Free will is a difficult subject to 'explain' and it causes a lot of controversy within the Christian community, and there is a wide spectrum of understanding presented as 'truth'. Within the scriptures it is in fact seen to be a pivotal and central factor of creation that all of God's rational creatures should have this free will and be able to choose for themselves, but it is crucial to understand firstly the factors that surround 'choice' so that we get it in a true context.

Free will does NOT mean ‘free from all influence’, for all our choices are an internal response to external stimuli. It is a complex subject that includes a vast range of factors in life that perhaps we will never be able to fully harmonise in this life – while we may understand some/most/all/none of these factors involved, actually committing them to a written format is even harder to do. For my part I believe that to gain a footing in this subject it should be looked at from multiple viewpoints. We must grasp the concepts that God is the primary mover in all circumstances (Isaiah 45v6-7), and that His motive is love, and that He is also testing and challenging us in life through 'choices' that we are given to make. If we can see these factors we have a chance of gaining a foundation of understanding in this subject. Also any discussion of man's free will must of a necessity include aspects of the topic of God's sovereignty, for both are interwoven in life's fabric. 

The book of Genesis is vital to this topic because as well as showing us the origins of all things and the early history of creation, it also focuses of several key personages and shows how God interacted with them. We need to see these things clearly, for the foundation of all theology is contained here, and if we get this wrong our whole belief system can be unbalanced.

I do not claim to know all there is to know on this subject and perhaps I only scratch the surface but here is my small contribution to the puzzle of free will.

Section One: God as primary mover in all things.

This section must be understood as foundational and be seen as the method God uses to carry out His will without involving discussion of His motives. It is how He works it out without the ‘why’ He does it that way – we cover that in the next section further down the page. Many regard free will as meaning a total freedom from all influence or restraint/control. For us as humans this situation simply does not exist! We are creatures bound up with the circumstances/providences of the creation ('the natural' world in which we exist), and the actions/workings of beings in higher realms of creation than us: beings (the angels) that have a powerful influence over these circumstances that we experience. All realms of this creation reside under the Supreme Being, who is God, and who is the sovereign of the whole of creation - and He is the primary 'mover' in all things - He is the one who has first choice and always acts first! Everything else is delegated work, or is a response to His first action. 

All things were created by Him and for Him (Col 1:16) and He knows all of His creation. He knows each of our strengths and weaknesses, our individual characters, and how we will react in any circumstances we find ourselves involved in. Nothing is beyond His knowledge for it is His design and His wisdom that sustains and upholds all things through the power of His living Word. He created and maintains the original framework and laws of creation within which we have our existence – any 'choices' made by us only react to and/or modify the circumstances within this framework of existence – but all remains subject to Him and under His sovereign guidance and control. He has many ways to bring influences into our lives that will guide our choices - and yet allow us to choose for ourselves.

As I said, He is the primary mover in ALL things, and our 'free will' is the choice or response to the situation He himself brings about by His prior action in all realms of creation. We can see this demonstrated in Genesis chapters 1-3 at creation. God created mankind and placed them in a garden of perfection. This was their framework of existence. He exalted them to be the most blessed of His creatures, and gave them great responsibility as well as great blessings. This act of God caused a reaction in the higher angelic realms as they now found themselves with a new role. They were to honour and minister to creatures that were greatly exalted and yet inferior to them. Some of their former stewardship responsibilities concerning earth were now given primarily to mankind who were rulers over this lower realm; and the angels were to serve this new creature and assist in bringing about Gods design and will. This new challenge was the ‘test’ of obedience for angels and some made bad choices. Lucifer and his followers saw the new arrangement as an affront to their dignity and position and so they rebelled from their alotted estate (Jude 1:6). Lucifer had his own alternative design in mind (Isaiah 14:12-14) and so he entered the realm of mankind to ‘minister’ to them from his wisdom. There was nothing strange happening here in the garden as angels were supposed to minister to mankind in God's name; but Lucifer had an evil intent and sought to usurp God as supreme regent. Lucifer challenged God’s order and brought his own ideas to Adam and Eve. Lucifer introduced confusion, and what should have been a simple and easy choice was made complex by the 'additional wisdom' from this angelic rebel. The couple chose (Eve first and then Adam) to follow his wisdom and his way, and the fall occurred.

