Does the person who has accepted Jesus in his heart as Lord and Saviour retain the free will that God graced him with at birth to commit an act that is of sufficient egregiousness so as to endanger his ultimate union with Jesus? Does Jesus offer forgiveness to such a sinner? ...a resounding "yes" on both counts.
While our Lord wants us to love Him, He ultimately leaves it up to us to do so, because He knows that love not freely given is not love at all.
You have but to read some Christian history to learn that the pervertedly narrow interpretation of Scrpture that resulted in "sola fide" was non-existent until its invention by Martin Luther.
For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good Word of God and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance, seeing that they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh and put Him to open shame.Predestination is 100% Biblical as is free will. I understand both of them very well. The Calvinists position is correct:
And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.Rome is 100% wrong in this area. Your freewill beliefs have to be reconciled to this verse:For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Moreover, whom He predestined, those He also called; and whom He called, those He also justified; and whom He justified, those He also glorified.
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.This verse shuts the door on your freewill understanding, but it is 100% compatible with my understanding, and the correct Biblical position, of freewill.