BiblicalInsights.net

If there is no free-will, then, there is no love.  God created human beings with the power of volition.  This is one aspect of being created in the image of God.  God acts freely.  He created human beings so that they can act freely as well.  One of the best ways to know that human beings have free-will is that we intuitively know that we are making choices.  These choices are conscious, volitional,  choices.  Each person is an eyewitness to the fact of volitional power.  To overthrow this vast amount of eyewitness testimony would take a tremendous amount of counter proofs.  Another way that we can know that we have free-will is that God holds human beings accountable for their words and actions.  “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things doe in his body according to that he hath done, whether it be good or evil” (II Cor. 5:10).  “But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasures up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; Who will render to every man according to his deeds” (Rom. 2:5-6).  The justice of God demands free-will on the part of man. How could God be just when He punishes someone for something that they had no control over or personal responsibility for.  Free-will is also a part of our own justice system in the United States.  In 1978, the Supreme Court ruled that a deterministic view of human conduct was “inconsistent with the underlying precepts of our criminal justice system” (Warner Wallace, God’s Crime Scene, pp. 141-158).  God has ordained the government to be a punisher of the evil-doer in order to protect the innocent (Rom. 13:1-ff).  In order for this to be valid justice, the evil-doer must bear responsibility for his actions.  Personal responsibility grows out of accountability to God.  Accountability to God is a part of God’s justice.  Personal responsibility is assigned to every person who chooses to commit a crime or a sin when he or she could have chosen otherwise.
Determinism is the view that actions are determined by prior causal events outside the control of an individual.  Most evolutionists and atheists believe in material determinism.  They accept the consequences of this false concept including: (1) denial of free-will; (2) no personal responsibility for moral choices; (3) no possibility of justice; (4) no possibility of love; (5) lack of ability to alter the future by personal choices in the present.  Each of these consequences have further consequences of their own.
Love (agapē) is a deeply committed love whereby one wills to seek the highest good of another regardless of that person’s character or conduct (Matt. 5:44-45).  This love is principled and volitional.  It is undefeatable, benevolent, good-will.  One way that we can show that it is volitional is that it is a response to a command of the Lord Jesus Christ. “And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.  And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.  There is none other commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:29-31).  The command to love given by the Lord can be obeyed or disobeyed.  The alternative to love is hate.  Where there is such a choice between two moral actions, there is free-will.  Love and hate are observable moral qualities and are present in the hearts of people.  Why command a moral action if it is already determined and fixed?  Where there is no choice, the command becomes void.
Love is a response of the human mind and heart to God.  In I John 4:19, God’s Word states, “We love him, because he first loved us.”  Love for God is a response of the human heart to the divine and demonstrative love manifested by God.  God’s love is shown in the unspeakable gift of His Son (John 3:16; I John 4:10).  God’s love is compelling.  The cross draws people to it (John 12:32).  Our love for God is reciprocal.  Love responds to love.  This takes freedom to act or the power of volition.
The alternative to love is also a choice.  God will punish the person who decides to hate.  Hatred is one of the seventeen sins listed by Paul as works of the flesh (Gal. 5:19-21).  Hate is equated with murder.  “Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him” (I John 3:15).  Where there is a moral choice there is free-will.  We cannot blame others for our own failures.  We cannot excuse ourselves for disobeying God’s commandments.  When we do not love as God commands, we will face God’s justice.  Our own disobedience will condemn us.

The justice of God is commonly understood as the execution of His judicial sentences with regard to the conduct of mankind.  The basis of this justice is God’s Word (the Truth) which proceeds from His divine nature and will (John 12:48).  The justice of God relates to His righteousness.  The word justice (dikē) means, “what is right.” The only objective “right” is “truth.”  Without truth, there can be no justice.
Truth is not relative.  Truth by its very nature is objective.  The postmodern concept of truth as relative and so “fluid” is a false concept and must be rejected.  Truth is not a social construct.  Truth is not subject to change based merely upon a change in the definition of terms or a change in circumstances.  You cannot make a word mean anything that you desire for it to mean.  This is what is referred to as the Humpty Dumpty hermeneutic.  In the book, Through the Looking Glass, by Lewis Carroll, Alice meets Humpty Dumpty while he is sitting on the famous wall.  Humpty Dumpty said, “When I choose a word, it means what I choose it to mean; nothing more or less.”  This famous quote illustrates how some people use language.  They manipulate it so that they can deconstruct old meanings and reconstruct new meanings by changing the fundamental definitions of words to mean what they desire them to mean.  It is a form of manipulating what one affirms is the truth.  It readily lends itself to deception and equivocation. Truth is that which conforms to reality as God defines reality!
