For follow-up discussion and general commentary on the topic. Comments are sorted chronologically.
Jonathan King
The whole tenor of that answer some how does not stand in the light of 2John 3 ;9. He is not willing that any should perish but that ALL should come to repentance! He also knew that " broad is the road to destruction & few there be that find it". The work on Calvary was for all that would accept it & choose to follow Him!
Larry Truelove
I reject the notion that "dead in trespasses and sins" means that we have no will in the matter of God. The whole concept is doctrinally biased toward Calvinism. If that were what it meant then logically our will would also be passive with regard to resisting God as well.
Brian Ansell
I have will, so can you if you choose to
Jennifer Rothnie
This interesting youtube video takes a clip from C.S. Lewis on this topic and puts some chalk visuals to eat so it is easy to follow along:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxzuh5Xx5G4&t=110s
He dives into how God can both be sovereign (in authority/govern) as well as allow man freewill, and why both are necessary and not in conflict.
Danny Hickman
Man can have free will enough to fill the Grand Canyon and won't be able to free will himself to be born into the world. Someone else has to give birth to him. Likewise, if he is born a second time, this time of the Holy Spirit, someone else must give him this birth also. His free will won't give him birth. His free will has nothing to do with being enlightened by the Spirit, the holy God. His free will didn't give him a choice of whether to be enlightened by the truth, thereby giving him a choice to accept the truth. The unregenerated has no choice to believe, is unable to choose life because he is unenlightened by God, because he wasn't chosen to be enlightened. The gospel makes no sense to him.
That's how free will and sovereignty co-exist. One is the means of who is chosen to even have a choice. Not everyone is enlightened by God, and no one enlightens themselves. Knowing the truth and accepting the truth are two different scenarios.
If you want to feel special, then feel special that you were chosen to have a choice. The truth was made known and made sense to the one who accepted it. It had the same power over the one who chose not to accept it.
God doesn't force anyone to climb aboard the ark. He just made the ark accessible. It was their choice. But for some reason Noah and his family believed God. Why? They were enlightened by God. They weren't better people than everybody else the way some of us think of ourselves. God chose Noah and his family!!