We are designed as unique human beings with free will and the ability to choose. This was the DNA that God implanted into Adam and Eve during creation.
When He gave the garden to them as a stewardship vocation God set limits, the boundary that God gave applied to one tree, in a garden that was “very good” and full of all manner of other trees. It is true that His boundary was extreme and they knew what tree was not to be touched and they heard the result of breaking that boundary “on the day that you eat of the fruit you will die”.
It is an indication of the regard God had for man that He built into our chemistry the capacity to think independently of Him. It was a risk that He was prepared to take to enjoy the maximum pleasure of fellowship with a sentient creature. Before the creation of man the creation was declared as “good”. After He created the thinking being called “mankind” God described His new creation as “very good”.
As the Bible history tells us mankind through the agency of a lie chose to reject Father God’s restriction and ate from the tree that had been denied them. Whether this is allegory or literal history is the prerogative of each of us to choose. If you take it as allegory then it is little different to the Bible words. Mankind still chose to go against God, just as we do today, and God as Father still waits in the quiet for us to arrive and spend time with Him.
The consequence for mankind was that we died. Not as a physical being but as a spiritual one. God gave Adam and Eve the “breath of life” as a spiritual being, to enhance the communications between Him and mankind. With the exception of our spirit life, which died, God left mankind unchanged as beings with the capacity for autonomous determination.
Even today we still possess this ability; it is what makes us the unique individuals that we are. God still permits mankind to choose to decide for Him, or to decide not to. We are not struck by lightning when we go against God’s standard. There are results for such a decision that are very personal; we actually cause our own problems for deciding to go our own way.
Jesus is God’s solution for our decisions that are contrary to the ones He would have us make. His death on the cross creates the environment in which God can renew the fellowship with us. We do not have to suspend our thinking faculties. We do not even have to give up our free will. All we need to do is to relate personally to Jesus, and determine to live the sort of life that Jesus our Master has demonstrated for us by His own life.
The choice is ours Father is no tyrant He woos us from the heart as John said in his first letter
18There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear expects punishment. The person who is afraid has not been made perfect in love. 19 We love because God first loved us. 20 If anyone says, I love God, and hates a brother or sister, he is a liar, because the person who doesn’t love a brother or sister who can be seen can’t love God, who can’t be seen. 1 John 4:18-20 (CEV)
It seems to me that He said a mouthful there enough to keep us living for Father for all time and then some. How about you? Does this sound realistic?
Love this Brian and especially love- "It is an indication of the regard God had for man that He built into our chemistry the capacity to think independently of Him. It was a risk that He was prepared to take to enjoy the maximum pleasure of fellowship with a sentient creature." And it certainly is maximum pleasure when we surrender all that we think we have to Him and find it multiplied a billion times and returned to us. <3
ReplyDeleteYes indeed Sue
ReplyDelete