We must pause here and go back to see clearly that this fall came about as a consequence of God’s primary action in the created realms disturbing His creatures – it is a reaction to His rule and a choice to rebel. God did not act in an evil way but evil was a consequence when His creatures chose their responses to His work. God shuffled responsibilities when He created mankind and angels were given special responsibilities concerning this new creature. Some of their authority in creation's order had been temporary and was subsequently transferred to mankind (dominion over earth was given to mankind) and the stewardship (not dominion) of creation by angels was changed to a role of ministry and support for mankind. This was God's right as ruler, and was part of His plan. Because He had created each person (angel or human) He knew what each would do in the circumstances presented to them, but because of what He desired as the end purpose of creation He allowed those choices to be made – there was no other way, as we shall see in the next section about love.

 
God then continues on as primary mover when He addresses the fall by His judgement, and assigns the limits for the now fallen creation and creatures. They may be in rebellion but God is still in control - even their rebellion will be limited by the parameters He sets. Having judged His creatures individually, He then introduces animal sacrifice as the means of restoration of relationship with mankind, and brings Adam and Eve back into fellowship with Himself. Notice here that they did not initiate the restoration or choose to be restored – God did it all as primary mover! This is the first picture of salvation and it shows God as both author and finisher of all things, the truth fully revealed later in Christ.  The fallen couple actually had no part in this - it was God who initiated and completed the task. So God now has a fallen creation and a human posterity that must be brought into relationship one at a time by their own choice choice for they inherit the fallen and marred image of Adam (Gen 5:3). Everything that God now does will pivot around these facts for His government will focus on redemption and grace toward sinners and the coming of Christ.We believe that despite the bondage of the fallen nature, God through common grace maintains the freedom for man to seek truth and reach out for God should they so wish (Acts 17:27). This in no way compromises the fact that man has no power or part in his own salvation - it simply means that man is able to choose to accept or reject things as 'light' or the gospel is spoken to him. It is God who saves and it is He who brings light in mercy to fallen man that man may see and be able to choose to seek the good - sadly few choose this way (John 3:19-21).

It is valuable to pause here and see the fact that all of life has now become a battle zone between light and darkness or good and evil, and as such it has become far more complex than if evil did not exist. We do well to note that this battle is not between God and Satan as equals - God remains in full control of His creation and all of Satan's 'rights' ( better would be permitted acts) are only by permission of God and fit His purposes. Certainly the human race has become vulnerable to the manipulative strategies of an enemy intent on domination and destruction. God now begins His own strategy of war to reach the captives of sin. We need to see this because unless we see God as working to a strategy we will not grasp about free will and sovereignty. We also need to see how the power of evil works to capture souls for they are not his from birth - contrary to what some popular Word Faith teachers will tell you!

From the instance of birth, as they grow toward maturity, each human being is given light into their life through the Spirit, creation's witness to God, parental guidance and nurture, society and its cultural laws, and also through religious teachings. This is the system of common grace. No – one is exempt, and all humans receive light from the Spirit who illuminates to assist decision making (Prov 8:1-5 and Prov 9:1-6). But in addition to this gracious work of God there is also the input from the fallen angels to whom mankind has become bound through the fall (a door into mankind's life has been opened) and who seek to corrupt that light and lead away from God by lies and the deceits of darkness (Prov 9:13-18). This situation allows Satan to work to corrupt individuals, society, religious structures, etc and the next recorded episode in human history enables us to see how this situation is worked out in the lives of the first children of this fallen creation - Cain and Abel.

Both these boys were subject to the same input of light from the Spirit, parents, and creation's witness and yet, even this early in history we can see the realities being worked out. We can see the result of the influence of evil powers bearing fruit in their lives. One boy was saved as righteous while the other was corrupted and became wicked. In order to understand how God works in salvation it is necessary to see firstly that God is totally impartial in what He does, but also that He uses very specific strategies to reach each individual for salvation - He must save on an individual basis for sin is individual to each person. There is so much that God must prepare, and do to ensure the chosen and targeted vessel is brought to a salvation relationship without violating His own laws and attributes, along with not violating the free will of the targetted individual and others - Only God could work all things together to achieve this.

It is important that we get the right start point for this story or we will get the whole picture out of focus. Both Cain and Abel were schooled under common grace and both could be saved - indeed this was God's intent for God is no respector of persons. Under common grace both God and Satan influence every member of mankind to gain their allegience and all people are on a level playing field here. All can learn good and evil, and all commit individual sins. Some are 'nicer' people than others, but all are sinners in need of salvation. It is into this situation that God moves with His deliberate plan and power to save, but He moves in this power on an individual basis as each human needs to see his own position of need personally. Only God can bring the person to see their own need.

