Nowhere in the Bible is there any specific mention of 'Free Will,' the divine will of God, or human free will because it never discusses philosophical subjects of any kind. It is apparent in the Bible that God is regarded as acting freely, and that humans are recognized as free agents to do whatever they want. However, the Bible does mention human freedom:
"So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. You will say to me then, "Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?" But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, "Why have you made me like this?" Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory - even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? As indeed he says in Hosea, "Those who were not my people I will call 'my people,' and her who was not beloved I will call 'beloved.'" "And in the very place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' there they will be called 'sons of the living God.'" (Romans 9:18-26 ESV)
Throughout the Bible, it is revealed that God acts according to the counsel of His will. The freedom of His Divine will is plainly implied:
"For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” "Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?" For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen." (Romans 11:34-36 ESV)
The Creator of the Universe can only act freely as there is nothing constraining Him to act in any other way. He acts in accordance with His own holy and just nature, which is love (John 4:8,16; also 1 Corinthians 13:4-7).
The Bible is written with the understanding that humans are free agents and have the consciousness of being free from the very beginning, as seen with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:15-17). Jesus spoke with this understanding that humans are not passive pawns in the grand scheme of things when He said the following:
"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." (Matthew 11:28 ESV)
"yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life." (John 5:40-41 ESV)
"No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day." (John 6:44 ESV)
The Bible reveals that humans are totally depraved and dead in their trespasses and sins apart from Jesus and are incapable of helping or saving themselves without God's prior action. The people of this world are in bondage because of their sinful will and under a curse from the power of satan (Galatians 3:13; Acts 26:18). Everyone sins and is a slave to it (John 8:34; Romans 7:14,25).
"And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace, you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace, you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." (Ephesians 2:1-10 ESV – also John 1:9)
A spiritually dead person can't act or decide to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior and become Born-Again. People can be set free by acknowledging the countless unmerited acts of God's grace. Because God is love, He wants humans to know Him intimately by entering into a covenant relationship through Jesus. This relationship is far more than following the rules He has given. He prepares/draws people for salvation through acts of grace, which is a response to what He has already done and never begins with something a person does (John 1:9). Jesus enlightens everyone.
Prevenient Grace
The bridge between human depravity and the free exercise of human will is known as prevenient grace, a sovereign act of God that lifts human beings out of their depravity and grants them the capacity to respond further to His grace. It is God's act of unmerited favor and His light "which enlightens everyone," lifts people and allows them to exercise their will and respond to His grace (John 1:9 ESV). God prepares people for salvation, which precedes actual conversion. He acts, and a person either accepts or resists.
"no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him" (John 6:44 ESV).
Prevenient grace preserves both the depravity of the human race and the confidence that Jesus died for every person who has ever lived or will live. It does not technically affirm free will so that anyone can decide to follow Jesus whenever they want because this pushes salvation too much towards the idea that salvation depends on their initiative. Jesus died for everyone and desires everyone to be Born-Again by repentance and receive Him as Lord and Savior (Matthew 3:8,4:17; Luke 5:31-32, 24:47-48; John 3:16; Acts 3:19; 2 Corinthians 7:9-10; Hebrews 2:9; 1 John 2:2; 1 Timothy 2:4-6).
Jesus enlightens everyone and opens the heart, and His merciful kindness leads people to repentance (Acts 16:13-15; Romans 2:4). That is preceding/prevenient grace. Human beings are incapable of saving themselves because they are dead in their trespasses and sin, apart from Jesus, who enlightens everyone (Ephesians 2:1; John 1:9). It is the grace of God that frees the will to accept or reject Jesus as Lord and Savior.
Salvation is (and always has been, starting in the Old Covenant) by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone - plus nothing! Jesus said, "no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him" (John 6:44).
The Quantum Science of Determinism versus Free Will
From a purely scientific understanding, human beings are a big bunch of atoms governed by mechanical laws. However, they are not just any bunch of atoms. Fundamentally, they are an intricately structured bunch of atoms governed by the precise mechanical laws of the universe. The decisions humans make depend on those laws and how they are assembled.
