Saturday, July 23, 2011

Freewill

"I don't have a choice."

Have you ever heard someone say this or something like it?  Have you ever believed it yourself?  There are a lot of situations that seem to force us into only one course of action.

Pilate certainly felt that he had no choice when he was presiding over the trial of Jesus of Nazareth.  Pilate was a praefectus, ruling over the Roman-held are of Israel from 26AD to 36AD.  During that time, he had several encounters with the Israelites that did not end well.  Many of the peoples conquered by the Roman Empire had little difficulty integrating themselves into the empire, after all Rome required very little of them.  They were allowed to maintain most of their culture, traditions, and religious practices.  However, they were required to worship the emperor as a god.  Obviously, this did not go over well with the Israelites, whose most preeminent belief is, "Hear, O Israel:  The Lord our God, the Lord is one.  You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might" (Deuteronomy 6:4-5).  The people of God refused to do that, and Rome refused to back down.

There are a number of situations when Pilate provoked the Israelites.  He brought images of Caesar on banners into Jerusalem and set up shields at the palace of Herod.  Both seemed intended to irritate the Jews.  Pilate backed down after both of these.  Josephus recounts on incident in which Pilate used the money from the temple to build an aqueduct.  This time, when the Jews protested, Pilate signaled to his soldiers who assaulted and murdered random Israelites in the crowd.  Philo wrote that Pilate had "vindictiveness and furious temper," and was "naturally inflexible, a blend of self-will and relentlessness." Pilate feared that the Israelites might send a delegation to Emperor Tiberius protesting the gold-coated shields, "if they actually sent an embassy they would also expose the rest of his conduct as governor by stating in full the briberies, the insults, the robberies, the outrages and wanton injuries, the executions without trial constantly repeated, the ceaseless and supremely grievous cruelty."


Tiberius was not happy with the problems Pilate was causing in Israel, and when the trial of Jesus occurred, it put Pilate in a tenuous position.  He had already provoked the anger of the Israelites multiple times, and Tiberius was quite clear that if any more blood was spilled under Pilate's rule, he would answer for it with his own.  Pilate had no choice but to give the Jews what they wanted, Christ crucified.  Wrong.  He always had a choice.  He could have let an innocent man go, but he showed who he really was.  He chose himself over what was right, and that is the point.  He chose.


Just like everyone else, Pilate had the freewill to make his own decisions.  He chose to bring in the banners with Caesar's emblem even though past Prefects made the concession to use banners without emblems.  Pilate chose to put up the gold-covered shields at Herod's palace.  Pilate chose to steal money from the temple, and he chose to murder the Israelites who protested the theft.


Even though we have the freewill to make any decisions we want, the consequences of those decisions will follow us.  The consequences Pilate faced because of his decisions were an unstable Israel and an angry emperor.  These consequences pushed Pilate toward the decision to hand Jesus over to the Jews, but that does not mean he had no choice.  If Pilate was a righteous man, he would have prevented Jesus' execution and accepted whatever would have happened as a result.  Instead he chose to condemn an innocent.  "So when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, 'I am innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves'" (Matthew 27:24).

Most of our everyday decisions do not involve the execution of anyone, but each of us has the freewill and responsibility to make those decisions.  God gave us that freewill.  Many times the correct choice will be obvious.  Many times it will not be.  Sometimes the right choice will be obvious, but you will not want to follow it.  The correct decisions is not always easy to make.  However, we will be held responsible for each of those decisions, no matter how difficult.  God is good, though.  He will give us the strength necessary to make the tough calls.  Just trust Him to help you and take care of everything afterward.

Not knowing what the right choice is can make it even harder, but that is why you need to stay close to God.  Trust Him to give you the right choice.  Trust Him to guide you to the correct decision, and He will see you through to the end, "And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:20b).

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Why Do Bad Things Happen?

