The Nature of Man: Free Will

Third Meeting

The Nature of Man


Opening question: Can you force someone to love you? Is it love when you can't choose?

Created in His image (Genesis 1:26-27, 2:7)

Review last week: God is Perfect Love

What is free will?

Webster's Definition: Free- “not subject to the rule or control of another”
Webster's Definition: Will- “a desire to act in a particular way or have a particular thing”
Wordbook Definition: Free will - “the power of making free choices unconstrained by external agencies”

Contrast to slavery (Romans 6:6, 14)

Created to have free will. (Genesis 2:15-17)

Man was born with a free will. In the likeness of God man was made (Genesis 1:26). If we are to be a people in perfect loving unity with God, then we had to be a people of choice. To love requires choice. To love freely, we must be able to choose freely (1John 3:16). Without choice, love would be meaningless.

For freedom we were set free. (Galatians 5:1, 5:13, John 8:31-32, 2Cor 3:17, James 1:25)


An Eternal Soul:

Question: If you could have done something different in your life, what would it be?

As discussed in the first meeting, man's soul is designed to survive eternity and it will never die (John 5:25-32).

Also, everything you do is painted eternally on your soul. Eternity does not forget. There is nothing you will do that will not affect your soul. Your every thought (Matt 5:27-28) and every action eternally paint your soul. Even our words (Matt 12:33-37) are not forgotten in eternity.

In conclusion, we have seen that man has an eternal soul and that our actions eternally paint our soul. We have also seen that each of us has a free will and that without being free, the ability to love is not possible. Together, by God's design, these two features give man the unique ability to live in eternal fellowship with God as He wanted.


Prayer time: Open requests

Remember: Without free will perfect love cannot be.