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Did God create humans to be like robots designed to run the programs that he gave us and unable to do otherwise? Did he create humans to be like marionettes that are only able to function as we are manipulated? In answering questions like these many people, like myself, are convinced that we have a Free Will that enables us to take action as we decide to take action. We are able to make choices regardless of what God wants us to do. The Christian then is to pray to God, "Your will be done" understanding that in doing so the Christian must release his or her own will and let God's will dominate. Yet, the theology of Free Will is much more complex than that.

As a Lutheran, I have encountered Luther's understanding of Free Will in the sense of salvation. Can anyone free themselves from the bondage of sin by their own free will? Luther answered that with a resounding no! And he truly meant it. During the 16th Century it was understood that we are dead in sin and God's Grace quickens us, making us alive in Christ. This teaching stems from Romans where the apostle wrote about being crucified in Christ and being made alive in His resurrection. Romans 6 speaks about being baptized and united into His death and being united with Christ in His resurrection. Grace frees us, makes us alive and Grace comes from God alone, therefore our will is useless for our salvation.

Despite the fact that Luther made his point of Free Will strong and clear, his friend and student, Philip Melanchthon believed that an individual could prepare to receive God's Grace. His teachings echo Matthew 7:8 "everyone who searches finds." The image is that we have the ability to turn away from the world or worldly things and make ourselves open to receive Grace. I do not understand Melanchthon to be saying that we participate in our salvation because Grace comes from God. However, I do understand him to say that we can open ourselves. We can till the ground in our souls in preparation for it to be sown with spiritual seeds.

We can block our ears to the Truth, or let Word enter us and depart from us like a passing breeze. We have the will to refuse God. In fact, humanity is that proverbial boulder that God made that He can not move. Our will is strong enough to resist God, yet both Augustine of Hippo and Martin Luther believed that our will is not strong enough to come to God, that God comes to us.

Perhaps God is always there, beckoning us, pleading with us giving us signs to look at Him and to turn toward

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