God has a problem. His problem began when he created other living beings to live in the same universe as himself. Before the creation there was only one will — God’s will. But now there were other beings and other wills operating in the universe — millions of them. And because God wanted a relationship with these beings, they had to be like him. They had to be made in his image. And since they were made in his image they had to have a free and independent will. They had to be able to choose their own destiny and make their own decisions. They had to be able to say yes, or no. In fact, they had to be able to say yes or no to God himself. For if they could not say no to God, neither could they say yes to him.
Let’s look in on Adam and Eve as they walk about in the Garden of Eden. Here they are perfectly content. They have everything. They live in a perfect paradise with intimate fellowship with God. They love each other and life is good. God has never told them not to do anything, except one small thing — eating the fruit of a certain tree. It has never occurred to them to disobey God. Why would they? They believe he has their best interest at heart, and he has never done anything but good to them. If they ate from the tree called “the knowledge of good and evil,” they would know the difference between good and evil, because would have disobeyed God and thereby chosen evil. God did not want them to make that choice, but he did want them to have the choice. Here is where Satan enters the scene. He is the one who also dwelled in a paradise with God at one time. He had everything, and yet decided to rebel against God. He could do it because he too was made with the freedom to choose. He came to the garden of Eden to plant doubts in the minds of the couple. He made them think God was keeping something from them. He made them question the goodness of God. He questioned whether God told them the truth about the consequences of disobeying him. He tempted them to want to
become like God. In the end, they decided to use their freedom to chose not to trust God or obey him. And we have been following Adam and Eve in failing to trust God and obey him ever since.
God’s gift of free will — this awesome and frightening gift — raises many questions. The first question that we will consider today is: What does it mean to have free will? Having free will means that we can say yes to God, or we can say no to him. We have been given the freedom to love him, follow him, and obey him, or walk away from him and even hate him. We can spit in the face of God — as some literally did at the crucifixion. Mankind had the freedom to nail God’s Son to a cross, and God refused to interfere. We can serve God, or oppose him and work against his purposes and his people — as many are doing.
It is amazing that God gives us this kind of power. The little dictators of this world would never consider this kind of arrangement. They want total control of the people under them. They do not want people to have freedom. But they can afford to do this, because neither do they want a relationship with their people. They are only interested in controlling them. God, on the other hand, has created people for the very purpose of having a relationship with them. He wants this relationship to be intimate and real. In order to do that, you have to have freedom. You cannot choose to love God if you do not have the freedom to push God away. If you have no choice, then you cannot choose to love.
God could force us to love him, or even program us to love him. But what kind of love would it be if it were programed and predetermined? Even if he made it so that we didn’t know there was another choice, it would not satisfy the heart of God. For instance, in the Garden of Eden, God could have kept Satan out, and kept them from realizing that there was any alternative to doing what he said. Or he could have permitted them to eat from the tree so that there would never be a test of their will. They could have lived ignorant and happy if God had chosen to make them that way. There would never be any hate or evil in the world, but neither would there have been any love or goodness, because love is impossible without choice, and so is goodness. You cannot be truly good if you have no choice but to be good. It wouldn’t mean anything. If we would have been programed so that we could never make the wrong choice, then we could never choose to do the right thing. Your choice to love God would not mean anything if you did not have the choice not to love him.
Think of it this way. What if you were married to someone who loved you, but had no choice but to love you. Imagine that they were programed to always do what you wanted. A lot of people might settle for that, but how meaningful would their love be? How much better to be married to someone who chose you out of all the other people they could have chosen How much more meaningful it would be for someone to do good things for you, because they wanted to and did it out of a free heart Why would God be any different?
Some of you have seen the film the sci-fi film The Matrix. In the film, a group of robots, who sometimes take human form, have taken over the world. They were originally made by human beings who developed artificial intelligence (AI), but then the robots spawned an entire race of super-machines. They have one great need: an energy source that can only come from human beings, for the sky has been scorched and there are no other sources of energy. In order to maintain their power, they develop vast fields where human beings are grown in pods and tapped as an energy source. This is the Matrix. These humans live in a computer-generated world of virtual reality where they are harvested. They live in this artificial reality, unaware that they are slaves of an evil system that is in complete control of them. The minds of the humans are controlled and distracted by computers so that they believe they are living free and fulfilling lives, while in reality they only exist for the purpose of those who control the Matrix. Computers rule the world.
