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Mike,

A man asked me the question, “How can God make us accountable for our actions if we do not have free will?”

I would appreciate your comments.
J____

Hi J____,

Thank you for your friend’s question. He asks, “How can God make us accountable for our actions if we do not have free will?”
God does not hold us accountable for anything we do. The apostle Paul makes it clear that it really isn’t us who commit any sin we commit. It is rather “a law working in our members… It is not I that do it.”

Rom 7:17  Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:18  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but [ how] to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20  Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:21  I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.

That is as plain as it can be made. It is twice repeated in verses 17 and 20. “It is not I that do it, but sin that dwells in me… the law of sin and death.”

Rom 8:2  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

Who sustains that law “in our members”? The person who sustains “the law of sin and death… in our members” is the person who is responsible and accountable for every thing that happens in this earth. Who sustains that “law is sin and death”? Here He is:

Jas 4:12  There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?

There is but “one lawgiver”, and it is He who determines who will be saved and who will be destroyed. He does this because it is He “who is working all things after the counsel of His own will”. Every day of our lives is “written in His book before that are any of them” so there simply is no scripture to support the false doctrine of free moral agency. We choose only what God causes us to choose, and there is nothing “free” about our choices. It cannot be stated any clearer than this:

Psa 139:16  Thine eyes did see mine unformed substance; And in thy book they were all written, Even the days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was none of them.
Pro 16:1  The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the LORD.
Pro 20:24  Man’s goings are of the LORD; how can a man then understand his own way?
Isa 45:7  I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
Jer 10:23  O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps
Amo 3:6  Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?

Rom 9:16  So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.
Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

All any of us do is what Joseph’s brothers did and what the unjust steward did. We must all simply “give an accounting of our stewardship” and confess that we “are the man” who sold our Savior for thirty pieces of silver while claiming to be Abraham’s seed. The words ‘accountable’ or ‘responsible’ are not to be found in scripture. God makes it abundantly clear that He is the One responsible and accountable for “working all things after the counsel of His own will”. All the “evil in the city” is God “working it after the counsel of His own will”.
Joseph’s brothers would have sworn they had free will and that selling Joseph into Egypt had been their idea, just as your friend feels. The unjust steward felt the same way, and we all feel that way, but what is the real Truth of this matter? Here is what the scriptures teach from Genesis to Revelation:

Gen 45:4  And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I [ am] Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt.
Gen 45:5  Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.
Gen 45:6  For these two years [ hath] the famine [ been] in the land: and yet [ there are] five years, in the which [ there shall] neither [ be] earing nor harvest.
Gen 45:7  And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
Gen 45:8  So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.

“I am Joseph whom you sold into Egypt… be not grieved that you sold me here… it was not you that sent me here, but God…” So it is with all that men call “free will”. The Truth of the matter is that God is “working all things”, the good and the evil, “after the counsel of His own will”, and it is He and He alone who is responsible for the outcome of “all things”. That outcome is, of course, a very good one. Here it is:

1Co 15:22  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
1Co 15:23  But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.
1Co 15:24  Then [ cometh] the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.
1Co 15:25  For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.
1Co 15:26  The last enemy [ that] shall be destroyed [ is] death.
1Co 15:27  For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under [ him, it is] manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him.
1Co 15:28  And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.

That is truly the good news of the gospel.

The difference between ‘accountable’ and ‘giving an accounting’ was pointed out to me by a brother in an e- mail exchange, which you can read at this URL: http:// www. iswasandwillbe. com/ The_ Difference_ Between_ Responsibility_ And_ Giving_ An_ Account. php

Read that exchange, and if you still have a question then please let me know.
Your brother in Christ,
Mike