by David Gibson<\/p>\n
“I will not!” said the son when his father asked him to work in the vineyard. But later he changed his mind and went (Matthew 21:28-29). When did he exercise his own free will? Both times: in choosing to rebel and in choosing to comply.<\/p>\n
God has given us free will. He pleads with us to do His will, but never forces the issue. It’s always our choice.<\/p>\n
Jesus willingly submitted His own will to His Father’s will-even when it meant the cross (Matthew 26:36-46). Jesus put great emphasis on doing God’s will for Himself and us.<\/p>\n
“My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work<\/em>” (John 4:34).<\/p>\n
“... I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me<\/em>” (John 5:30).<\/p>\n
“For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me<\/em>” (John 6:38).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
For all the rest of us<\/h2>\n
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven…<\/em>” (Matthew 7:21).<\/p>\n
“For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother<\/em>” (Matthew 12:50).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
And so . . . .<\/h2>\nHere’s a passage many people have never read: “And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will<\/em>” (II Timothy 2:24-26). When people rebel against God’s will, they may think they are in charge of their lives, but in reality they have been “captured by<\/em> [Satan] to do his will<\/em>.” Wow!
\nIt is God’s desire that such self-deceived people “may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil<\/em> …”\nWithout question, doing Satan’s will brings ultimate sorrow, but doing God’s will brings everlasting joy!<\/p>\n
“I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart<\/em>” (Psalms 40:8).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by David Gibson “I will not!” said the son when his father asked him to work in the vineyard. But later he changed his mind and went (Matthew 21:28-29). When did he exercise his own free will? Both times: in choosing to rebel and in choosing to comply. God has given us free will. He…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[426],"class_list":["post-86161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-free-will"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":20757,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-did-john-doubt\/","url_meta":{"origin":86161,"position":0},"title":"Why did John doubt?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 7, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In Matthew 3:13-17, John the Baptist meets Jesus and is resistant to baptizing him because he \"seemed\" to know that he was the Messiah and he thought that Jesus should baptize him instead. \u00a0Did John see the clouds open up and hear God's voice?\u00a0 Later, in Matthew 11:2-6, when\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":89505,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/commandment-keeping\/","url_meta":{"origin":86161,"position":1},"title":"Commandment Keeping","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 17, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Kevin Cauley There are those in the religious world today who ridicule the idea of keeping commandments. They claim that keeping God's commandments has nothing to do with our salvation today. If someone objects and says that we must keep God's commandments to be saved, the charge of legalism\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":46100,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-did-jesus-mean-by-i-can-do-nothing-on-my-own\/","url_meta":{"origin":86161,"position":2},"title":"What did Jesus mean by “I can do nothing on my own?”","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 6, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Doesn't John 5:30 resemble Mohammed's role which was listening and writing and being sent? Here Jesus says that he is nothing without God. Answer: \"For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son, so that all will honor the Son even as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":86281,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-was-so-different-about-his-teaching\/","url_meta":{"origin":86161,"position":3},"title":"What Was so Different About His Teaching?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 4, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by David Gibson \"No one ever spoke like this man!\" So said the officers sent by the Pharisees to arrest Jesus, but who came back without Him. After hearing Him teach, they could not bring themselves to take Him into custody. Many people noticed Jesus' teaching differed because He spoke\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":92479,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/lessons-from-the-limited-commission\/","url_meta":{"origin":86161,"position":4},"title":"Lessons from the “Limited Commission”","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 5, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Samuel Matthews \"And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease\u2026 These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":64832,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/because-jesus-was-born\/","url_meta":{"origin":86161,"position":5},"title":"Because Jesus Was Born","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 21, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer \"But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons\" (Galatians 4:4-5). While the Gospels of Matthew\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86161\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}