Can We Really Exercise Free Will?

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Jul 3, 2015
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If He did not come with the same nature as you and me then He is not our example, He had a huge advantage.
Being 100% God I would say gives Jesus a decided advantage for sure.

And that is a distinct difference from the standpoint of Him being able to overcome His
human will to do the will of God. All these noisy Pelagians we have here put the natural
man on the same footing as Jesus in that regard. They really ought to know better.
 

sawdust

Well-known member
Feb 12, 2024
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I'm not held accountable for other people's sins.
You're not held accountable for your own sins, they were nailed to the Cross. If the Lord held any of us accountable, none of us would see life. He did this so the issue of evil, the source of all sin (Jm.1:15), could be addressed .. "who do you say I am?" (Matt.16:15)

No-one is condemned on the basis of their sin but on the basis of their rejection of Christ which leads to self serving desire.

John 3:18
“He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

You were not born a sinner because you sinned, you were born a sinner because of Adam's sin. We all inherited a corruption in our flesh by virtue of being "in Adam". We all got our flesh from Adam, unlike Christ, who had no earthly father but instead God the Father prepared a body for Him.

Hebrews 10:5
Therefore, when He came into the world, He said: “Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, But a body You have prepared for Me.

This is why Christ was born without sin, he had no corruption in His flesh. Did that give Him an advantage over us? Maybe, but He certainly had no advantage over Adam. They both had the same level playing field. Christ chose not to sin, Adam did otherwise. Even if, by some miracle, we did not commit any personal sins, we still would be sinners because we are born wrong. Sin is lawlessness and there is another law, one that has no regard for anything but self, working in our flesh. It is this corruption which, the Lord God can have nothing to do with, hence we are born devoid of spiritual life having the consequences of Adam's sin imputed to us. That law guarantees we commit our own personal sins but the Cross guarantees it can never be used as an excuse.

Romans 7:23
But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
 

Magenta

Senior Member
Jul 3, 2015
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Romans 5:18-19 ~ Just as one trespass brought condemnation for all men, so also one act of righteousness brought justification and life for all men. For just as through the disobedience of the one man (Adam) the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man (Jesus Christ) the many will be made righteous.