A free will vs. a bound will?

I hear many people get confused when they hear others affirm God's sovereign election of people to salvation. The misunderstanding usually comes in the form of thinking "free will" is all people having the capacity and choice to obey God unto salvation vs. "election", which they feel means some people are kept from salvation who want it, while others may be forced to believe, like some kind of robots.

In reality, the situation is well described like this:

Before the fall, Adam and Eve were able to sin or not to sin. They had absolute freedom of choice when it came to obeying or disobeying God. Of course we know they used their freedom to sin.

After the fall, man's will is said to be in bondage to sin (Gen. 8:21, Rom. 3:9-18, 8:6-11, 1 Cor. 2:14-16). We have the freedom to choose, but we use that freedom to choose against God. So, practically speaking, fallen man is not able not to sin, he won't choose to love and obey God. However, we must remember, this is what we want, we are not being forced to sin like robots.

Once regenerated and indwelt by the Holy Spirit, we have the ability to sin or not to sin (2 Cor. 5:17, Gal. 5:16-26, Eph. 2:1-10, 1 John 1:5-2:1). Here also, we are not robots and still may sin, but we also freely desire to obey the Lord we love from our new nature.

Once we are glorified and the fleshly nature is gone, we will live forever with Christ and be not able to sin (1 Cor. 15:50-53, Rev. 21:22-27).

All glory is to Christ as He redeems His people by His plan and power!