I have been asked this question directly and indirectly many times during my life.  Many people just do not seem able to grasp why bad things can happen when we know that Jesus has paid the penalty for sin and that God is good.  I get that.  I understand why it does not make sense from a certain perspective,  but the truth is that bad things happening to us makes perfect sense.  In fact, Jesus told us that we will face troubles in this life, "I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace.  In the world you will have tribulation" (John 16:33a).  The thing that is skewed is the perspective. 

Before you can answer this question, you must first know why you are asking it.  If you are asking it to find the reason why bad things happen in this life, then I have an answer,  If you are asking it to complain or wallow in self pity, I have nothing for you.  The truth will not reach someone who merely wants to bemoan their situation.

Do you value your freewill?  Is the freedom you have to make your own decisions important to you?  God thinks so.  He loves us so much that He gave us freewill in order that when we choose to love Him and follow Him, the choice is not made by manipulation or predisposition.  It is free choice made by the person choosing.  That is real love, and real love cannot exist without the ability to choose.  Adam and Eve chose to sin against God in the garden (Genesis 3:6).  Praise God that now we are free by the blood of the Messiah to choose to love Him, "We love because he first loved us" (1 John 4:19).  Now, that freewill that allows us to truly love God also allows us to do what is wrong.  Freewill has allowed every sin against God to happen, and it has allowed people to sin against anyone one of us, even from the beginning, "Cain spoke to Abel his brother.  And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.  Then the Lord said to Cain, 'Where is Abel your brother?' He said, 'I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?' And the Lord said, 'What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground.  And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand'" (Genesis 4:8-11).  If we then have the ability to do evil to one another, that possibility is a reality.  Combine that truth with another truth.  We are a fallen people.  Ever since the Fall, we have a predisposition to do wrong, "The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God.  They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one" (Psalm 14:2-3).  The corruption of the first sin goes down to the very heart of humanity, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?" (Jeremiah 17:9).  This corruption is lasting and all-inclusive, "The hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead" (Ecclesiastes 9:3b).  Our depravity is part of our very nature until we are remade by Jesus, "Among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind" (Ephesians 2:3).

That can explain murder, theft, etc., but what about the bad things that happen without being caused by another person?  This answer goes back to the first sin as well.  When mankind first sinned, there were consequences.  God was very clear in laying out what these consequences were, "And to Adam he said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, 'You shall not eat of it,' cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field.  By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return" (Genesis 3:17:19).  Cursed is the ground because of sin.  That encompasses the entirety of the earth.  The earth itself is cursed because of sin, and bad things come of it such as famine, hurricanes, earthquakes, and wildfires.  Some have postulated that it was God sending natural disasters to judge mankind.  I am not arrogant enough to believe I know everything God does, so I will not say either way on that.  However, I do know that our sin cursed the earth, so if natural disasters come upon us from the cursed earth, we are still to blame.

The final source of evil things is the Enemy.  Satan hates us, and he is determined to destroy us in any way he can, "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy" (John 10:10a).  However, we have the ability to resist him, "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you" (James 4:7).  Again we have the freewill even to combat the Adversary.  If we choose not to fight him, the responsibility falls not on God but on us.

When you trace back every bad thing to it's source, it will lead back to a fallen person, the curse of the earth, or the Enemy.  In every situation, it is the freewill of mankind that causes all the bad things that happen to us, either through action or inaction.  Blaming God for the wrong that befalls us is ridiculous.  We should be blaming ourselves for not following Him.

Sometimes there are people that put an interesting phrase on the end of the question.  "Why do bad things happen...  to good people?"  Good people?  There are none.  There is only one who is good, "And he said to him, 'Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good'" Matthew 19:17.  Jesus talks about God.  He talks about Himself.  Here are two responses to that question by a couple very intelligent men.

"Why do bad things happen to good people? That only happened once, and He volunteered" - R.C. Sproul.

Voddie Baucham answers this question with great insight given to him by God:  Voddie's Response.