Now both of these boys had the opportunity to learn about their need and how to approach the Holy One through sacrifice, but only Abel did what was right. God had begun His strategy to redeem them by choosing to reach for Abel first, and brought him to full restoration/acceptance prior to his brother – this is simply Gods choice of strategy within all that was occurring throughout His entire creation. God has to govern all realms and will not violate His laws in any area. We are not told why He began this way and chose Abel, for God is not answerable to us for His actions; but it may have something to do with the fact that God will not work to reach any person in ways that breach His order in creation, or damage what He has already redeemed in order to save another. In other words to seek out and restore Cain first may have been breached His order in creation, or may have brought undesired results for Adam and Eve (involving unjust pressures in their lives that could cause them harm). We probably could not understand 'why?' in our current fallen state anyway. However, we can trust that God chooses the best way for His strategy - always and without fail!

So God moves in power to save and is successful in His endeavour on behalf of Abel – but what of Cain? For his part Cain has been responsible under common grace to hold onto the light he has received (and he received good teaching from his parents), and avoid gross sin while he waited and he was supposed to reach for the salvation of the Lord. There is no picture of teaching here that shows God chose Abel over Cain that would suggest that His choice is based on arbitrary things (i.e. God chose Abel but had created Cain to perish). There is evidence in the bible that shows God actively seeks to restrain every one of us from evil, and it is our deliberate choice that goes against this. We see this clearly here because when in fact Cain listened to the voices of darkness and got it wrong at first, it was God who yet still approached him and pleaded for him to do right, and for Cain to cooperate with Him so that he could also be accepted. God was still at this point seeking to redeem Cain.... God actually stated to Cain that the evil one was seeking him, and that even now there was grace for him to overcome (Gen 4:7).  Cain had, however, chosen in his heart to resist the light and had deferred his allegiance to the dark powers (Prov 1:23-33). Then he chose to murder his brother Abel – thus placing himself beyond God's ability to save him. Due to Cain violently rejecting truth, and the needs of justice balanced with love in that early creation it was imperative that God did not allow the first murder to go without punishment at this stage in history. This is the difficulty for God - although He would love to save all, the needs of justice in this fallen world do not allow this. He has to punish and reject in order to restrain others. We need to see also in this story the long suffering of God toward mankind in His reluctance to populate hell with it's first soul – Cain was suffered to live for years, despite his wickedness and exclusion from salvation. This was done to allow a sign to be there for others to see as a demonstration of the justice of God so that evil would be restrained as much as possible.

So in this story we see a picture of God working in powerful and sovereign ways that demonstrate His deliberate choices and strategy. God does actively involves Himself in the redemption of our fallen world, and His presence and work here - though unseen and misunderstood by the majority - does in fact cause reactions from His creatures at all levels. It is not a lack of God doing something that brings judgement for the lost - it is their deliberate free will choice to hate or resist the light of Gods actions that damns them. From what we have considered we also see that mankind is individually responsible to hold to the light they receive from the Spirit and from God's work in redemption, and they are to avoid gross sin that brings judgement. The fact is though, that most of mankind follows the way of Cain and reacts badly to God's work, resisting the light He gives, and preferring to follow the pleasant and alluring calls of the darkness. The majority of mankind do choose sin, and they place themselves beyond God's reach (as did Cain) – for God will not change His strategy, nor will He compromise His way of justice. Though He can forgive all sins (except the one mentioned by Jesus) He will not compromise the safety, development, and well-being of His own righteous people whom He has redeemed so that He can reach any person. Always the one He reaches out to save is the one that brings the right result, and that will add to the well-being of His people rather than harm them. God has a plan for each individual that does them good. A perfect example of this seen later in the Bible is that of Paul the Apostle. When 'arrested' by God Saul had no intent within himself to be saved, and he was in fact trying very hard to be damned. God chose him and saved him completely against his will and despite what he had done – but by bringing a revelation to him of the truth so that Paul could choose, God did not violate the free will of Paul. God chose Paul not only and primarilly to reduce harm to the body (He could have justifiably killed Paul to achieve this), but also to add to His people the person that we now call the greatest apostle, and the writer of most of our New Testament. God's plan for Paul was to do him good despite Paul's own plans for something very different. God is wise and His strategy is perfect. Those around Paul would have all reacted in their own ways to God's work and made choices to this invasion of their lives by the Divine King. Some would have been saved, while others would have reported back to the council in Jerusalem and rejected salvation.