God could have developed a world like the Matrix. He could have made us to believe that we had freedom, when in reality we were only mechanical slaves programed to do his bidding. But what pleasure would God derive from that kind of world? He would have complete control of human beings, but he would not have their hearts. Far from the cold, mechanical world of the Matrix, God’s world is one where freedom reigns and love is possible. Jesus said that he came to set the captives free. The enemy comes to make the free his captives.
The second question that is interesting to consider is: Why is freedom frightening? Freedom is frightening because it means that if I have the power to choose, I must choose. I have to make decisions and take responsibility for those decisions. I have to use my free will to make the right choices. I cannot blame anyone else. I am responsible for my choices. I cannot say, “The devil made me do it.” Nor can I say, “I had no choice. I couldn’t help it.” The Bible says, “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it” (1 Corinthians 10:13). What that means is that temptation presents you with a choice, and God will give you the strength you need to make the right choice — if you want to make the right choice. You can help yourself. Just because you can do something does not mean you should do it. Just because you want to do something does not mean you have to do it. You can be tempted, but you do not have to give in to the temptation. But you have to want to do the right thing. You have to have it settled in your heart whether you are going to live for God or yourself.
E. Stanley Jones reminds us that we live in a moral universe, and that even though we have the freedom to choose how we will act, we do not have the freedom to choose the consequences of our actions. We cannot choose to do a bad thing and expect a good consequence. You cannot stop something bad from happening as a result of your bad decision.
The frightening thing about free will is that we are responsible for making the right choices, which means that is possible for us to make the wrong choices. If you decide to do something wrong, God will not stop you. And wrong choices can seriously affect your life — and your eternity. When you continually choose to do what is wrong, God will not interfere. He will let you have your way. And the more you choose the wrong, the easier it is to do wrong and resist God. Eventually, your choices can enslave you. Why doesn’t God stop Saddam Hussein? Why didn’t he stop Hitler? Why didn’t he prevent the terrorists from flying planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon? Because if he stops them, he would have to stop all of us from making bad choices. If he stopped us from making bad choices, we would have no choice at all, and God is not willing to do that. We all live with the consequences of each other’s choices. That is what it is to live in a free world.
But the opposite is also true. The more we choose to love God and live for him, the more freedom we have and the easier it is to do the right thing. The good news is that even if we have been enslaved by sin, we can be delivered from it. God will agree with our will, affirm it and strengthen it. If we choose to live for him, he will empower that decision. If we choose to rebel and harden our hearts against him, he will empower that decision as well.
But how does God remain sovereign and finally promote his will when everyone has complete freedom of will? E. Stanley Jones suggests that most people think of God performing his will as a master chess player moves his pawns and other pieces across the chessboard. God and the devil play this game that determines the destiny of the world. And God uses the devil’s moves against him to bring about his ultimate plan for the world as the game ends in victory. But Jones suggests that there is another dimension to the game in real life. He asks us to imagine what it would be like if the pieces on the chessboard, instead of being wooden, were actually alive with wills of their own. All the pieces move freely, by their own will, across the chessboard. God limits himself by refusing to control the pieces, and confines himself to influencing the will of each of the pieces to move according to his will. The scene to the casual observer looks like chaos, but the eternal God is the master at this game. He still accomplishes his will and finishes in victory. The point is that a little god, like a little dictator, would have to control the pieces, without giving them freedom, in order to accomplish his will. But a big God is able to end in triumph, while at the same time giving complete freedom of will to all the players. This means that he is still supremely sovereign, and at the same time gives us free will.
