Sorry for the delay. I will start at the top with Daryl’s statement and work my way down.
Free will is the power to choose to go in accordance with God's will or against His will.
Consequence is the result of going in accordance with God's will or against His will.
Daryl what you say above has some truth but is misleading. I would restate as the following : Man’s will was given some authority, but not sovereignty. The sovereign will(self-derived) of the Lord is more powerful than man’s will(no matter how large the authority given by the Lord).
While we may sell ourself to sin(or "to the devil"), we do not have the authority to do so in perpetuity. The Lord reserve sovereignty over any of His creation as OWNER as stated in Lev 25:23 the land could not be sold forever. His Sovereign will is written in the plan of salvation by which we find Him being “
slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev. 13:8). In this statement alone, we find that the Lord took the responsibility of all of His creation from the beginning. However, this does not mean He will take SOLE responsibility of all sin. He gave man authority, and will hold him responsible for the authority given under him. So we see man will be judge by his works(Rev 20:12,13) His judgment will be according to the sin commited and to the prescribed restitution described in His laws and will be conducted in the manner described in the Law of Jubilee and other scriptures. In this we see that the ultimate responsibility of all sins rest on the creator and He knows how to correct man and all the nations.
Judgment prove that man has authority but to say he has "free will" in the way to say that man's choice overrides the Lord's sovereign plan is not true.
We need to take all of scriptures into account to really understand the truth of the matter. If we put any scriptures aside, we then start to fabricate our own “truth”. I’m sure no one wants to do that here.
How Free is Man’s Will?Man has a will, but it is not “free”. Man’s will is always subject to other people in authority above us, to society expectations, to world events, etc….And the Lord will override our will whenever He pleases. Yes we may "rebell" and reap consequences from it, but this does not prove we are "free". I'll come to this later.
Basically we are not as “free” as we perveive to be by far. In our little imagination to stroke our ego, the “old man” wants to view himself “free”, but that is far from plain reality.
Reality is man’s will is easily manipulated by many factors beyond his control. To start we had no say in being born or into what family, race, country, or religion. After that, throughout our upbringing when our mind is being shaped and habits are formed; we are taught the will of others – especially the parent. Their guiding and teaching manipulates our will and shapes it according to their will. After this, children go to school where their will is further manipulated by teachers and their peers. Then the will of the government, who shape school curriculum, manipulate children to conform to their standard of behavior.
So what we perceive as our “free will” is actually the sum of millions of manipulations that shaped the subconscious mind while growing up. Then these determine our ability to discern and make decisions throughout life.
Now, while parents, teachers, friends, social pressure, etc… manipulates us, what about the Lord. Does He manipulate us in any manner, or does He remain aloof while men and women do all of the manipulation? The Lord does His level of manipulation also. So this concept that man has “free will” is a deception created ideology by man that #1 is not realistic and #2 is not Biblical.
Now let's look what the Bible says which will show us the real reality of this.