The Quantum world is fundamentally deterministic, yet the outcome of a person's decision is not preordained but is open to imprecision. Human beings are causal forces in the world that affect everything by the choices they make, and not just because of some underlying, subconscious, or predetermined biophysical processes in the brain.
Free Will requires the intentional agency of action(s) and all alternative possibilities, among which human beings can choose by their mental state. Free Will is entirely compatible with determinism at the fundamental physical level.
Psychologists, cognitive scientists, and economists all give different theories of how human choice-making works. Yet, they all treat human beings as agents who are faced with choices between different options and alternative possibilities. Rational human beings try to systematically make choices that are in line with their beliefs, preferences, and goals.
Quantum Physics helps us to understand that human beings possess libertarian free will to choose something or do anything because they are more than mere physical beings. It is a phenomenon of the present rather than the past. God does not want anyone to die an eternal death because of what they have done.
"…God our Savior,"… "wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth." (1 Timothy 2:4 NIV)
The Triune God wants everyone to accept Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior, repent of their rebellion and sin, and submit their life to Him as a free act of love. He gave them the freedom to make that choice (Ezekiel 18:23; John 3:16; 2 Peter 3:9). The Quantum world reveals that because God is omniscient He has complete free knowledge of all logical truth in every situation, whether before the beginning, at the ending, or in-between under all possible interpretation of any component.
When a person chooses to accept the free gift of salvation, God instantly chooses them out of the world of lost, guilty sinners. This choice was already made in eternity past for those who would call upon Him (See Ephesians 1:4). The purpose of this choice is their perfect standing before Him because of what Jesus did on their behalf.
"You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name." (John 15:19 NIV)
As a result of the price Jesus paid for the release from the bondage of sin, a Christian no longer belongs to the world; they now belong to Jesus! When a person becomes a child of God, they are predestined to be conformed, or molded into the likeness of Jesus.
"For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers." (Romans 8:29 NIV)
The Born-Again Christian should naturally grow and mature as a child of God, so it is only natural that they reflect God's character and qualities - including love!
God's Possession
"If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you." (John 15:16 NIV)
Every Christian is God's possession and is considered "holy and blameless in his sight" (Ephesians 1:4 NIV). He owns them and has the complete right to authority over them. They are now and forevermore without blame. Their sins have been forgiven, and the guilt of sin has been pardoned. They are holy in position because they are completely covered by the righteousness of Jesus.
Their election is according to His foreknowledge, "who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by His blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance" (1 Peter 1:2 NIV).
The proof that a Born-Again Christian is now His possession is made evident by outward signs and will automatically bring about changes in their moral character and behavior. As one of "God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved,” a Christian must “clothe” their self “with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience” (Colossians 3:12 NIV).
In the Quantum world, God can create universes and worlds in multiple dimensions and then survey all possible worlds and actualize into existence a particular one without manipulating or destroying the free will of human beings in various circumstances. God knows in advance every potential free will choice a person will make and then predestines and saves the one He knows will choose Him. He can enter into every life situation and circumstance and work it out for the best (See Romans 8:28).
God knows what human beings would choose independently from the materialization of that choice. He knows the outcome of every possible decision that will, or could, be made. In other words, He knows what free decisions people will make independently of His controlling decree. He knows from eternity past what a person would have done or would do, in any hypothetical circumstance or situation, but He does not necessarily pronounce what will happen.
Jesus told Bethsaida that if He had come to Sodom and Gomorrah, they would have repented in sackcloth and ashes. He knew this even though it did not happen because He knows what would or could take place in any given circumstance (See Matthew 11:21- 24; Luke 10:13-14).
God knew what would happen if David remained in Keilah, and what would happen if he did not (1 Samuel 23:1-14). God told Moses that the Israelites would forsake Him after they were delivered from Egypt (See Deuteronomy 31:16-17).