How does God accomplish this? He uses his power of romance. He creates spiritual longings within people. He reminds them of his love. He brings situations into their lives that drive them to him. He brings unexpected, and undeserved, blessings. He uses other people to speak and persuade through word and example. He uses the beauty and order of nature. He stuns them with a starlit night. He sometimes brings them to the end of their own resources so that they seek a Power beyond themselves. He influences and persuades. He reminds them of a scripture, or has them open the Bible to read something that directly applies to them. He is resourceful, creative, inventive, and imaginative in all the ways he uses to reach our hearts and influence our wills. He then causes evil to overreach and make foolish choices so that it destroys itself. He takes evil’s plans and turns them on itself. He makes good triumph over evil, and makes weakness become strength. He is so big that he can do all of this while at the same time giving us free will.
Think of the parable of the prodigal son. The father allows the son to leave. He never forces, begs or pleads for him to stay. The son is given complete freedom to sin and rebel against the father, but the prodigal does not have the freedom to select the consequences of his behavior. He ends up in the pig pen. And as he lays there filthy and hungry, smelling like pig manure, along with the painful memories of his sin come the memories of his home and a father who loves him. He remembers that his father treated his hired hands better than he has been treated by the world. Deep within him come the yearnings to return to the father. The father did not intervene, but he did influence. The father won the battle for his son’s soul while giving him complete freedom.
But the third question is the most important of all: What are we to do with our freedom? Here is the great privilege we have as human beings: We are permitted to join our will with the will of God. His purposes become our purposes; his desires our desires. And in so doing, we become like him. His character is being formed in us.
Here is the mandate: “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God — this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will” (Romans 12:1-2). This is how we are to use our free will. If we have a choice, then we should choose to love and serve God.
So, in the truest sense, God does not send anyone to hell. You send yourself there. It is a choice people make. Why would God drag someone kicking and screaming into his kingdom against their will? Why would we think that someone who does not want anything to do with God here, would want to live in his presence there? There must be a place for those who do not want to live with God. He works with our will, and endeavors to influence our will and guide us in our choices. But he will never override our will. He will never make it so that we do not have a choice. God values us so much he wants us to make our own choices. He places his trust in us. He wants us to be fully developed and mature people.
I will never forget when our girls were sophomores in high school. We told them that we no longer wanted them to ask us for permission to do anything. We wanted them to make their own decisions. We did not want them to ask how late they could stay out, but we did want to know when they would get home. We wanted them to be able to make good decisions on their own before they left home. We wanted them to have a taste of the freedom of adulthood while they were still with us. But we could do it because we trusted them, and guess what, they lived up to our trust. What we were not prepared for was the fact that it frightened them. They resisted the idea. It was easier for us to make their decisions for them. They could agree to or rebel against our decisions, but when they had to make their own mature decisions, it was much harder. They asked how they would know what we wanted. We responded that we wanted them to do what they wanted. How else would we know who they really were? How else would they learn to make good choices if we continued to control them and forced them to follow our rules?
God is doing the same thing with you. He wants you to develop your own personality. He wants you to make your own choices and do what you want to do. How else will you, or he, know what you want to do, and who you really are? This is frightening, because it means that you are entering spiritual adulthood. God wants you to do the right thing, but more than that, he wants you to want the right thing. The choice is yours.
The Bible says, “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Corinthians 3:17). Jesus said, “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36). Use your freedom well.
Rodney J. Buchanan
January 12, 2003
Mulberry St. UMC
Mt. Vernon, OH
www.MulberryUMC.org
Rod.Buchanan@MulberryUMC.org
Questions for January 12, 2003
1. When you think about having complete freedom of will, how does it make you feel?
2. Read Matthew 23:37. How is our freedom a problem to God? Or is it?
3. What does it mean for you to have freedom of choice?
4. Read Romans 7:19-24. Paul wrestled with the freedom he was given. How do you identify with Paul’s struggle?
5. Read John 7:17. How do our choices affect our understanding of spiritual things?
6. Read Romans 14:12. How could this be true if we have no freedom to choose?
7. Read Romans 12:2. How are we to use our freedom?
8. Read Hebrews 10:36. What are the benefits of making the right choices?
9. Think about the illustration of the chess game. How does God bring about his will when we have free will?
10. What is your response to the fact that we may choose our own actions, but we do not get to choose our consequences?
