It is always said that God gave man a free will, and yet one of His principal acts was to forbid man to eat of a certain tree. How could men have a free will in this case, inasmuch as God said that he would fall?
A single text of Scripture is the key to the solution of this difficulty, which is so common among men-the idea that obedience to law is incompatible with freedom. The text is: "I will walk at liberty; for I seek your precepts." (Psalm 119:45)
The free man is the man who obeys righteous laws; the slave is the one who falls into transgression. The words of Christ to the Jews tell us this truth: "If you abide in my Word, then are you my disciples indeed; And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. They answered Him, We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how do you say, You shall be made free? Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever commits sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abides not in the house for ever: but the Son abides ever. If the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed." (John 8:31-36)
The King Must Be Free
When God made man, the crowning work of His creation, He crowned him with glory and honor, and set him over the works of His hands, putting "all things in subjection under his feet. For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him." (Hebrews 2:7-8) "God gave man dominion over ... All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beast of the field; The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passes through the paths of the seas." (Psalm 8:6-8)
Man was made ruler over the very earth itself, "and over every living thing that moves upon the earth." (Genesis 1:28)
Man--not only the first being that God created, but mankind, male and female--was made king. He was given dominion over the works of God's hands; and since the heavens are the works of God's hands, (Psalm 19:1; Hebrews 1:10) it follows that man's rightful dominion extends beyond this planet on which we live. A most magnificent kingdom was given to him.
Now it needs no argument to show that one cannot be a king and a slave at the same time. "Of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage," (2 Peter 2:19) and when a man is in bondage he is evidently not ruling.
From time immemorial, the root idea of royalty, derived from God himself, has been that the king's person is sacred. If he be a king indeed, it will be so regarded, not only by his fellow-men, but by the beasts of the earth, as has many times been demonstrated. The truth may be stated either way: Every real king is a free man, and every absolutely free man is a king.
Christ said that He makes His followers free, and the Scriptures also told us that all whom He frees from sin are made kings and priests. (Revelation 1:5-6)
God's Absolute Freedom
God is King of kings, and there can be no question but that He is absolutely free. "The Lord has prepared His throne in the heavens; and His kingdom rules over all." (Psalm 103:19) "Our God is in the heavens; He has done whatsoever He has pleased." (Psalm 115:8) "[He] works all things after the counsel of His own will." (Ephesians 1:11)
The greatest ruler that ever exercised dominion on this earth, and who had demonstrated the futility of trying to resist God, said, when light and reason from heaven dawned upon him, that: "His kingdom is from generation to generation: And all the inhabitants of the world are reputed as nothing: and He does according to His will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay His hand, or say unto Him, What are You doing?" (Daniel 4:34-35)
God, being absolute ruler, is absolutely free. His mind and will are free.
God's Will on Earth
We are taught to pray to God, our Father: "Your kingdom come. Your will be done in earth, as it is in heaven." (Matthew 6:10)
This was the condition in the beginning, and it is that which is to be restored through the Gospel. But can you not see that such a state must necessarily be one of absolute freedom on earth? It follows from the fact that God is free, and that His will is absolutely unfettered. He is free, and He gives freedom by giving himself. Christ, who is the image of the invisible God, and one with Him, has secured our everlasting freedom by giving himself to us. Being made partakers of the Divine nature,--being made one with Christ as He is one with the Father,--we must necessarily be as free as He is.
Let me repeat, in order that this truth may be very plain. God's will is absolutely free, and therefore whenever and wherever His will is done there can be only freedom. The man in whom God's will is done,--that one in whom God's will has free course,--whose only will is God's will, can, like God, do whatsoever He will. Nothing will be impossible to him. There can be no talk of bondage in connection with such a man.
What Constitutes a Perfect Man
This we may know by reference to the formation of the man whom God pronounced "very good." The simple story is told in: "God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul," (Genesis 2:7) a perfect man. So again we read: "The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty has given me life." (Job 33:4) "There is a spirit in man; and the inspiration of the Almighty gives them understanding." (Job 32:8)
Do you see what it is that constitutes the perfect man? that is, the man who is complete as man. It is just this: A body of dust with the Spirit of God. The clay we have; but just to the extent that we lack the Spirit, the mind, the "perfect will of God," do we come short of being perfect men.
Bear in mind that in using the word "perfect," I do not mean simply "good," but complete, just as one would say of an animal that has no blemish that it is a perfect animal, or of a machine that is complete in all its parts that it is a perfect machine. So the Spirit of God is an essential part of man. The man who lacks the Spirit of God, who is guided and controlled by any other Spirit, is an incomplete man.
