Joshua 24:14-15
(NIV)
"Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the
gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the
LORD. But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for
yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers
served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are
living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."
One of
the things that sets humanity apart from the rest of creation is our ability to
make choices. Animals live according to their instincts. Plants live according
to strict boundaries. But humans have the ability to choose their course of
action. It is a significant part of being created in the image of God.
God, in His
sovereignty, chose to give humans free will. Our free will opens up all kinds
of possibilities for us. We are not bound to follow one course of action. We
are free to choose among many. But ultimately our free will confronts us with
the most important choice. We can choose to follow God or to do our own thing.
The
choices that we make every day shape our lives and our character. Our choices
may be subtle or dramatic, but each choice is shaping us into a particular kind
of person. At the end of our life, that is the person we will carry into
eternity.
C.S.
Lewis, in Mere Christianity, articulates the significance and the
enormity of our choices.
“People often
think of Christian morality as a kind of bargain in which God says, ‘If you
keep a lot of rules I’ll reward you, and if you don’t I’ll do the other things.’
I do not think that is the best way of looking at it. I would much rather say
that every time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the
part of you that chooses, into something different from what it was before. And
taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your life
long you are slowing turning this central thing either into a heavenly creature
or into a hellish creature: either into a creature that is harmony with God,
and with other creatures, and with itself, or else into one that is in a state
of war with God, and with its fellow-creatures, and with itself. To be one kind
of creature is heaven: that is, it is joy and peace and knowledge and power. To
be the other means madness, horror, idiocy, rage, impotence, and eternal
loneliness. Each of us at this moment is progressing to one state or the other”
I read
this passage recently in my daily devotions and it caused me to stop and take
stock of my own choices. We make so many choices every day that we do not give
much thought to. Out of habit or convention, we follow a path that has been
made for us by our choices. We do not necessarily think about the eternal
impact of the choices that we make. Yet, as Lewis states, each choice is
shaping us for eternity.
When a
person is in rebellion against God, his or her choices are dictated by their
sinful nature. Although they think they are free to do their own thing, they
are really slaves to sin. They cannot help themselves. It is their nature.
When a
person comes to faith in God through Jesus Christ, they are set free from their
slavery to sin. At that point they really do have the option to choose. But
that does not mean that we always choose correctly. Often, we slip back into
old, sinful patterns. By God’s grace, we can be forgiven and set right again. But
those choices still shape our character, the essence of who we are. It is worth
contemplating.
In Paul’s
letter to the Romans, he grapples with this idea that our choices matter. Just
because we are under grace, and no longer under the law, that does not give us
the right to continue to go on sinning.
Romans 6:1-2 (NIV)
What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By
no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?
Paul
goes on to remind us that we have a choice daily to follow Christ or to yield
to sin. We are not powerless to choose. We have an obligation to choose.
Romans 6:11-14
(NIV)
In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ
Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its
evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of
wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought
from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of
righteousness. For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law,
but under grace.
One of
the heresies of the past was the idea that only the spirit was good and the
body was evil. Therefore, a person could do with their body whatever they liked.
This led to two extremes. On one side of the equation were those who mistreated
their physical body, denying it normal pleasures, and even abusing it, as a
means of purifying their soul. On the other extreme were those who openly
indulged their physical body because it didn’t matter anyway. Both extremes are
wrong. As Paul makes clear, we are honor God with our physical body. We are to
care for it and not abuse it. But we are not it indulge it either. We can
choose how we treat our body, whether for good or for evil.
The
Bible tells us that all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God.
Tim Keller makes the point that we often limit sin to breaking the rules. But
sin is so much more than that. Sin is placing anything in our life in the place
of God. Because we were created to worship, we will either worship God or we
will find something else to worship. When we worship anything other than God,
we sin. The choice that is before us every day is who will we serve. Either we
will serve God or we will serve sin. The choice is ours to make, and it matters
for all of eternity.
Ephesians 5:15-16
(NIV)
Be very careful, then, how you live--not as unwise but as wise, making the
most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.
No comments:
Post a Comment