The question is, “Does man possess free will or does he not?”

Jesus, in the Psalms, teaches us that the sum of his word is truth.  We cannot take one bit here and one bit there and think that we possess “the truth.”  “He who thinks he knows,” says Paul, “does not yet know as he ought to know.” 

The world cannot hate you; but me it hates, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil. (John 7:7 KJ2000)  Jesus here put his line in the sand.  He directly confronted the religious leaders of his day and judged them hypocrites.  They said and taught one thing and yet did another.  They expected the “laity” to do as they said, but they lifted not a finger to obey the heart of the law they espoused.  And so these leaders accused Jesus of deceiving the people.  They denied the words and works of the Son of God.

But when anyone marveled at his teaching and began to catch a glimmer of the truth therein concealed, he said, “My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.” (John 7:16-17 KJ2000)

“If any man wills to do God’s will….”  Strongs makes it clear that this word translated will above and wills at the beginning of this paragraph denotes making an active choice.  It speaks of aligning our will with God’s will.  When we do that, says Jesus, then we will ultimately know or understand his doctrine, his teaching.

Here, then, lies one term in the equation (sum) of truth.  This is the aspect of man’s responsibility to exercise his own will in his creation.  Without this responsibility the Bible would be meaningless.  Indeed, consider the purpose of the Bible.  Most people seem to believe that its primary purpose lies in “getting people saved,” by which they mean getting people to believe in Jesus.  Surely that is one purpose and one main reason, I believe, why God paid so much attention to historical detail throughout the Old and New Testaments.  As I have taught elsewhere, this aspect deals with the salvation of our spirits through faith in the work of Jesus Christ.

The second great reason for the the Bible’s existence deals with the salvation of the soul.  Remember, the soul is not the spirit.  Our soul consists of our mind, our will, and our emotions.  Most of the Bible actually deals with this aspect of salvation because this is the realm, or jurisdiction, wherein God gives man actual authority and responsibility.  Here we see man’s exercise of his free will.  As others have said in recent comments to The Mark of Elohim we cannot effect or have anything to do with our spirit’s salvation.

The problem is that the commentators seem not to understand the salvation of the soul wherein man indeed bears responsibility and blame.  Go back and read Jesus’ parables about the talents and our responsibility to use them.  If, as the commentators claim, we can only do what Jesus specifically empowers us to do, then wherein is my responsibility?  Do you say that the responsibility comes by our willful acting upon the empowerment, the grace?  Then, I say exactly right, and do not understand why you keep arguing with me.  This willful acting to repent and do righteousness exhibits our free will.