What Freewill Is All About

In the first place, let's make it quite clear that free will does not proceed from our Creator but from the evil one. In the second place, it's unscriptural. Any Bible texts that give the impression that free will is of God must be reinterpreted to avoid contradiction and confusion. In view of this admonition, let us just consider the three scriptures that in my estimation appear to describe the conditional nature of our salvation with the most apparent finality, and whose language may lend itself to misinterpretation:
4) For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, 5) and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6) if they fall away,[b] to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame (Hebrews 4:4-6).
20) For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. 21) For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. 22) But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: “A dog returns to his own vomit,”[e] and, “a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire" (2 Peter 2:20-22).
Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12).
What the above scriptures correctly teach us
There are indeed those who do receive God's gifts, including, first of all, the good Word of God followed by faith together with the capacity to repent and the Holy Spirit, almost all instantly and simultaneously the moment they believed and accepted God's offer of redemption. However, somewhere along their earthly journey, they lost it all. In consequence, they "lost" their salvation, if that is possible. Still, these Bible references are not proof that salvation is "conditional.
What they prove is the exact opposite, as we shall see from the following:
1) To begin with, full salvation is a process that consists of three stages: Justification or forgiveness of sins, sanctification or spiritual growth and glorification, when we will all be transformed from perishable flesh to an immortal body (Phil. 3:20-21). As yet no one has attained full salvation, although not all have lost it. The last stage of salvation will not take place until the Lord's return for the "elect" (see Matthew 24: 31; 1 Thes. 4:13-17; 1 Cor. 15:50-53; Hebrews 9:28). Those who have voluntarily relinquish their salvation are known as "reprobates," or rejected by God and beyond all hope of final salvation. Reprobate is a convenient enough term to designate those who were once rescued by God when they initially received the Lord Jesus Christ as their one and only Savior, but later denied Him.
2) It is impossible for those who fall away (apostatize) to repent anew, for that would invalidate said offer of salvation. Such an impossible occurrence would only amount to crucifying the Son of God all over again in order to restart the whole process of justification and sanctification, which would be a contradiction and an annulment of the Lord's unrepeatable sacrifice (Hebrews 7:27; 9:25-28). For this reason, it would have been better for the reprobate never to have believed and come to the knowledge of the truth.
3) The quoted verses prove that human free will is useless when it comes to the redemption of our souls. Many keep the gifts as long as they are not faced with unsurmountable odds, whatever they may be. It happens all the time. Every one of us has a critical point, at which we can only take so much. As the expression goes, there is a limit to everything. That critical point may be reached when one is a victim of persecution (Matthew 13:21), is betrayed by a spouse (or even by his/her own friends, loved ones, fellow citizens, etc.), is seduced by one of multiple temptations, or when a believer enters into some kind of illicit fellowship with the world (the love of money and power, carnal pursuits, political ambitions, theft, greediness; the list is endless), but most commonly, the act of adultery, and does not repent. All because his/her free will failed him.
Allow me to tell you a story that serves as a classical model of apostasy as generated by our iniquity-prone free will: It is the true story of a married couple, as devout, pious and faithful as any. He was an active leader in his church, a great organizer, a brilliant speaker and effective evangelist. She was an excellent Sunday school teacher and extraordinarily popular for her dynamism, dedication, compassion and charming personality. One day their 5-year old boy and only child was run over by a drunken driver. They adored their son and went berserk when they lost him; they were devastated to the point that they blamed God for allowing that tragedy to come into their lives and destroy everything they cherished. Figuring that everything they did for God to please Him and do His will were a waste of time and effort, they left their church and reacted violently against anything and everything that had to do with Christianity, vowing to do whatever they pleased regardless of the consequences. Their fellow Christians visited them a few times to offer them comfort and persuade them to return to their church to no avail. Eventually they ended their marriage through a scandalous divorce proceeding and both died cursing the name of God.
4) The last verse, rather than proving the conditionality of salvation is more like a warning against the perils that even the chosen of God (also known as saints) face on a daily basis, a reminder that we should never neglect our God-given tools to resist temptation. God does not take away our freedom of choice because we are among His chosen people (1 Peter 2:9). Jesus' warning should always be constantly in our minds: For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if it were possible, even the elect (Matthew 24:24). There have always been false christs and false prophets who would deceive, if they could (but cannot) even those chosen by God Himself. This is, unfortunately for our Arminian fellow believers, the thorny dilemma they have to face when they insist that salvation can be lost. If those who lost it were among the chosen, given the fact that God foreknew their eventual and spontaneous decision for Christ, how can He allow them to lose their salvation after He had already forgiven and chosen them to attain it? Also, please take notice of what the following verse says and to which apparently no one pays attention: 13) for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. As you can see, even the good disposition (attitude, mentality) to obey God is prepared by Him for us. That makes it a lot easier for us to overcome our carnal desires and to fight the evil that is in us by making the right choices instead of satisfying the lusts of the flesh. When we fail, we can always repent with an honest and contrite heart and be restored.
The evil influence of our free will is precisely the reason why not even men of the caliber of Paul and Peter were not perfect. I, for one, have no doubt whatsoever that I will never renounce my faith, but that awareness makes me nowhere near perfect, and all on account of my freedom to choose. On the other hand, my eternal security convinction could very well be a mere pretension or an illusion of mine, if while sinning deliberately, I could still expect such a glorious blessing. Besides, we have no way of knowing which of our brethren are among the elect and which are not, judging only by what we perceive in others (as in the case I have just related). The best we can do is to be thoroughly convinced, individually, that we will never lose our salvation, based, 1) On the promises of God as given to us in His Word; 2) On our degree of intimacy with our Lord (a passion for His word and diligent prayer are probably the most telling evidence of such intimacy); 3) Our own personal experience. That experience will show us that, faithful to His promises, the Lord will never let us get away no matter how hard we try. The Shepherd of our souls will always come after us and bring us back to the fold every time one way or another (John 10:7-16; Luke 15:4-7); 4). He will never let us lose our good disposition toward Him and our fellow men nor our ability to repent, come what may. That is why the apostle sounds the alarm to all, elect (whom only God knows for sure who they are--Rom. 8:29) or not. Romans 8: 31-39 sums it all up quite well:
31) What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32) He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? 33) Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34) Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 35) Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36) As it is written: “ For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”[c]37) Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38) For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39) nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
5) Finally, I have already cited all the scriptures that prove my point in all of my recent writings, and in all of them we are assured that the saints, in spite of their free will, can never lose their salvation. That is how eternal security is usually defined: the perseverance and preservation of the saints for salvation. The lexicologists should have added, by the grace and power of the Almighty. Everything we need to persevere in our faith and preserve our salvation is a gift from God, without which no one could hope to be eternally saved. Unlike others, I cannot altogether say with any degree of certainty that salvation cannot be lost, but I do know for a fact, more than I believe, that the elect, the true saints, chosen by God from eternity and prepared beforehand (just like a soldier who is previously and properly trained to do battle) for good works and to fight our common enemy (see Ephesians 2:10; 6:10-18), the devil and author of our free will, will never lose their heavenly gifts.
22) What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23) and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory, 24) even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles? (Romans 9:22-24).
These last Bible portions show us that God prepared (beforehand) vessels of wrath for destruction and vessels of mercy for glory to make us aware of His power, His almost inexhaustible patience with sinners, and ultimately, of His wrathful rejection of them; and finally, to reveal to us the riches of His glory. That is why He predestined and preserved, not all, but some of us for eternal life, even before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him (Eph. 1:4).
Please read all scriptures I have not quoted verbatim.