The Power To Choose

[dave c]

HEALING SHELTER MINISTRIES #131o Re-Written 07JAN09 http://groups.msn.com/AHealingShelter/welcome.msnw

Save Me Today—Part Fifteen: The Power To Choose

by rev dave c

Why would a good God place His beloved creature, Adam, into a situation where he would be required to resist temptation upon pain of death? The answer is found by returning to Genesis 1:26 ...God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness…. In His image we are created trichotomous beings (spirit, mind, and body) as a kind of “snapshot.” In His likeness we are created with the ability to communicate (logos; “And the word was God”; Jn 1:1), with the capability of discernment (“I am the light…;” Jn 8:12), and with the need to establish and maintain relationships (“God is love;” 1Jn 4:8&16).

In Isaiah 45:7 God states, “I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the LORD, do all these things.” God is light (1Jn 1:5) and He forms [yatsar, to mould into a form; especially as a potter; figuratively, to determine (I.e. form a resolution)] light; that is, He manifests it as electro-magnetic waves ranging from infra-red, through the visible range, and into ultra-violet light. In like manner, God brings with Him prosperity, or peace [shalom; safe, i.e. (figuratively) well, happy, friendly; also (abstractly) welfare, i.e. health, prosperity, peace]. Light and prosperity (along with goodness, righteousness, holiness, etc.) eternally exist because they are aspects of God’s presence. On the other hand, God had to create darkness [choshek; the dark; hence (literally) darkness; figuratively, misery, destruction, death, ignorance, sorrow, wickedness], and disaster, [ra’; bad or (as noun) evil (natural or moral)], because they are not innate aspects of His existence. God created darkness and disaster (i.e., Adam was presented with a decisional test) because He wanted to give His beloved creature opportunity to choose to love Him.

A part of God’s divine nature and eternal power is centered upon His volitional sovereignty—His choosing to do, or to not do, according to His will. In His likeness, God gave to humanity (you and me) the opportunity of choice to love Him, or to hate Him...to talk with Him, or to ignore Him...to recognize and choose Him, or to reject Him. We must decide for the Kingdom of God, or for the Kingdom of the World. By placing the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the middle of the Garden of Eden, God was presenting to Adam a choice as to whether the man would live in eternal communion with his Creator via the tree of life, or to sample the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and so die in his separation from the Divine—first spiritually, then mentally, and finally physically. Without choice, real love is impossible. God chooses to love us and He asks for our love in return (1Jn 4:19). It is our decision as to whether, or no, we kneel in affirmation to His request.

If the soul (sentience) exists as a conduit between the mind and body, and the intellect (sapience) exists as a conduit between the mind and the spirit, then there should also be a conduit between our spiritual existence and our material existence. This conduit is the will, or the volition process. That humanity has the gift of volition (as limited by time and space as it may be) is a part of being made in God’s likeness. God is spirit and it was through the will of His spoken word that He brought the material universe into being. Mankind is specifically formed out of God’s desire to have us as the objects of His love, and for us to choose to return that love (Jn 3:14-18). Love can not be mandated—it is always a choice.

It is volition...our free will/the ability to choose...that is perhaps the strongest “natural” evidence that we are God’s beloved creatures. If my wife remains with me because she has no other choice, we may have a relationship, but it is certainly not a loving one. But...if she has the freedom to choose day-by-day, moment-by-moment to stay or go—to care for me and to share her life with me...or to withdraw her time and favor—then an environment for real love has been established. This is the gift that God bestowed upon the first man...the first Adam. In Genesis 2:16&17 we see God beginning the process of teaching Adam that love requires willful commitment. John 14:15&21 tell us that the decision to love God commands a continuous choosing to obey His Word. This is a process that endures to this very day in the persons of you and me, and all of mankind.

Abortion and homosexuality, as flintlock issues of our society, are both actually the same battle that is being fought to establish the legal right to be promiscuous; that is, the right for an individual to pursue sexual activities carelessly, or without discrimination, and regardless of “unwanted” pregnancies, abuse, and disease. In turn, this battle is just one front in the much broader War of the Wills. Is my will supreme, or must I recognize governmental control (whether that control is familial, communal, state, or federal)? Does humanity collectively have the moral responsibility to establish and maintain “rules for conduct” within society as author, judge, and executioner; or do we answer to a “higher power”? Whose will is to be sovereign...my will, your will, or divine will? The history of humanity is the unfolding account of battles waged in this War of the Wills.

If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever--the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him" (Jn 14:15-21; NIV). Lord, help us to follow Your example of love exemplified through obedience as we pray, “Not my will, but Yours be done—now and forever.” Amen.