We need to note also that it is not the evil things that a person does that causes the failure to gain salvation (with the exception of the sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit). It is rather the rejection of God's means of salvation that brings the judgement. Cain rejected God's ordained use of animal sacrifice and therefore the correct method of approach to God before he murdered his brother. He rejected the light he received (including personal approaches from God Himself to encourage him) before God could reach out to him in power to bring him to salvation. God is eternal but the plan of redemption is worked out in a strategy within time as we live our lives - Cain confirmed his evil choices in murdering his brother and the window of time for his salvation closed. There is a limit! Now on the contrary Saul of Tarsus did evil and murdered many before he accepted the revelation of Christ. When Christ reached for him in his own personal window of time he responded despite his initial violent rejection of 'the way'  through his ignorance, and he chose to believe.

So God is sovereign, and God does choose whom He will save. He does know the end from the beginning, and He does reject some. None of this is arbitrary however, but is rather the result of His pro-active involvement in our human life (even when we are in darkness and do not know He is there) and is a result of our own personal reactions to that fact of His efforts.

If we perish it is because we choose to follow darkness before God can get to us as the target of His special redeeming grace, and we step too far into rebellion - outside the circle of His grace. We reap a harvest of His justice under the terms of common grace (as a follower of the way of Cain). We do not need to commit murder to do this - we only need to reject light/truth and persist in following a lie. Becoming an atheist and completely rejecting God outright could be one avenue that does this because if your window of time for redemption runs out and you do not turn - you will die. He desires all to be saved and rejects no-one just for who they are – but in the wider scheme of things His justice and love forbid that He acts in ways that would change His strategy. He always acts to work all things together for the best end result. It is important to note here that we are surrounded in our lives by people who mirror this story:

• Those who are redeemed and in relationship with God.
• Those who are like Cain before he rejected the light and murdered his brother - not yet redeemed and who God still calls to. Some of these will get saved and some will resist and perish. It is among these that we find our harvest.
• Those for whom there is no return - who like Cain have placed themselves outside of the place where God can be true to Himself and yet save them. These are the wicked whom Satan has as his pawns to oppress and fight against the light. 

Section Two: The love of God.

God (and we must clearly understand this) wants love to be the central feature of the relationships between the creatures within His creation, and also between themselves and Himself. That is why free will was so crucial to His purpose. The creation of robots or automatons is easy but does not allow for love, for love must be a gift freely offered. To understand about the fall and our redemption we must firstly grasp some deeper facts about love, and God's purpose in creation.

The true desire of God and His supreme final purpose for His creation is not found in Genesis chapters 1 and 2 – it is actually found in the book of Revelation in chapters 21 and 22. The new creation is not 'plan B' because we messed up 'plan A'. God has had this new creation in mind all along (from the very beginning) as His final and finished work, and it is the outcome that all of His work leads toward. It is the crowning jewel of glittering worth. This current creation was created the way it was for a purpose, and it is fulfilling all He intended it to do to bring to birth the end product He really desires.

You see, God wants more than just a creation that loves Him for what He provides. We would all do that if we lived in perfection as in Eden. God knew that the external blessings of creation alone would not be enough to produce the kind of love relationship He wanted - or to hold that love for eternity. Love is personal and intimate and God wants a creation that loves Him for who He really is, and the supreme revelation of who He is comes through the cross and its selfless sacrifice and love. He desires a pure and reckless love of the heart, not a superficial love of Him for His gifts. Only in this way of redemption can His creatures really know and understand experientially the depth of His love for them as individuals, and the true intent of His plan for them. Only in this way can He birth in their hearts the kind of love He desired from them - a love freely offered and that will not fail.

God knew that the creating of rational beings with free will would begin in the love and appreciation of His generosity, but that it would inevitably and absolutely result in a fall, and that evil would exist as His created beings made choices and saw the possibility of alternative ways to 'be'. He knew that a deeper 'heart understanding' of love was needed - yet there was no other way than through the fall and redemption of mankind to achieve what He desired above all. This intimate heart love with His creatures could only be achieved through the fall and through the personal application of the cross.  This fact of evil was therefore unavoidably accepted and included in His design so that He could reveal the depth of His love to all, and establish relationship on the basis of the true heart intimacy of pure sacrificial love. He had already established the full payment and redemption value to fulfil His purpose – it was all to fall on Him. The full and terrible cost of redemption was taken upon Himself. He would pay it all - and no member of mankind would be excluded unless they chose to reject His love! He made redemption to be His own personal and special work, and knew from the beginning that many of mankind would resist His purpose and fail to be redeemed. This cost was accepted for throughout it all His justice, patience, and love would be seen, He would be able to remain blameless and gain His heart's desire. He has made a way for all to be saved and there is nothing more He could do than He has done already.

