Two things must be protected in this discussion. Free will, and the sovereignty of God. If there is no free will, then God indeed did not create us in His own image and he damns as a whimsical tyrant.
Why do some respond and some ignore? Because they want to. Do they on that score secure their own salvation? No, because no amount of free will would suffice if grace were not prompting it. I cannot will my own salvation, but I can respond to the salvation freely offered by Christ--or refuse it entirely.
Two things must be protected in this discussion. Free will, and the sovereignty of God.
LOL. Spoken like the fallen men and women we all are. First preserve our licentious will, then the sovereignty of God Almighty.
If there is no free will, then God indeed did not create us in His own image and he damns as a whimsical tyrant.
God does not have free will according to the dictionary definition since God cannot go against His own perfect and holy nature. God cannot commit sin; God cannot lie; God cannot fail.
See? Your premise is wrong.
Likewise, men cannot go against their natures -- dead in sin and trespass due to Adam's fall.
"As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one" -- Romans 3:10
Only the supernatural act of God's regeneration can turn a man's face from sin to God.
Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life." -- Titus 3:4-7"But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared,
We are made new creatures in Christ by His will alone, determined from before the foundation of the world, according to nothing in ourselves, according to His good pleasure alone. We are justified by Christ alone and sanctified by the inerrant guidance of the Holy Spirit alone. Salvation is of the Lord.
You and I are fortunate, indeed.