The Nature of God
Righteousness and so justice is a chief perfection of the nature of God.  Righteousness is a mandatory aspect of holiness.  God is holy (I Pet. 1:15-16).  Holiness is absolute purity.  God’s nature is free from the admixture of any evil.  God is sinless, virtuous, and righteous.  His holiness extends to all of His perfections which leads to all of His words and actions.  Consequently, the words that God speaks are holy (II Tim. 3:15).  The word of God reflects the very nature of God.  God always speaks and acts in harmony with His holy nature.  God is consistent in His nature.  He does not vary (is not changeable) James 1:17.  This is set in contrast to the fluidity of relative ethics or morality that is commonly advanced today and supported by those who affirm social justice instead of God’s justice.  God demands righteousness from His moral creature–man–which involves conformity to His holiness (I Pet. 1:15-16, “Be ye holy for I am holy”). God has a right to demand righteousness from us because He created us for His glory.  All unrighteousness dishonors God and mars the image of God that we bear as His creatures (Gen. 1:27).
The Retributive Justice of God
God hates sin (Psa. 11:4-5; Proverbs 6:16-19).  Sin is the antithesis of His holiness.  God visits non-conformity to His perfection (holiness) with penal loss or punishment.  “And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels. In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, ad from the glory of his power” (II Thess. 1:7-9).  The word punished is from the Greek word dikē which means “what is right.”  It refers to justice.  God’s retributive justice will be executed on the ungodly and disobedient.  The disobedient are those who transgress His holy Will.  God will punish the evil doer.  The same Greek word is found in Jude 7. “Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire” (the word vengeance is a translation of the Greek word dikē). This sets God’s justice in strong contrast to social justice which attempts to validate and exonerate sinful conduct as is manifested by LGBTQ individuals.  Jude 7 defines the sin of Sodom and Gomorrha as fornication and specifically as “going after strange flesh” a phrase that defines sexual activity between individuals of the same sex or homosexuality (see Rom. 1:26-27).  The just verdict of God against homosexuality is eternal punishment.
The Justice of God and Man’s Justification
In Rom. 3:23-26, Paul declares by the Holy Spirit, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation though faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God.”  Justify is a legal term that indicates a person has been set free from sin, its penalty and practice.  To justify is to pronounce “not guilty.”  How can God give such a verdict and still be just?  The answer to this question lies in the atonement for sin.  The atonement for sin is a function of God’s love, mercy and grace.  It represents the distributive justice of God.  The atonement for sin was secured by Jesus Christ when He shed His blood on the cross (John 19:34).  Atonement means a covering for sin and sin is remitted or forgiven based upon the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross.  Forgiveness means that the debt incurred due to sin is completely eliminated.  The only verdict to follow those who are forgiven is “not guilty.”  Not only did the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross provide for atonement, but it also provided for appeasement of the wrath of God.  God’s wrath is appeased on account of the death of Jesus in the place of every sinner.  This is called substitutionary atonement and is part of the meaning of the word propitiation.  Propitiation involves remission of sins and appeasement of God’s wrath.  Paul writes, “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.  Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him” (Rom. 5:8-9).  Jesus took our place and dies in our stead. We are saved from the retributive justice of God through the distributive justice of God.  Those who are justified become the just (Rom. 1:16-17).  The just shall live by faith!   When are sins forgiven?  Peter answers this important question in his sermon that is recorded in Acts 2.  In Acts 2:38, he declares, “…Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.”  Ananias told Saul (Paul), “And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord” (Acts 22:16).  Peter declares, “The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (I Pet. 3:21).  When we obey the gospel of Christ, and are baptized into Christ, our sins are washed away (forgiven) and we become a child of God (John 3:3-5).  We wash our robes and make them white in the blood of the Lamb (Rev. 7:14).  We are forgiven, redeemed, and justified (I Cor. 6:9-11).  What about the unforgiven?  All unbelievers are unforgiven.  If they die in their sins (John 8:24), they will face the wrath of God (II Thess. 1:7-9).  If they do not believe on Jesus Christ and obey His commands, they will be damned (Mark 16:16).  “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; he that believeth not shall be damned.” “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time, his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus” (Rom. 3:23-26).