After the fall God provides for His creatures in love, and from mankind He requires simply that we obey the light we have. The covenant of Eden (obedience) governs all mankind in this age. Fallen mankind receives many blessings from God and they are required to live properly – the sin nature of fallen mankind and the interference of Satanic power ensures that evil causes problems in this world, and corrupts individuals. Each individual is responsible for their own actions in view of the light they have received, and God judges each on that basis alone. He does not judge for what we do not know, but rather for our response to what we have been shown. God could reach out to and lead anyone to Christ from anywhere if they would cooperate with the Spirit and His work in their lives under common grace (John 3:21). Most people block out the tender workings of the Spirit and follow other more 'brash and interesting' influences which lead to darkness and judgement (John 3:19-20). This is the state of common grace and common justice – it applies to all who are not yet in Christ. Tornadoes, storms, earthquakes, tsunamis, financial crashes, wars, famines are all results of corporate sin and are expressions of justice upon that sin.

God is moved by His great love to redeem mankind and sets about doing this one person at a time. He chooses His strategy in Wisdom and love for all and uses the best plan to redeem and protect/develop each individual. His acts of love and involvement in the world of mankind in no way exclude anyone, but they do cause a reaction from satanic powers and from fallen mankind - and some humans place themselves into positions that mean He must judge and He will not reach for them any longer, because He will not act contrary to His nature, change His standards and His ways, nor will He sacrifice the security of those He has already redeemed to reach others. This is what happened with Cain. Reaching a human involves balancing all things so that none suffer due to the actions of God on behalf of others, and He chooses the best path at any time to achieve this (this does not mean that we do not experience challenges in life - see the next section). He will always work in this way – selecting His next target (or targets), acting in gracious love toward them to bring understanding, convicting, and then regenerating them so that they are then secure in His love. Those acts in themselves 'interfere' in the world of mankind and many react in hatred to His work. God would love to save all, but it is a sad fact that as all things work together dynamically in this life, the truth is seen that the majority will perish by their own choices - for they will not love the light but prefer the darkness that pleases their flesh and leads to hell (Prov 7:6-27).

In reality hyper Calvinist and Arminian beliefs are both wrong because they place all responsibility on either God or Mankind. But God is not sitting impersonally above His creation and He is not:

• ...arbitrarily choosing members of the human race whilst equally arbitrarily rejecting others (the Calvinist view). His choices are not made on the basis of  impersonal/arbitrary factors – they are based on dynamic personal interaction with His creation.
• ...watching and waiting for men who might choose Him as they learn about His gospel (the Lutheran view). He actively pursues people to seek them out in dynamic interraction and pro-active pursuit.

In truth God is sovereign and is working out His plans in accordance with His design. Those who love truth acknowledge His ways and come to the light – eventually being saved (some in the church spend years involved before actually knowing true salvation), and others He redeems whilst in absolute opposition to His will (Saul of Tarsus). In all cases He is the primary mover working in love to redeem His chosen people. He does this as a wise masterbuilder, adding to the church in very specific order the people that enhance the body. Those who perish do so because of their hatred of the light, and because they resisted the callings of God. God's desire remains that all would be saved, and He draws all – but the majority run from Him into darkness and an eternity lost.

Section Three: The tests and challenges in life.

The picture I have painted so far shows how God does things so as not to violate our free will, and also shows His motivations behind the strategy He uses along with the reasons that some are rejected and perish. This still does not give a rounded picture for life is not experienced in the way that these two factors alone portray. Life is in fact far more mixed up and involves the experience of personal tests and challenges. God also uses these in His strategy and selection of humans for salvation and for His purpose. For when God moves in His power He disturbs things and presents change to each person who is affected by His work, and this change challenges our perceptions of life. It is these challenges that should alert us to the fact that an unseen hand operates in life. It should cause us to seek understanding.