Ultimately, our hope is in the cross.  Any who look to find comfort in this life look in vain.  This life will not offer what we truly desire.  Only God offers what we need.  Only He can bring us through the bad things to the good.  The fullness of the above verses shows that even though we will face troubles in this life, God will not keep us there.  He has better in mind for us.  "I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace.  In the world you will have tribulation.  But take heart; I have overcome the world" (John 16:33).  "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.  I came that they may have life and have it abundantly" (John 10:10).


The next time you find yourself asking why God allows bad things to happen to you or someone else, remember that His concern is not our comfort.  He wants to build our character.  He wants to make us better than we are.  Heaven is the reward, not earth.

Monday, July 4, 2011

The Perfect Sword

The perfect sword is an absolute work of art.  It needs a high degree of tensile strength in order to take a sharp edge and make an effective strike, but it also needs the flexibility to to hold up in battle and return to form after each blow sustained.  There is no one metal that has all of these properties, so the best blades are composites made of steels.  The samurai's sword is a good example of how these different characteristics can be molded into one blade.  The steel is folded, peened, and tempered to get a very hard blade, but the backside of the sword is kept softer to give the blade its flexibility.  They accomplished this by covering the back of the sword with clay when they doused it in water during the tempering process.  This caused the edge to cool rapidly for hardness while the back cooled slowly and retained flexibility.

This world is a battleground (see Battlefields).  Two sides wage war against each other for the souls of men, and neither God nor the Enemy is willing to give in.  It is important for each believer to know what they are, precious to God but also a weapon to be used in this war, "Present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness" (Romans 6:13), and, "Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle" (Psalm 144:1).  "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the tearing down of strongholds" (2 Corinthians 10:4).

The hard edge of the sword is wisdom.  The wise know when and how to act.  They know when to speak and what to say.  They know when to hold their tongue.  The right words in the right situation can bring light and clarity, peace and harmony, "The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life, that one may turn away from the snares of death" (Proverbs 13:14).  If we are to be light to this world, we must speak with wisdom, and it is not the wisdom of this world we should give, "But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth.  This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.  For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.  But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.  And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace" (James 3:14-18).  If you desire to have a sharp edge, "The fear of the Lord is instruction in wisdom, and humility comes before honor" (Proverbs 15:33).  Do not think of yourself more highly than you should.  Listen and learn from those who have walked before you in the faith because, "The ear that listens to life-giving reproof will dwell among the wise" (Proverbs 15:31).  Seek out those who are strong in the Lord and spend time with them, absorbing all you can.  Read and meditate on the Scripture, "The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple" (Psalm 19:7).  Proverbs has a lot to say about the attributes of the wise, and you can find wisdom in every chapter, whether the actual word is there or not.  Go sharpen your blade.

The flexible and durable backbone of the blade is faith.  If it is healthy and strong, it will take unbelievable damage and return to true form as if nothing touched it.  It will not shatter when the issues and problems of life try to smash it.  A catastrophe may bend it, but it will never stay bent, "For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith" (Romans 4:13).  Abraham was able to believe the promise of God by faith.  He knew who God is and that God is faithful to keep His promises.  This faith was accredited to Abraham as righteousness.  The same is true for us.  Abraham looked back on how God had worked leading him out of Ur and into a new land.  He looked forward to what God was going to do as the Messiah.  We look back on when God bough us with His blood.  We look back on how He has already worked in our lives to bring us out of sins and addictions, saving us from danger, and giving us purpose in this life.  Knowing His faithfulness gives us the ability to look to the future and trust Him when He says, "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a future and a hope" (Jeremiah 29:11).  When the world tries to break us, we can hold onto this promise.  We may flex, but we will not break.

To be the perfect sword in the service of God, the believer must be wise and strong in faith.  Every one of us knows we are not perfect, and if we are honest with ourselves, we know that we can always be better than we are no matter how far we advance in this life.  So, increase in wisdom and faith by drawing closer to Jesus.  He is the source of both.  Paul said, when talking about striving to attain Jesus above everything else and considering all else garbage in light of Christ, "Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.  Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own.  But one thing I do:  forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.  Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you.  Only let us hold true to what we have attained" (Philippians 3:12-16).  Follow Paul's example.  Wisdom and faith flow from Christ.  He is the master of the forge upon which you will be crafted into the perfect sword.

