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       The theological topics of freewill, or the free moral agency of mankind, God’s sovereignty, and the bondage of the will (due to mans original sin) have kept theologians in discussion and study since the very beginning of the Christian religion and perhaps even the begging of the Jewish religion and all of the mind boggling cans of worms or rather rabbit trails such a topic could lead into are too much to address through this venue. However, these ideas are important and so is the search for truth.  “I will not forget You” addresses one of these topics for it states:

I will not forget You are my God, my King
And with a thankful heart I bring my offering
And my sacrifice is not what You can give
But what I alone can give to you

A grateful heart I give, A thankful prayer I pray,
A wild dance I dance before you
A loud song I sing, A huge bell I ring,
A life of praise I live before You

      The obvious emphasis upon the idea of freewill is easy to see. So, we will strictly focus on that idea. So, what is freewill. In short it is the doctrine, or idea, which states that men and women have free wills with which they make moral decisions and as a result are responsible for these decisions.  It seems, although God had Christ’s life on His heart before the foundation of the earth, that God did indeed create Adam and Eve (the first man and woman) as free moral agents; however, when they willfully chose to sin against God they gave the rest of us a raw deal. Because, as a result all of their offspring have been hounded from the inside and out by the sin which enslaves us, in other words ever since their original sin every man and woman has been born with a sin nature, we naturally are selfish and do not desire to honor God or walk with Him as we should therefore our wills our in bondage to sin and satan’s power. Yet when God saves a soul he makes all things new and consequently revives the ability of man to choose Him rather than sin. This is why the scripture says in Romans 6:5-7:

For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,

knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;

            for he who has died is freed from sin.

And in Romans 6:16-22:

 

But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed,

            and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.

I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.

For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.

Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death.

But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.

And, we know through reading the scripture that the bible does indeed give illustrations of and discusses how we as believers should, can and have to make decisions in their walk with God. Likewise, through scripture and experience we know God is the author and finisher (perfector) of our faith. Salvation is His miracle from beginning to end. We can not save our selves nor can we hold on to our salvation, no rather as we walk out our salvation with fear an trembling God upholds us, by grace through faith in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior, in His mighty hands. So, what about this thing called freewill? Well the actual word only comes up in scripture in one context. It comes up in the old testament 22 times and in the new testament it appears in slightly different term(s) a few times, but in all cases the context is one of worship and offering. Therefore, despite what one may or may not believe concerning the idea of Freewill every true student of scripture must accept that as God’s children He gives us the right and ability to worship Him in freedom as we worship Him in Spirit and Truth. Therefore we can say with the rest of God’s people with in the “worship circle”

We will not forget You are our God and King
And with a thankful heart we bring our offering
And Our sacrifice is not what You can give*
But what we alone can give to you

Grateful hearts we give, thankful prayers we pray,
Wild dances we dance before you
Loud songs we sing, many instruments we play,
Lives of praise we live before You

(*yet we know we could not even breathe much less desire God or believe in Him except He draw us, pursue us in His love and empower us by His Holy Spirit to worship Him in word and deed all the days of our life. Thus our praise, worship, thankfulness and Love for God are increased all the more for His Grace, Mercy, and Love which is shed abroad in our souls through His Holy Spirit.)

      So worship God in extra ways that he has not commanded. For he has commanded the tithe and the keeping of His Sabbath as well as many other things in His old testament and He has commanded in the new testament that we believe in the name of His son the Lord Jesus Christ and that we should love one another as well as some other things and we need to do these things as the scriptures indicate we should even though we who believe in Christ are not under law but under grace. But in the midst of all that He has given us freedom in Christ that we might worship Him in spirit in truth freely and unmandatedly with all of our lives, souls, and minds, yes indeed let us worship Him with all our strength, creatively and most importantly in line with sound doctrine.

Words and Music by:                                     Ben and Robin Pasley                        From the Album: Enter the Worship Circle

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