The Narrow Path Ministries

I as a Christian do believe I have free will ( though limited) Because God does not sin, therefore when I sin I am not in His will. I also believe Gods will follows Gods word. They both go together.

I have some one telling me you are either a slave to Satan and engulfed in sin or a slave to Christ and fully in His will, with none of your own.

I believe I am a slave to Christ bought and paid for by Him but I still have the choice to either be a "good and faithful" slave or fight Him and be rebellious in my will. What do you think?

I don't think we should push metaphors too far. The 'slave' imagery in Scripture is helpful, but shouldn't be pressed beyond common sense.

But just to argue the point, even a slave has free will in my opinion. A slave can choose not to work one day. He'll most likely suffer consequences for that free will choice, but the choice was still his.

Just my thoughts,
God bless

glow wrote:I have some one telling me you are either a slave to Satan and engulfed in sin or a slave to Christ and fully in His will, with none of your own.

As a point of clarification, were you asking if there is such a thing as a "gray" area in between Christ and God, or was it more of a point of the word "slave"? I think it was the latter.

"Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" - 2 Cor. 3:17

I meant I don't see how if we are saved, we don't have free will any more because we are under Christ.

That all we do is in Gods will. Being that we are all sinners and God/Christ does not sin, wouldn't that also support when we do make wrong choices that result in sin ( using our free will), we are outside of Gods will, because He does not sin?

I thought the laws of sowing and reaping were all through Gods word even including believers. I know ultimately our sins are forgiven through grace but are we not still held to the laws of sowing and reaping. Accountability for our free will choices. Am I making any sense?

All people have unlimited free wills. This is one of the major ways in which humanity was created in the image of God.

What appears to be limits to one's will, is actually a limit to one's action.
I can will to jump 30 feet high, but I cannot do it. I am limited by gravity and/or my lack of strength.

A person is a "slave to sin", if he cannot perform the right actions, due to mental or spiritual limitations. But Jesus said, "Whom the Son has set free, is REALLY free".

Paul, speaking hypothetically as a person without Christ, said in Romans 7,
"I can will what is right, but I cannot do it." It isn't a problem about lack of will; it's a problem about enablement. He said in the last verse, "So then, I of myself (that is apart from Christ) serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin." But in chapter 8 (which really belongs to the same discourse as chapter 7), he said, "The law of the spirit of life has set me free from the law of sin and death." He said, "God has done what the law ... could not do; sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us ...."

All of the NT scriptures give essentially this as the reason for Jesus' death, not that we may be forgiven and escape hell, but that we might overcome wrongdoing and live righteous lives before God.

2 Cor 5:25 He died for all, that those who live, might live no longer for themselves, but for Him, who for their sakes died and was raised.

I Peter 2:24. He Himself carried away our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.

Heb 9:26 He has appeared once for all, at the end of the age to do away with sin by the sacrifice of Himself.

I think it is inappropriate for us disciples of Christ to describe ourselves as "sinners". For "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away, and, behold, all things have become new."

Though we may stumble and fail, or sin, we are basically on the path to completion as disciples. "He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ."

Say, a farmer leaves the farm and becomes a welder. If he occasionally goes to a friend's farm, and does a little farming, does that mean he is still a farmer?

So it is with us who are Christ's disciples. We are on the narrow road that leads to life. Though we may occasionally stumble and sin, that does not mean that we have becomes sinners again. To say that we are "sinners" implies that sinning is our lifestyle.

Paidion you wrote:

I think it is inappropriate for us disciples of Christ to describe ourselves as "sinners". For "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away, and, behold, all things have become new."

Though we may stumble and fail, or sin, we are basically on the path to completion as disciples. "He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ."


A farmer leave the farm and becomes a welder. If he occasionally goes to a friend's farm, and does a little farming, does that mean he is still a farmer?

So it is with us who are Christ's disciples. We are on the narrow road that leads to life. Though we may occasionally stumble and sin, that does not mean that we have becomes sinners again. To say that we are "sinners" implies that sinning is our lifestyle.




I am wondering now....Being that we are on the path ( not completed yet) and as you say and DO sin, wouldn't that make us sinners until we are fully home since that is our destination(our new job, like the welder who is already fully there)He HAS become a full welder now so that is what he identifies with.

I am new in Christ but within that definition I still sin even if I am trying very hard not to, so wouldn't that still make me a sinner saved by grace, by definition until I am fully home?? I'm still trying to figure this out.

I think if you deny you have free will( make sin in it) and then don't take responsibility for your neg. actions there is a real danger in just saying to yourself, well I tried but it didn't happen so it must be GODS will that it didn't work out or happen etc. And you would also not need to repent because essentially you did nothing wrong. I hope I am making sense.