How Free Is Our Will ... Really?

God did not consult me before founding the world. I made no decisions to affect the outcome of the first 5,000 years of history. I was not asked, “Into which era of history would you like to be born?” I was not asked, “Into which country, state, and city would you like to be born?” I was not given a choice of families into which to be born. Upon birth, I was not given options regarding my sex, my hair color, my eye color, my nose’s shape, my length, my weight, or even my name. Even for a number of years after my birth, I did not choose my clothing style, my meal items, the house rules, my church, or my school. I don’t tell the sun when to shine, the rain when to fall, lightning where to strike, tornadoes where to go, the snow when to come, earthquakes how big to be, or volcanoes when to erupt.

Any one of the above items can have – has had – a significant impact on my life (and the lives of others). All of them combined have had a VERY GREAT impact on my life. And yet I had no freedom to will any of these greatly-impacting events to happen or to not happen.
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Oh, permit me to add one other (rather personal) item to the above list: I was not even permitted to choose circumcision or no …, not too unlike a Jewish boy before the Incarnation, and yet a good deal different from a Jewish boy before the Incarnation, Because Jewish boys before the Incarnation were expected to carry in their flesh the sign of the covenant which God had made with Abraham (Genesis 17), a covenant that the LORD would be a God unto Abraham, and to his seed after him. “And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God. And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep My covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations” (Genesis 17:8-9). – My parents are not Old Testament Jews, thus they were not motivated by such a requirement regarding my physical status. However, there is an important point here concerning something with the potential for a VERY GREAT impact on one’s life, eternal life at that.

A Jewish boy of 8 days old did not get to choose if he wanted to be included as a member of the people whose God was the LORD, the people who were to “keep God’s covenant therefore, them, and their seed after them in their generations;” thus, the boy did not get to choose whether or not to carry the sign of the covenant between God and His people. In short, this boy did not exercise free will in becoming, what some might call, an “Old Testament Christian.”

Now “if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious” (2 Corinthians 3:11). So if God in the flesh is much more glorious, – if His birth, life, death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and coronation are referred to as “the glory that excelleth” (2 Cor. 3:10), – then how do we explain the rejection of children from receiving the sign of this more glorious covenant (that sign now being water baptism)? In the days of a less glorious covenant, they received it aside from their personal will. (Indeed, what child would have asked for circumcision?) But now, in the time of a more glorious covenant with God, children must wait until they can show that they understand what is happening with baptism. – I’m 36 years old, I’ve read the Bible cover-to-cover numerous times, I’ve experienced baptism, and I’ve witnessed many others; and I still don’t have a full grasp of what baptism is all about. Thanks to God for His grace in accepting me anyway!

I’ve seen a boy ask for baptism from his father, who is also his pastor, and be temporarily put off. The boy thought he was a part of God’s people, but his pastor needs assurance of the boy’s being able to provide somewhat of an adult understanding. Yet “Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, and said, ‘Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.’” – Matthew 18:2-6