FREE WILL? MY CHOICE

I look at the world around me and I often wonder, “Why did God give us free will?  He didn’t have to do that.  He could have programed us differently at Creation and would still be living in the Garden.”   Obviously the down side of that is we would be rather robotic, but everything is a trade-off.  There would be no anger, not hatred, no disease, no famine, no poverty, no war…no death!  Ooops, that would have created a major population problem, unless of course God would have stopped creating when the world reached its sustainable population level.  Ooops… I don’t like that plan either.  If that were the case, He would have stopped creating many, many generations ago.  Yikes!  I wouldn’t even be here…and neither would you!  Bad idea!  So I’ve proven to myself yet one more time…He is God!  I’m definitely not.

But surely God knew we would mess-up this “free-will” thing, right?  Of course he did, but that was all part of his Divine plan.  Giving us “free will” was no doubt a double edged-sword, but without it we could not choose to engage in a relationship with Him – to love him back!  As I have stated in many previous postings, I believe there are two fundamental principles from which everything written in the Bible emanates.  And they are: (1.) God is love and (2.) God wants a relationship with us – an eternal relationship.  We are told in 1 John 4:19, “We love because he first loved us.” Creating us, and creating us in His image, was an act of love.  Revelation 4:11 tells us, “…we were created for your honor and glory…and for your pleasure.”  His pleasure comes through a relationship with us.

Man was God’s last creation on Day 6, and he proclaimed his creation, “excellent in every way.” (Genesis 1:31).  And because he had special plans for us, he gave us something no other animal has. All other creatures live by instinct, but man was given the ability to think rationally and to make choices.  You see…God wanted us to choose to love him back, knowing full well that that ability could be used for undesirable purposes too.  But our being able to choose “relationship” trumped the downside, so God, in his infinite wisdom, always had an alternative plan (a Divine plan) to rectify that situation even before the world was created.

If you were to ask anyone if they would rather have the ability to choose than have someone else tell them what to do, I suspect the unanimous answer would be, “yes!”  But with that freedom there is a responsibility for the choices we make.  And in that reality is the rub.  While people want the right to pick and choose according to their own desires, often times these choices lead to unwanted, or unexpected consequences. For example, Jim made a choice to drink alcohol and drive, then wondered why the accident happened; Terri made a choice to smoke, then wondered why she was diagnosed with lung cancer; Scott made a choice to have sex, then was surprised to find a pregnancy resulted.*  Like it or not…our life is the sum total of the choices we make.

Oh yes, I know someone is reading this who is thinking, “But you don’t understand my circumstances!”  While I admit, some of us are victims of our circumstances and have it harder than others, but I would point to the quadriplegic basketball team as an example of those who refused to let their circumstances “imprison” them.  While no doubt “stuff” happens, it is our response to the “stuff” that shapes our lives and defines who we are from that moment forward.  Again it’s all about choice.

WHERE IS GOD?

Let’s not forget there is a sovereign God who is first and foremost a God of love.  Does He have a Devine plan for all eternity? Yes.  Is it a perfect plan? Yes.  Did he say, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5)? Yes! And did not the wise man say, “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord will guide his steps.” (Proverbs, 16:9)?  Of course he did!  Then why do we find ourselves in terrible or even disastrous situations?  In other words…Where is God?

Let me point out that God’s plan for Adam and Eve was to live in the Garden communing with Him.  They were spiritually connected; God provided for all their needs; it was paradise!  All that was required of the Mayor of Eden and his Chief Assistant was to remain obedient to God.  But, as we know, that didn’t happen.  By their one act of disobedience, SIN entered the world and the spiritual connection between God and man was severed (by man).  They were cast out of the Garden and every generation since Adam has been born spiritually separated from God. Ouch!  But the Good News is… that spiritual connection can be re-established any time man wants to restore it. 

