“Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.” (1 John 3:2)
Something more than our sinful nature, that rebellious part of us will need to be removed from us when we are glorified, the Adamic nature that has been passed on to all men by the fall of the first man. To be honest here my friends, I do not know what it is I am speaking about in this short letter, and I do not believe that anyone of us who has ever contemplated these points has either, even in our opening verse John says, “I do not know.”
A part of our free will must be removed from us for our desire to see the Most High glorified continuously, for in ourselves that is not our main intent. It sounds oxymoronic, and to a degree it is, for our free will is what separates us from all of the rest of creation, and if it is removed in its entirety, we will be no more than as the beasts of the field. “And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;” (Gen. 3:17)
If we knew what Eve said to her husband it might help, but we do not, what we do know is that Adam had free will, there was an opportunity for him to sin, if there is no opportunity to chose our own path, there is no free will, and if we do not have the free will to serve the Almighty, then there can be no love in that service.
In the garden that night the Lord asked if there was another way. “Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.” (Luke 22:42) He obeyed willingly, but a part of Him wanted it to happen in a different way, He gave up His free will for the will of the Father.
Adam had a choice, when we are glorified, will we still have that choice?
We can look at that moment in heaven when a third of the angels rebelled, they also had a choice, but the question is this, was the ability of free will removed from those angels who remained in the presence of the Most High? We want to serve the Lord our God, but we do not want to be forced to, that is the question. And my friends, it cannot be answered.
As far as we know when we are glorified our sinful nature will be removed, that rebellious part of us that says, “I will.” Did Adam have a sinful nature when he was created from the dust of the ground, and if not, what was it within him that decided to sin against the one commandment placed upon him. And will that one thing, our free will in that area, be removed from us when we are glorified? If our desires are modified, then at least a part of our free will must be removed.
If there was no way out of hell, then Satan would not need to be chained for 1,000 years, his will could just as easily be changed by the Almighty and made to become once again a servant of the Lord. There are no answers to this question in this life, we may as well ask if the seraphim have a choice as they spend eternity saying, “Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.” (Isaiah 6:3)
The Lord Jesus Christ was the only man who completely and of His own free will submitted to the will of the Father, sinless throughout the entirety of His life. Why send Him into the wilderness to be tempted if He did not have a choice, the free will that all men have? And what was it that was within Him that allowed that free will to deny the Adamic nature that was in Adam before he sinned?
There is something inside of us that needs to be removed while still allowing our free will to remain. “For with God nothing shall be impossible.” (Luke 1:37)
