You do not have near as much free will as you think you do.
“Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” (Romans 3:20)
If the love of money is the root of all sin, then before money was invented, that root needed to grow in some soil. Before the Law given through Moses, before the invention of money, there was sin; before Adam harkened to the voice of his wife, there was sin.
Something clicked in the mind of Lucifer concerning his self, the realization within him that he had free will, the ability to choose to obey or disobey. The pride within him was not this original sin, it was the result of that knowledge of free will that first entered his thoughts.
Throughout the Scriptures “thou shalt” informs us that our free will is not fully and completely ours. Then the Lord Jesus Christ said.
“If ye love me, keep my commandments.” (John 14:15)
That word “keep” still infers free will, a choice, but at the same time the word “commandments” states service to One who alone has complete and total free will.
Whether we serve Him or not, all are bound to some form of law, either the physical laws of creation, the laws imposed upon them by the nations they live in, or the law of the flesh, namely its own ability to continue without the intervention of death.
In no disrespectful way, Adam was not wise enough or smart enough to understand Genesis 2:17, nor did the Almighty define what He meant when He spoke those words to him.
“But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”
It would be very interesting to know if words of a similar nature were spoken to Lucifer before that initial thought entered into his mind.
Self-realization is inherent in all that have been born on this planet, without this truth there can be no free will. Through Adam sin became, for lack of a better analogy, a genetic trait in all mankind, removeable by no scalpel, no surgical technique, by only the grace of God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Yet until we who are hid in Christ are glorified, when our old sinful nature is destroyed, we will still sin occasionally.
Because of self.
The moment self-realization becomes a clarity, recognizable within each of us, free will is realized, and we will sin.
“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;” (Romans 3:23)
This truth was not recognized by Adam until after he ate of the fruit offered to him by his wife.
I personally believe, though I cannot validate it in the Scriptures, that when the realization of free will entered into the mind of our adversary he thought long and hard about it. He may have even spoken to the Most High about this new found trait within him.
Free will demands choices must be offered, and because there is only One with full and complete free will, one Creator of all that is, there are really only two choices. Obey or disobey.
That choice is yours.
The key, if you will, the foundation, the ultimate truth of obedience is this, “If you love me.”
“And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.” (1st Cor. 13:3)
Satan stopped loving God, so did Adam, because obedience without love for Him who first loved us is fruitless. We give up what little free will we actually have because of our love for Him.
