There is no such thing as free will. When Adam was created he had freedom of choice. But after the fall, man's will became the slave of sin! According to the Bible we were the enemies of God! The Bible also declare that we were spiritually dead to God! Dead people can't do nothing! Read carefully John 1:13. Children of God are not born "out of the will of man". This clearly rules out the so called free will. If man in his fallen state had the capacity to choose God, then man can take credit for his salvation. Then God does not get all the glory. If fallen man has free will, then God gets some glory and man gets some glory too. But no, man can't do nothing to save himself! The faith to believe according to Ephesians 2:8 is a gift from God. Unless God plants His Faith (which is God himself) in you, you can never believe. The sinful nature is totally anti-God. Fallen man may do good deeds, but never love God. Fallen man can be ethical and moral, but never spiritual. Fallen man by nature hates God and does not like God. Fallen man hates holiness and is totally contrary to God. Yes, God choses some to be saved and not others. Why? I don't know, I am not God. Whatever the reasons why He does that, He has not revealed that in the Bible, He has reserved that knowledge to Himself. That is God's prerrogative. Whatever the reason, it is a fair one. Nobody knows why God does this. It is a mystery. Thus, people are saved, not because of their suppossed free will, but because God first regenerates them. You argue that "received" in John 1:12 means a choice of the free will. But if you study carefully this verse you will see that "received" there means to believe, and you can not believe (receive!) unless God first give you His faith to believe. Thus, receiving equals believing. No matter how you put it: God gets all the credit, because salvation is all His work, His doing, not you choosing. This is humilliating, but this produces a heavenly humility in your mind. It is imposible to be humble thinking that we have some part in our salvation. If we glorify self-will then God gets no glory at all. The Scriptures do not teach free will in the fallen man. Of course, the believer has a healed will. God puts a new heart in the believer. Now, he desires to love God and please God because a new nature has been implanted within his soul. It was Martin Luther who denied the doctrine of free will. John Calvin expand it. Since then, Christians had been divided in two camps: those who support free will, and those that deny it. Augustine was also an advocate of the enslaved will of fallen man. When are we going to give God all the glory? When are we going to stop robbing God of HIs Glory, for Salvation is the Lord's and the Lord's alone. Amen.
