, and man is shown to be responsible for their own evil, which, as Luke 6 makes clear, is a direct product of our hearts.