The question of how God can be the sovereign Lord while humans have complete free will has beguiled Christians for ages. One thing is certain: God did create humans with a degree of free agency. When we read the record of our first parents’ disobedience, it is clear that God gave them the freedom to choose to obey or not. They chose badly! I wonder if things would have been different if they had understood the consequences of “Obey or die.” We will never know because it was obviously God’s plan to allow them to disobey. To me, that is one of the biggest mysteries of all time.
There is a perfectly logical reason for God’s “gift” of free
agency: for any relationship to have any substance, both parties must be free
to engage in it or refuse engagement. If humans had no option but to obey,
obedience would be meaningless; they would be robots parroting preprogrammed
words. We see this played out in lower animals. When you bring a puppy home, he
has the option to do what you ask or not. You compel him to mind by offering
incentives. Once he realizes that obedience earns him a treat, he will begin to
do what you want. This is free will at its most basic level.
God used the same approach with Adam and Eve: do as I say
and live forever in paradise or go your own way and suffer the consequences.
Noah had the same opportunity: build a boat or drown with everyone else.
Abraham could stay where he was when God called him, or he could pull up stakes
and go where he was told. The nation of Israel was given rules to live by which
promised great blessing; breaking the rules led to painful consequences. Fast
forward to Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane: “I’m not looking forward to what
you have planned, Father, but I submit to your will in spite of my dread.”
It is no different for us except that God has switched from
dealing with His people primarily in the physical realm and moved to a
spiritual platform with physical amenities. In spite of what the prosperity
preachers say, God did not promise Christians a land flowing with milk and
honey – not until after our resurrection. In the meantime, we have the
situation John Newton describes: “Christ has taken our nature into Heaven to
represent us and has left us on earth with His nature to represent Him” The
vehicle of His nature in us is the indwelling Holy Spirit, the powerful
Comforter He sent on the Day of Pentecost.
Now we return to the idea of free will. When God knocks on
our door, we have the option to let Him in or ignore Him. Someone has said that
God is too much of a gentleman to force Himself on us. I think that squares
with the Scripture. Once we have surrendered our lives to Christ and gone
through the ritual dying to the old self and rising to new life, the promise of
the Holy Spirit is ours. But we are still left with choices: I can choose to
heed the Holy Spirit's promptings, or I can stumble along and do things my own
way. Rarely, God may orchestrate things so that we have no apparent option but
to move His way. Most often though, we must consciously decide to listen to the
Spirit’s guidance and avail ourselves of His power.
So, in a sense, we are left to live our lives as we choose.
Jesus is Lord of all, but He is not a micromanager. He is not like that boss
who is constantly looking over your shoulder telling you how to do your job.
Jesus gives us our job description in the shop manual called The Holy Bible. He
expects us to become familiar with our assignment and carry it out to the best
of our ability. There is a choice here too: we can choose to make use of the
gift of the Spirit as we go about our work, or we can rely on our own abilities
alone. That would be like chopping a tree down with an axe when a perfectly
good chain saw is lying close at hand.
If we choose the axe instead of the chainsaw, God’s will can
still be accomplished. The problem is it takes much longer, and we will be
exhausted with the effort. The only reason I can see for God to do things this
way is because He allows us a degree of free will. He could speak a word and
things would get done as He did in the creation. I think one of the reasons He
doesn’t always interfere supernaturally is because He wants us to learn to
trust Him. If you always tie your kids’ shoes for them, they will never learn
to tie them for themselves. God wants us to tie our own shoes.
Don’t misunderstand. Whether felling trees or tying shoes,
God’s provision is found in our reliance on the Spirit’s power in our lives.
A.W. Tozer asks: “Is it not strange that so much is made of the Holy Spirit in
the New Testament and so little in Christian writings supposed to be based upon
the New Testament? …Certainly, the all but total neglect of the Spirit in
contemporary Christianity cannot be justified by the Scriptures…. In the
Scriptures, the Holy Spirit is necessary. There He works powerfully, creatively.
In popular Christianity, He is little more than a poetic yearning or at most a
benign influence…. Everything that men do in their own abilities is done for
time alone: only what is done through the Eternal Spirit will abide eternally!”
For many Christians, the most important work needs to be
done on themselves. The Holy Spirit could just come into our lives and make
everything perfect. He doesn’t. Again, there are choices we have to make. Are
you unfamiliar with God’s will? Get into the Scripture daily. Are you
struggling with a particular temptation? Give it to God
who promises a way out of every situation. Is there a stronghold in your
life that is keeping you from being all you can be? Put
on your spiritual armor and beat the devil out of your life. Paul said he
could do all things through God’s power; the God he refers to lives in you if
you are in Christ. Jesus won’t micromanage your life, but if you choose to
surrender to Him completely, there is nothing you cannot accomplish for Him
with the Spirit’s help.
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