Looking at other characters in the book of Genesis can reveal some very interesting  factors to us. For example if we look at Abraham we can see God as primary mover in His life at several points - the call, promise of the land and posterity, gift of a son. We also see another great feature portrayed which reveals Gods workings with us and this is 'testing'. God had just fulfilled His promise to Abraham and allowed him to settle into the blessing of receiving a son, and then, when he was really beginning to enjoy his son God asked him to sacrifice that very son back to Him. Now God never intended this as anything but a test of Abraham's love to see that he was 'true' in his devotion. Of course the truth of the matter is that God already knew this, but Abraham needed to overcome and triumph so that his character was perfected. There are other instances in Abraham's life that show tests being brought to cause Abraham to grow in faith and love. Because we are fallen we need tests to sift us and try us - not for God's sake but rather for us. This means we learn about ourselves and God's love.

In the case of Ishmael we see man's free will trying to do God's work as Sarah tried to produce a son for Abraham in her own way. She was tested in regard to her acceptance of God's plan. We also see God again doing 'to' His chosen vessel something that is not in their agenda of choices - the conception of Isaac was not 'normal' as both the parents were well beyond normal ages for this. The parents did however have to choose to free willingly 'perform' the necessary act in faith and cooperate with God for the promise to occur. God became primary mover here and 'interfered' in man's realm for His purposes as sovereign by bringing forth a child that was not possible without His grace. God brought this chosen vessel Isaac into relationship and rejected Ishmael as firstborn of Abraham - he was not what God had planned for the outworking of the plan of redemption. God had allowed Ishmael to be born, however, and he was a child of the blessed Abraham so God then set out the boundaries of 'Ishmael' and his posterity. The special promises, however, moved forward in Isaac.

Moving on to Esau and Jacob we can see further truth revealed. Both sons were in the chosen family but different responsibilities were destined for them under normal family 'rules'. Esau was firstborn and would carry the family name and responsibilities forward, whereas Jacob would have lesser responsibilities. As they grew under common grace (experiencing all we covered in the first section) it became obvious that Esau was not heeding the truth and was, like Cain, earthy and carnal. Jacob was more spiritual and (despite his faults) it became obvious that God had chosen him to be the leading light in the familly. Esau was tested in regard to how he saw his birthright (the call of God on his life, and his loyalty to the promises of God), and his free will response to this test shows us that he had not adhered to the ways needed, and had no concept of the true value of such a birthright. Jacob knew the value of the birthright and, although he gained it in a way that shows us his bad side, God saw his sincerity of intent toward the purpose behind the birthright. Later we see God 'dealing' specifically with Jacob to bring him to a full relationship, and we then see the fruit in the life of Jacob as he is seen dealing more fairly in his relationships with others. We also see that Esau realized his error when it was too late for repentance - even trivial things in our eyes can have serious consequences for our future! There are others we could look at, but the same facts always arise.

We need to see two things here - God does exactly what he wants without fail, and man has free will that responds in life to what God does and this determines outcomes for his life now and in eternity. Even though we do not see God, it is He that works quietly to govern our lives, and the many instances where our plans are thwarted are the very times God says "no" - for whatever reason.

In life God chooses to save specific people at specific times, and that very act of 'saving them' causes ripples into their family, neighbourhood, and community. This personal change that salvation brings creates changes in status, relationship, and practise in life so that things are not as they were. People are challenged and tested by these changes or disturbances to normal routine, and their lives are no longer the same. They have to relate to the new events. Sometimes this can produce more than just change - it can bring challenges to both non-christians and christians alike. Persecution tests both sides in how they stand with God - the evildoers get a test of truth, and the believer gets a test of loyalty and love. God by His actions sifts us all - seeing how we react, and providing light and grace to stand in those tests if we choose to do so. Even none Christians receive help in life if they choose not to sin, for God is gracious. He never intends harm in His redmptive purposes (that is a process called judgement and is another factor of how God deals with us, but is not covered here), but only to test our loyalty to the light we have received.

To sum up.

The whole mass of fallen mankind receives light and help from God as they live life in this world and the expression of their life is a reaction to what He does in creation. And the whole of mankind is corrupted by the evil one who is constantly seeking the downfall of every individual. All are living under common grace and are dealt with very simply under this system by God - rewarded appropriately for their exercise of choices whether good or bad. In addition God moves in special saving grace on whom He wills within this mass of humanity to save whom He chooses at any time - working all things together for good and building His church.