Free Will In Heaven?
Question?
Does the soul in heaven still have free will?
Answer!
“Once the soul sees God, it will be drawn toward Him, that is, face to face. Such knowledge necessarily gives birth to the most intense love. Once the soul sees God, it will be drawn toward Him by an overwhelming force, an attraction so intense that it cannot be described in human words. It will be bound to God forever in the embrace of unchanging, ceaseless, perfect love, which obviously, will exclude all possibility of sin, but will fill the soul with indescribable joy” (This Is The Faith; Canon Francis Ripley p.394).
“One of the best things to look forward to at death, say the saints, is that ‘he who has died is freed from sin’…Of course we will have all three (freedom’s) in heaven, but why won’t we be able to sin, since we will have free will? Because we will have a fourth freedom, the most important one of all: freedom from sin, from what makes us not ourselves. We will be free to be the true selves God designed us to be…To obey God is to be free in the most radical sense: free to be me…C.S. Lewis explanation of this principle (about free will in heaven) is that it is all of us that chooses; nothing is left over; it is certain; it is wholly determined. But it is also wholly free because it is wholly self-determined. The whole self chooses, the divided will is healed (in heaven). The answer to our question, then, is that ‘freedom to sin’ is a self-contradictory concept. Sin is inauthenticity and freedom is authenticity; sin is our false self and freedom is our true self. Sin is part of Hell and freedom is part of Heaven” (Everything You Ever Wanted To Ask About Heaven; Dr Peter Kreeft, p.40-1).
My summary conclusion:
Our nature will be perfected in charity in the beautific vision.
We will be freed from sin (Roman 6:7) totally in heaven.
Our free will - will be totally abandoned and surrendered to the Divine Will.
The saints in heaven pray for us on earth (cf. Rev 5:8), experience joy upon the conversion of a sinner (Luke 15:11) and call for God’s wrath upon the wicked (Rev 6:9), these are biblical demonstrations of free will in heaven.