The Spirit of God must of course always speak and act according to the will of God. (Romans 8:27) So the perfect, the complete man, is free because his body is yielded to God, so "that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God," (Romans 12:2) may be done in it, even as it is in the person of God himself. The man is free because he is dependent upon God, and because he acknowledges and acquiesces in that fact. Freedom of the creature is therefore always found in dependence, in obedience, and never in independence. When this truth is learned, God can send us out into His wide universe, to range as freely as He himself.
God's Will Not Arbitrary
From all that has been said it must be evident that God's will is not arbitrary. That is, God does not, like human rulers, think out laws for the government of His subjects. He does not try experiments. He does not impose rules, or make prohibitions, simply because He wishes things to go in a certain way. His laws are all like himself,--they are. He cannot be other than He is, and so His law--His will--cannot be other than it is.
If this great truth be recognized, then it will make obedience very easy. Then we shall know that: "This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not grievous." (1 John 5:3)
Knowing this we may see that it was not anything like what in man would be caprice, or the arbitrary exercise of authority, that made God forbid man to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The tree was not, we may be sure, placed in the garden merely as a test. It was there because it was necessary for it to be there. Just why it was necessary we shall doubtless know better when we get into the garden; but we may be confident that God does not act capriciously.
It also necessarily follows that the fruit of the tree was forbidden, because it was not good for man, at least not at that time. Sometimes a merchant will purposely leave money in the way of a new office boy, to see if he will take it; but we must settle it for ever in our minds that God does not deal thus with His children. "God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempts He any man." (James 1:13)
He never trifles with His creatures. Our knowledge of the fact that the very best fruit is not always, at all seasons, suitable to be eaten, may help us to understand that an explanation of why the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil had such a "mortal taste"--John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book I. to Adam and Eve may sometime be forthcoming. Till then we may rest content in the knowledge of God's goodness and absolute justice.
The essential part of your question is not answered. Man is a king, and free, only when he is simply the agent of the King of kings, whose will is perfect and unfettered. When man has no will but God's will, no mind but God's mind, because he has no spirit but God's Spirit, then he is free indeed; for: "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." (2 Corinthians 3:17)
Only so is he a man indeed.
God's Foreknowledge and Man's Free-will
"But how could it be that man was free to act as he chose, when God knew beforehand just what he would do?"
This is an old question, and many have put it forward as proof that man is not free, while others use it as evidence that God does not know all things. Now it should be remembered that questions and objections are not proofs; and the fact that we do not understand a thing does not prove that it does not exist. The facts are clear, both that man is free except when he voluntarily goes into bondage, and that God knows all things, and knows them just as well before they occur as afterwards.
God is the one who is, and who was, and who is to come. (Revelation 1:4,8; 4:8) He is the beginning and the end. (Revelation 21:6; 22:13) He inhabits eternity. (Isaiah 57:15) But eternity is future as well as past. You may say that you cannot understand how God can dwell in the future; neither can I; but I can understand it just as well as I can understand how He has existed from all eternity, without any beginning. Can not you? We cannot understand the Being of God at all; but, accepting the truth that He is, we must also, and can just as easily, accept the truth that He is the one who will be. That is, He is even now in the days to come.
When you tell me something that you have done, and I tell you that I have already heard of it, you do not think that my knowledge of what has taken place in the least interfered with the freedom of your will. It does not curtail your liberty for me to look back upon your choice. Even so it does not interfere with our freedom for God, from His habitation in the eternity yet to come, to look back, as it were, upon what we are now doing.
Remember that eternity has neither beginning nor end. Then it is a circle. Now draw a circle upon a piece of paper and make two figures upon two different sections of it. Conceive them to be traveling around the circle in the same direction, and then say which one is ahead. Either one of them may be said to be ahead of the other. But even this is a feeble illustration, for God is not at one point only of the circle, but at every point of it at the same time.
Now I know that this does not explain God's existence or His foreknowledge; but this illustration of a Scripture statement enables us to realize that God is infinitely great, and that nothing is hard for Him, and that just because He knows all things, even before they happen, we are free agents. He knows the future, not because He looks ahead, but because He is there.
The practical benefit of this truth is the confidence it begets in His power to save. He can thwart every design of the enemy against us, making all things work together for our good. What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?--Present Truth, February 13, 1902.