Jesus character did not exactly have "free will". There are at least 2 statements that explains this.
Jesus gave them this answer: "Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. John 5:19
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. Matthew 5:17
Jesus character is like the character in the movie "Stranger than Fiction " with actor Will Ferrell. Just as in the movie where the character can only do ad the author writes, Jesus character can only do what is written (spoken of) in the old testiment.
But that's just it: the New Testament is usually very different from the Old Testament. The Romans, I think, deliberately watered down and pacified it to create a much more compliant populace. And accordingly Jesus was written to HAVE free will, to obey Caesar and blame Jewish authority figures for all their problems. The perfect citizen of the Empire: his kingdom, after all, was not of this world.
Yes, god gave us the wonderful gift of free will. He could of had robots worship him but they would have no choice. If he fucks up things in your world and you worship him anyway, this is what he wants.
Motto, "NEVER argue with Jeebus Chrust or he will throw a tantrum, cry like a baby and threaten to send El Supremo Sky Daddy to smite you."
BUT DO NOT hold your breath waiting for Sky Daddy to smite, chances are you WILL suffocate long, long before Sky Daddy gets around to doing it.
From my experience most religionists will argue that we can't blame God for awful things in this world because he gave us the 'wonderful gift of free will", so don't blame him. Then, in the same breath they will preach their Jesus story, which is godly intervention on a grand scale, and then god's miracles and the saints behind them, and how God came into their lives and saved them, and so on, utterly unaware of these totally incompatible assertions. They believe that God practices free will when it suits him, and intervenes blatantly when it suits him. That's the religious mind.
Bingo.