A violation of God’s Law (the very essence of sin -I John 3:4) is not an exercise in true freedom, but injustice (a violation of the righteous standard given by God in His holy word).  And, where there is sin, there is bondage, not freedom.
Let us correlate three terms:  truth, freedom, and justice (John 8:30-36).  If there is no truth, there can be no freedom.  If there is no truth, there can be no justice.  Are we in bondage or free?  Are we the children of God or the children of the devil?  Can we know the truth, obtain true freedom and pursue justice?
Truth
The word truth is an English translation of the Greek word alētheia, which means, true to fact, conforming to reality.  Truth is that which conforms to reality as God defines that reality (John 14:6, Jesus is the truth; John 17:17, the Word of God is truth).  Truth comes from God because God is holy and cannot lie (Titus 1:2, Hebrews 6:18).  God is all-knowing and so He knows what is true as opposed to what is false.  God has revealed His will to humanity by means of the divine superintendence of the Holy Spirit who guided holy men of God to write the words of truth (II Tim. 3:16-17; II Pet. 1:20-21).  God has also revealed Himself through His Son, Jesus Christ, who is the truth (John 14:6).  The truth is powerful (Heb. 4:12).  It enlightens and so dispels darkness (the world of sin and wickedness, lies and false ideas) (John 1:5, 9). It guides and so is a lamp unto our feet (Psa. 119:105). It anchors and so creates a foundation that grounds us in God’s thoughts and ways (Isa. 55:8-11).  It transforms and so makes children of God out of children of the devil (I Pet. 1:20-25; Gal. 3:26-29).  It judges/ discerns and so discriminates between good and evil, right and wrong (Heb. 4:12).  The truth is knowable (John 8:32). To know means that we can perceive with the mind and so understand with the heart what God means by what God says in His Word (Eph. 5:16-17).
Freedom
True freedom is liberation from the servitude of sin (John 8:32, Rom. 6:6-7).  The first correlation:  truth and freedom.  Where there is no truth, there can be no freedom.  Freedom is not the ability to do anything you want to do anytime you want to do it, that is lasciviousness (Gal. 5:19).  Lasciviousness is shameless conduct where by we violate God’s Will and act without restraint.  God restricts our attitudes and behavior through His Word which demands self-denial and self-restraint.  Self-indulgence is not freedom.  True freedom involves the forgiveness of our sins and transformation of life (conversion and consecration) whereby we honor God’s truth by incorporating it into our lives.  True freedom means that we are set at liberty from the bondage of sin.  “Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free…” (Gal. 5:1).  Paul’s use of the noun and verb together in one sentence emphasizes the completeness of the act of liberation through the power of God.  Once liberated from sin, we do not want to return to bondage.  The liberation from the bondage of sin is directed by truth and the power of truth affects it (Rom. 1:16).  The gospel is God’s power unto salvation!
Justice
The second correlation is truth and justice.  Where there is no truth, there can be no justice.  Justice is a communicable perfection of God, manifesting His holiness.  The word justice is closely associated with righteousness.  Used of man, justice refers to right rule, or right conduct, or to each getting his/her just do whether good or bad.  God’s absolute justice is the rectitude by which He upholds Himself against violations of His holiness.  God’s moral excellence made necessary either the punishment of sinners or the expiation (forgiveness) of their sins whereby the punishment would be removed and they would be rewarded.  Expiation or forgiveness is accomplished by Jesus Christ through His death on the cross.  Paul declares in Rom. 5:8-9, that we are saved from wrath through Him. And, we are justified by the blood of Christ.   If there is no truth, there can be no justice.  Truth is the objective standard for all righteous judgments.  Without truth, spiritual discernment and righteous judgments could not be made.
Anytime God’s Word is violated three things result:  bondage or servitude to sin which identifies us with Satan rather than God; condemnation by God (the justice of God); and prohibition of sonship with God (because we are the children of the devil).  Overcoming sin involves: utilizing the power of truth to overcome the lies and ignorance caused by Satan; the power of the blood of Christ to atone for sin; and our faith and love for God which causes us to honor Him by keeping His commandments.  When truth is internalized, faith is active in the human heart and commits us to God’s Word.  When love for the truth is authentic, then, the human heart is bound to God in devotion to His Will and purposes.  Truth will affect an all-encompassing transformation within us that binds us to God in true freedom and respect for His justice.