"Then God said: “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."
–
Genesis 1:26 (NIV)
So we know God speaks in absolutes; so whatever God
says, He does, for He cannot lie. So when God had decided to make us in
His likeness, that meant us being eternal, having power, having dominion (over the
Earth) and having the free will to do anything we pleased. God's free
will allows Him to do anything He pleases, but because He is a righteous and
holy god, nothing He does has even a hint of evil. In His likeness, we
were also righteous and blameless, but since the fall of man with Adam and Eve
eating the forbidden fruit, we were condemned. Two things came of this
event. One of these things being "sin" and the other
being "fear". Since evil is completely contrary to God and
caused by a lack of God's love/presence, it is not eternal, therefore it has an
end; sin subjected us to an inevitable death. Sin also is a device of
slavery, used by Satan, taking away our gift to rule the earth; the world became
Satan's kingdom. Fear causes many things such as confusion, doubt, hate and
insecurity– the product of these things is the lack of faith. Without
faith, all things are rendered impossible, diminishing the power that we
received. One of the few things of God's likeness that remained fully
intact with us was our free will.
Free will was never taken from us. We still
possessed the choice to do as we pleased, but our actions would now fall on
either side of the fence between good and evil. Some say God should have
taken our free will for our own sakes, but that would mean God would also
control our love for Him. Can you imagine your spouse, your parents, your
boyfriend/girlfriend, your siblings, your friends or family loving you, only
because you made them? That would be so empty and disingenuous.
God wants your love genuinely because you want to love Him, not because
you have no other choice.
Now I have had the conversation regarding free will
with numerous individuals and have gotten responses like: "Well if
God loves us so much, why would He give us free will to do what we wanted, only
to wind up in hell if we didn't choose to love and serve Him?" This is a
great question and has been duly noted. The best way I can explain this
is with an example:
Let's say throughout your life you were overlooked, unacknowledged and under appreciated by many that were around you. Then by some miracle or product of hard work, you become very successful and well off. One night, while you're opening a bottle of champagne to celebrate with those that struggled with you on your journey to success, there's a knock at the door. Who could it be? You open the door and find every person that ever brushed you off, rejected you, ignored you, disrespected you, discouraged you and hated you when you had nothing and now there they were, asking to be a part of your success. What would you do? Do you welcome them into the glory of your hard work and success or do you reject them? Surely now, you would understand why Christ would answer this question in this way:
"Someone asked [Jesus], “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?” He said to them, “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Sir, open the door for us.’ But he will answer, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’"
– Luke 13:23-25 (NIV)
How can we expect for a good decision to be unfruitful? If we use wisdom, discernment and The Lord's guidance then how can we go wrong? We can't, for God's way only produces goodness and we must trust that. So in the same way how can we expect for immoral, wrong or wicked decisions to go unpunished? If the word of God prohibits something, best believe that there are repercussions for that offense and the original restriction is ultimately for our good. And most times we aren't punished by God, but instead He stays His hand and allows us to simply weather the storm we created with our wrong choices, so that we learn. His word implores us to choose life, so that we may live eternally and avoid destruction.
In conclusion, yes, God gives us all a choice, but free will doesn’t mean that anything we choose is good, it simply means we have the freedom to choose between God and the world, along with the blessings and consequences they come with, respectively. Just be mindful that blessings and consequences travel well into eternity. Hope this helped grow your understanding of free will and answered any questions. Let our prayer be for us to make "life" a daily choice. God bless you.
With Love and Blessings,
Cease The Messenger
I think the most controversial topic that challenges this topic would be "predestination", fully knowing that God is Omniscient and Omnipotent its clear that he knows our life. If predestination is true then why do we have free will?
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