In Heaven, is our will free--to love/not love?

[john_ennis]

My understanding is that our love for God is only truly love because we are free not to love him–to sin. Our charity to others (which is love for God) can be given or withheld.
To Protestants who tell me that works of love are merely an automatic, spontaneous manifestation of our faith, not freely chosen, I say, “That is not an obedient faith then; it is like dragging your dog on a leash and saying, ‘See how obediently he follows me!’”

But in Heaven, we don’t sin. Are we not free to sin? If not, are we truly loving God, since we can’t choose otherwise? Help me out, if you can.

Peace.
John

 

[DeFide]

We still have our free wills, but those wills will be perfected and cleansed from imperfect love. Our wills will be confirmed in the love of God we chose during our Earthly life as we responded to grace.

As an analogy, think of a talented singer. While they are capable of singing a song off-key, they don’t do it and have no desire to.

 

[JimG]

Our free will is always drawn toward the good. Even when choosing sin, we perceive it to be good in some respect. In heaven, we will be in direct contact with God, the Source of all Goodness. Our wills will be so strongly drawn toward Him that sin will not be possible. It is like iron in the presence of a powerful magnet. In the presence of Absolute Good, sin will have no appeal.

 

[thessalonian]

It is a misdefinition of free will to say that it is the ability to choose between good and evil. The more proper definition advanced by Augustine is that free will is the ability to choose good. In the Garden man was said to be very good. Thus man was made to choose good. However he allowed himself to do evil. It was not an act of free will to choose what was against his will and nature. His nature became corrupt where he no longer had a perfect will for good and had to struggle against the flesh. The new birth of regeneration once again gives us the ability to choose good and to allign our wills with God’s will and perfect them by his grace. We are restored to where we can love God. We are not free when we sin but are enslaved by sin.

Blessings

 

[john_ennis]

Thank you, all. Will we be in a state, though, similar to the angels, who were in the Divine Presence, perfectly united in love with God? Yet some of them did choose evil. Confusing…

Peace.
John

 

[DeFide]

john ennis:

Thank you, all. Will we be in a state, though, similar to the angels, who were in the Divine Presence, perfectly united in love with God? Yet some of them did choose evil. Confusing…

Peace.
John

Now we’re getting into some speculative areas as to how angels were allowed to choose for or against God. It’s possible that God only confirmed the angels’ will after their choice, similar to mankind, but without a mortal life.

 

[Grace_and_Glory]

john ennis:

Thank you, all. Will we be in a state, though, similar to the angels, who were in the Divine Presence, perfectly united in love with God? Yet some of them did choose evil. Confusing…

Peace.
John

From what I’ve heard, the angels had to make their choice when they had an intuitive view of God, in poetic language, ‘a glimpse of God.’ It was only after they made their choice that the angels who chose God entered into the beatific vision.

 

[john_ennis]

Again, some helpful answers. They’ve got me thinking something like this: at the point we’ve reached heaven, we’ve already made the decision–on earth–that the angels eventually made when some stayed and some had to leave. So, we’re then assured our salvation is eternal, in a way that the angels, when initially created, weren’t yet.

Peace.
John

 

[BibleReader]

We will be free to sin. We will not sin. The flow of grace, in the Beatific Vision, will efficiently and effectively confront every iota of concupiscence.