A common account of human freedom holds that genuine free will consists in the capacity to choose among alternative possibilities. Yet this notion is insufficient. True freedom is better understood as the ability to always discern the good and to will it without constraint. Freedom, in its highest form, is not arbitrary self-assertion but the unhindered alignment of the will with what is objectively right.
Within Christian theology, this distinction becomes particularly relevant. The claim that creatures must possess the capacity to reject God in order to love God genuinely is not entailed by Trinitarian doctrine. According to orthodox Trinitarian belief, the Son possesses free will and yet is incapable of failing to love the Father. The Son’s love is not coerced; rather, it arises necessarily from perfect knowledge and perfect goodness. Thus, within the divine life, free love exists without the possibility of rejection.
This presents an important implication: if God can create a free agent whose love is both genuine and necessary, then the creaturely ability to reject God cannot be a logical requirement for authentic love. Instead, the human capacity to reject God must serve some other divine purpose. Consequently, those who affirm both divine goodness and human freedom must conclude that God endowed humanity with the capacity to turn away from Him not because such capacity is essential to love, but because it is instrumental to the particular telos God has established for humanity, whatever that telos may ultimately entail.
Pursuit of Percipience 