The best definition I’ve ever seen of human free will is found in Romans chapter 10 where Paul accuses the Jews of “seeking to establish their own righteousness” (verse 3). Christians, of course, are just as guilty of this as Israel. Both parties are convinced that God leaves them alone long enough (“free will”) to drum up some personal worthiness that they will then present to the Deity, gift-wrapped, as though He could possibly be impressed by the complete ignorance of HIS righteousness, sufficient of itself for salvation. But in the minds of the religionists (this is where the ignorance comes in), His righteousness is not enough for salvation. It must be supplemented with a human righteousness that, to them, makes all the difference for salvation.

To both the Christian and the Jew, it is this personal righteousness that distinguishes one from one’s fellows, and is the sole reason why the gift-wrappers are going to heaven and the “unworthies” will spend eternity in hell wishing they had wrapped-up their dung as prettily as the “worthies.”