 Let me refer to the story of the Prodigal Son. (Luke 15: 11-32)  The father in the story (a metaphor for God) did not prevent his son (a metaphor for mankind) from making the choice to leave home.  The son reaped the consequences of his actions, and when he had crashed and burned and saw no way out of his squalor, he turned to his father and asked for forgiveness.  The father greeted him with open arms and said, “Welcome home, son.  I’ve been waiting for you.”  (Notice the repentance was initiated by the son.) The same is true for us.  Whenever we become willing to be obedient to God’s plan for our life, we can restore that spiritual connection with God anytime we are ready. The proclamation from the Old Testament prophets to the Billy Grahams of today has never changed: “Repent (change your mind)!  Turn from your sin and turn to God!…” (Matthew 3:2)

Step 3 of the 12 Step Recovery Plan states this so beautifully and succinctly; “We became willing to turn our will and our life over to the care of God, as we understood Him.”  The word in that step that opened my mind to its true meaning is “care”.  Not control, but “care”.  And what does a caregiver do for us:  looks out for our well-being; keeps us safe; is sure our needs are met, etc.  God wants to be our caregiver just as he was Adam and Eve’s caregiver.  And what do you think is God’s first order of business when we turn to him for help and guidance?  Well…since we are sinners by nature and it is SIN that has kept us separated from Him, he wants to clean us up so we can become he person he created us to be.  This is so beautifully spelled out in Romans  5: 6, “ When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners”, and again in Romans 3:22-25: “ We are made right in God’s sight when we trust in Jesus Christ to take away our sins.  We can all be saved in the same way, no matter who we are or what we have done.  For all have sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious standard.  Yet now God in his gracious kindness declares us NOT GUILTY.  He has done this through Christ Jesus who has freed us by taking away our sins.  For God sent Jesus to take the punishment for our sins and to satisfy God’s anger against us.”

Those four verses are a mini-sermon in themselves.  They very succinctly present the Gospel of Grace, meaning we did nothing to earn God’s favor and we certainly didn’t deserve it.  But this was His Divine plan for mankind. Did he know we would fall short of his glorious standard?  Of course He did. But this is his answer to our sin issue so we can spend eternity with Him in heaven.

IT’S ALL ABOUT CHOICE

It’s all about choice.  While Christ paid the price for our sins, we have a decision to make.  If we choose to accept His Gift of Grace, we are grafted into his family.  We are now his child; we are sin-free; we made the righteousness of Christ; we are worthy and acceptable in God’s eyes; our eternal destiny is established.  Roman’s 8:1 tells us, “There is no condemnation for those who belong to Jesus Christ.”

Should we decide not to accept this gift, we continue to be spiritually separated from God, meaning the focus is on our self and our own pleasures rather than on God.  This, biblically speaking, defines SIN, and the result of continuing that course is clearly spelled out in Romans 6;23,“For the wages of sin is death…”.  But the Good News also is found at the end of that very same verse,“…but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” 

GOD IS LOVE

Even when we have to deal with unpleasant circumstances, God is still on the throne.  The answer is always the same, regardless of our circumstances.  1 Corinthians10:13 tells us, “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” In other words, when we are in line with God’s will, he will find a way to use us to bring honor and glory to his kingdom.  In that capacity we will find and experience a joy, peace and serenity that here-to-fore was never possible.  That’s why Apostle Paul could write the epistles of Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians while chained in a Roman prison. Obviously his circumstances were considerably less than pleasant, but the joy in his heart allowed him to write letters of love and encouragement to fellow believers who needed to hear his message.  Paul also stated in Philippians, 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.”  The good news is…. so can YOU. 1John 4:4 reminds us, “He that is in me (the Holy Spirit) is greater than the spirit in this world.”(Satan).  A-men!

So my question to you is… “Who are you today: a result of your choices or your circumstances…or other?

May God Bless Ya, and feel free to respond to this message.

Dan Presgrave, (a.k.a. Pastor Dan)