God knows and foresees our every thought, but He does not choose to save us because He peered into the future to see if there were any people who, in themselves, had virtuous thoughts, were more wise, humble or more spiritually discerning than others.  No, being spiritually blind and hardened by nature, it is by grace alone in Christ that we even have the wisdom, discernment, humility, good thoughts or sound judgement to believe and embrace Christ (Deut 30:6, Ezek 36:26, John 5:21, 6:37, 63, 65; 1 Cor. 1:29-31, 2:12-14; 1 Cor 4:7)

Question from Visitor
Are we complete robots? If not, how many free choices did we make that led up to us accepting Christ?

Answer
Scripture teaches that fallen human beings do indeed make voluntary choices. We are not robots or puppets controlled by God without any sense of responsibility or decision-making. However, due to the corruption of our nature, our wills are bound by sin. Romans 8:7 tells us that “the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot.” While we are free in the sense that we make choices, the problem is that our desires are enslaved to sin (John 8:34), and left to ourselves, we will always resist God’s call (John 3:19-20).

Because of this hostility and spiritual blindness, no one will voluntarily come to Christ unless God first opens their eyes and gives them a new heart. In Deuteronomy 30:6, God promises to “circumcise your heart … so that you will love the Lord your God.” Likewise, Ezekiel 36:26 speaks of God removing the heart of stone and giving us a heart of flesh. It is not that God looks into the future to see if someone would choose Him, but rather that He acts to regenerate us, enabling us to see and love Christ (John 6:37, 44).

Fallen humans are spiritually dead (Ephesians 2:1-5), and just as a dead person cannot make themselves alive, so we will not come to Christ without first being made spiritually alive. As Jesus says in John 6:63, "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all." Therefore, regeneration must precede our faith. Once God removes our spiritual blindness and softens our hearts, we freely and joyfully choose Christ. This is because God’s grace is not coercive but transforms our will, allowing us to see Christ’s beauty and desirability for the first time.

Even in our fallen state, we are responsible for the choices we make. We reject Christ not because God is forcing/coercing us to do so but because our sinful nature desires things contrary to God (Romans 3:10-12). But once the Holy Spirit regenerates us, our will is renewed so that we freely choose Christ (Philippians 2:12-13). In this sense, we are not robots but restored to true freedom in Christ—the freedom to choose what is good, which we could not do apart from God’s grace (Romans 8:2).

We are not robots, but neither are we neutral in our choices before regeneration. We are born with a will inclined toward sin, and without God’s intervention, we will always choose to resist Him. It is God’s sovereign grace that breaks through our resistance, opens our eyes to the beauty of Christ, and gives us the desire and ability to freely choose Him (1 Corinthians 2:12-14, Ephesians 2:8-9)​​​.