God does not unilaterally or causally determine every outcome of any unforeseen event as that would be at the expense of human freedom. God is a good God, and He would never actively bring about overt acts of evil, or suffering or pain, or sin even though He has foreknowledge of evil acts (See also Deuteronomy 28:51-57; Proverbs 4:11; Jeremiah 38:17-18; Ezekiel 3:6-7; Matthew 12:7; 17:27; 23:27-32; 24:43, 26:24; Luke 4:24-44, 16:30-31, 22:67-68; John 15:22-24, 18:36, 21:6; 1 Corinthians 2:8).
Divine Providence and the Sovereignty of God
God is free because He is the perfect moral Being who came to earth and became 100% human while still remaining 100% God because He is love. He is all-powerful, all-knowing – including all outcomes, present everywhere, and He retains His divine providence without hindering the libertarian freedom of humanity (See Genesis 50:20). God knows every possible future, and in His infinite wisdom has planned for every contingency. He knows what each person would do given any possible circumstance and arranges the world in such a way as to bring about His will using their free choices.
If human beings are not free moral agents to accept or reject Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, then they do not possess freedom regarding any choice they make. The freedom of the human will constantly contribute to the motives of their present decision-making by both the experiences and choices made in the past. However, human beings possess a sinful nature inherited from Adam and Eve that permeates everything and influences their motives and actions (Romans 7:5-13). The sinful nature has conditioned the human heart to be “deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9 KJV)
The freedom given by God is not absolute, which is why a person cannot work at saving themselves or make themselves justified and holy before God. It is only by the divine grace of God, given through Jesus Christ, that a person can be truly set free from the slavery and bondage of sin and its eternal effects (Romans 6:20).
Quantum Physics also opens the door to the possibility that God possesses libertarian anthropology that He actualized using His knowledge of multiple dimensions between His knowledge of necessary truths and His creative decrees (Isaiah 10, 45:7; Matthew 11:21-24). The sovereignty of God’s providence can both elect Born-Again Christians, and they can also come to God freely by their choice without being contradictory or predetermined. It affirms that God grants salvation, while still allowing for every human being to freely accept, resist, or even reject the gospel message of God’s grace because God definitively knows that, if a person were placed into a particular situation, they would not reject it.
God’s grace is unequivocally necessary for any action towards salvation. He does not create a world based upon the assessment of a person’s choices that are freely made in a specific situation and circumstance and then creates the world based upon that evaluation. The sovereignty of God includes omnipresence, omnipotence, and omniscience which affords Him the knowledge of all truth in every potential situation and allows for His providential control and foreknowledge of multiple possibilities that each and every free will choice could bring or cause in just one world. God knows everything that will or does happen. Before He spoke the world into existence, He knew independently what a person would freely choose if placed in any possible circumstance or situation.
Conclusion
The Gospel message presents freedom, patterned after Jesus, that He offers to all. He can make any person free so that they “will be free indeed” (John 8:36 ESV). This freedom comes from union with Jesus, “for apart from” Him they “can do nothing (John 15:5 ESV). That choice is theirs to freely make, and when they make it, they experience the wondrous law of liberty as the Holy Spirit takes up residence within to lead and empower them to fulfill both the Great Commandment and Great Commission (Matthew 22:37; Mark 16:15; Luke 4:18; James 1:25, 2:12; Romans 8:2-3).
God alone grants salvation. Because He is Love, He gave human beings the free will to choose to accept or reject Him and to love or hate Him. He knows what choices a person will make, whether they are good or bad, just as a parent can understand the choices their child will make in a given situation, whether or not they actually make them. He perfectly accomplishes His will in their lives. He knew that sin would enter into the world, but He is not the author of sin. God does not actively bring about overt acts of sin or suffering or pain because He is a good God and desires that everyone be saved and spend eternity with Him (1 Timothy 2:4).
