What is free will?
Short answer
Free will is the capacity to choose between paths and to answer for one’s own choices — something the Bible assumes every time it commands choosing, obeying or repenting. What Christians debate is not whether the choice exists, but how much it weighs against a grace that Scripture describes as coming first.
- Written by
- Maria Luisa Navarro Schmitt
- Reviewed by
- Raphael Navarro Schmitt
- Published on
- Reading time
- 7 min read
Like "original sin", the expression "free will" is not in the Bible. It comes from philosophy and entered Christian theology to name something the biblical texts do not define but assume throughout: every time an imperative appears — choose, obey, repent, come — it is presupposed that the one addressed can do it or not do it. To discuss free will is to discuss the reach of that presupposition, not its existence.
One family of texts puts the human decision in the foreground almost brutally. Moses sets life and death before the people and commands them to choose. Joshua does the same before Israel, with the competing gods named one by one. The last chapter of Revelation closes the Bible with an open invitation to whoever is willing. And James cuts off at the root any attempt to outsource responsibility: temptation does not come from God, it comes from each person’s own desire.
Another family of texts points the opposite way with equal firmness. In the Gospel of John, Jesus states that nobody is able to come to him unless drawn by the Father. Paul declares that the outcome rests neither on the one who chooses nor on the one who excels, but on divine mercy, and writes to the Ephesians that faith itself is a gift, not an achievement. Ignoring those passages to preserve human freedom is as dishonest as ignoring the earlier ones to preserve divine sovereignty.
There is one passage that puts both things in the same breath, and it is the best portrait of the problem. In Philippians 2, Paul commands the readers to work toward their own salvation, and picks a formula of gravity for it — fear and trembling. In the next sentence he gives as the reason the fact that it is God who produces in them both the choosing and the acting. The text does not resolve the tension: it states it, and uses one side as the ground of the other. Any system that gets too comfortable here has probably amputated half the sentence.
It is worth recording a fact that changes the landscape depending on which Bible you hold. The most explicit text about human freedom in all of Scripture is in Sirach, which says that God handed the human being over to his own deliberation and set opposing options in front of him, to be reached for at will. The book is one of the deuterocanonical writings: it is in Catholic Bibles and absent from most Protestant editions. Part of the difference of emphasis between the traditions starts there, before any argument.
Two caricatures get in the way of the conversation and are worth disarming. The first is that whoever defends divine sovereignty is saying people are puppets without responsibility — no Christian tradition teaches that, and all of them keep judgment and personal responsibility. The second is that whoever defends human freedom is saying a person saves themselves — also no: in every reading grace comes first, and salvation is not earned. The real discussion is narrower and more interesting than either of those versions.
Finally, the question usually sitting underneath this question. Whoever arrives here often wants to know whether what they do matters, or whether everything is already decided in advance. On that point the three readings say the same thing, and it is the practical part: the invitation described in the texts is sincere, the door is presented as open, and no Christian tradition teaches that someone who wants to draw near to God will be turned away. Wanting to come is, in every reading, already a good sign.
What the passages say
19I call heaven and earth as witnesses this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore, choose life, so that both you and your offspring may live,
The most direct imperative in the Bible about choosing. Moses calls heaven and earth as witnesses, sets out two alternatives and orders the decision. Whatever reading is adopted afterwards, the shape of the text is that of someone speaking to people who can decide.
15But if it seems evil to you that you would serve the Lord, a choice is given to you. Choose today what pleases you, and whom you ought to serve above all else, either the gods that your fathers served in Mesopotamia, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you live: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
The same structure, now with the competitors named: the gods of the ancestors and those of the Amorites. The detail that usually slips by is that Joshua makes his own choice out loud, which turns the invitation into an example rather than a demand.
14God established man from the beginning, and he left him in the hand of his own counsel.
15He added his commandments and precepts.
16If you choose to keep the commandments, and if, having chosen them, you fulfill them with perpetual fidelity, they will preserve you.
17He has set water and fire before you. Extend your hand to whichever one you would choose.
The most explicit text about human freedom in all of Scripture, with the image of two opposed elements placed in front of a person, to be reached for at will. It belongs to the deuterocanonical books: it is in Catholic Bibles and missing from most Protestant ones, which already explains part of the difference of emphasis between the traditions.
44No one is able to come to me, unless the Father, who has sent me, has drawn him. And I will raise him up on the last day.
The claim that pulls the rope the other way, and it comes from Jesus himself: the approach does not start with the person. Whoever holds that grace precedes and enables every decision begins here, and rightly — the verb of the verse indicates being drawn, not deciding.
16Therefore, it is not based on those who choose, nor on those who excel, but on God who takes pity.
Paul discards, in the same sentence, both willing and striving as decisive factors, and attributes the outcome to mercy. It is the hardest passage for any reading that makes the human choice weigh too much, and there is no easy way around it.
8For by grace, you have been saved through faith. And this is not of yourselves, for it is a gift of God.
9And this is not of works, so that no one may glory.
Salvation described as a gift received, with merit explicitly excluded. The disputed point is grammatical: what exactly is being called the gift — the salvation, the faith, or the whole. The answer to that small question moves a lot of large things.
12And so, my most beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but even more so now in my absence: work toward your salvation with fear and trembling.
13For it is God who works in you, both so as to choose, and so as to act, in accord with his good will.
The two claims in a single breath: a command to act, followed by the reason, which is God producing inside the person both the choosing and the acting. Paul uses one side as the ground of the other instead of choosing between them. It is the best biblical summary of the problem.
13No one should say, when he is tempted, that he was tempted by God. For God does not entice toward evils, and he himself tempts no one.
14Yet truly, each one is tempted by his own desires, having been enticed and drawn away.
It closes the door on holding God responsible for the evil people do: temptation is born of a person’s own desires. It is also the supporting text for the commonest Christian answer to the problem of suffering caused by human choices.
17And the Spirit and the Bride say: “Draw near.” And whoever hears, let him say: “Draw near.” And whoever thirsts, let him draw near. And whoever is willing, let him accept the water of life, freely.
The Bible ends with an invitation addressed to whoever thirsts and whoever is willing, with no prior condition. It counts less as a technical argument and more as tone: any reading about freedom and grace has to fit inside a last page that invites rather than filters.