Friday, July 1, 2011

Hold My Heart

"One tear in the driving rain,
One voice in a sea of pain
Could the Maker of the stars
Hear the sound of my breaking heart?
One life, that's all I am
Right now I can barely stand
If You're everything You say You are
Would You come close and hold my heart?"
(Tenth Avenue North, Hold My Heart)

I think this is a question that so many people are asking all the time.  Throughout our lives, we endure an incredible amount of pain.  Many times we wonder how to continue on.  God made us to be relational creatures, and whenever we are dealing with relationships there is going to be pain.  Think about it.  The times you have been hurt the worst involved another person, right?  I would even venture to say that every time you have been hurt badly was because of a person, either yourself or someone else.

Why does a good God allow us to go through such pain?  The answer is not simple, but I will give you what I know.  One reason is summed up in an expression I have recently become fond of saying, "God breaks our hearts so that we can minister to the brokenhearted."  When you have had your heart broken, you can understand the pain of another through your own pain.  You can remember the shock, the despair, and the confusion, so you can empathize because you have been there instead of merely sympathizing with them.

Another reason God allows us to go through such pain is because He wants us to truly love Him.  I know that does not seem to make any sense yet, but let me explain.  God wants us to truly love Him, so when He first made mankind, He gave us the ability to make our own choices.  We call this freewill.  It would not be true love if God forced us to love Him and forced us to make the right decision all the time.  When a creature is given the ability to choose, it has the ability to make a poor decision.  That is what Adam and Eve did when mankind fell (Genesis 3).  They were given the freewill to obey God, maintain their innocence, and retain their rightful place as stewards over the rest of creation.  The Enemy came and tempted them to reject the truth that God had told them, "He said to the woman, 'Did God actually say, "You shall not eat of any tree in the garden"?'  And the woman said to the serpent, 'We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, "You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die."'  But the serpent said to the woman, 'You will not surely die.  For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil'"(Genesis 3:2-5).  Adam and Eve chose their own way.  At that point, mankind rejected their Creator, and because of this, they died spiritually.  God no longer walked with them, and the intimacy they shared was broken.  He drove them from the Garden for He will not tolerate sin, "For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness; no evil dwells with You. The boastful shall not stand before Your eyes; You hate all who do iniquity" (Psalm 5:4-5).  Spiritual death changed people.  We were no longer innocent.  We became tainted by sin, and we are now, "by nature children of wrath" (Ephesians 2:3) because we are guilty before God.  "The intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth" (Genesis 8:21).  This is evident in any child.  Did you have to teach you child to lie?  Did you have to teach them to cheat?  No, they do that naturally.  You have to teach them not to.

The thought of people being inherently evil will cause some of you to get defensive.  You might be thinking, "Who is this guy that he is telling me I am evil?" or "If this guy dares to tell me that my child is wicked, I'm going to..."  Well, first off, I am not telling you this.  God is.  Second, if you honestly look at yourself, you don't need anyone to tell you that.  You already know it.  How often have you done something you know should not have?  Me too.  We're messed up.  Why do you think that phrase, "I'm only human" came about?  It is the reason, but it is not an excuse.

God gave mankind freewill in order that mankind would freely choose Him.  Instead, we chose and still choose in many cases, to reject Him and follow our own desires.  When we do this, we leave a trail of devastation in our wake.

We are told that God hates divorce (Malachi 2:16), yet His people throw marriage away like it means nothing.  They vowed to stay together until death!  “What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate” (Mark 10:9).  Do you think this does not leave a scar on the heart of everyone involved?  Unless the one divorcing is an unbeliever or there was unrepentant marital unfaithfulness, I believe Scripture is clear that God does not allow divorce, and if either remarries, they are guilty of adultery.  Beyond this, it is clear in Scripture that God would have the lives of His people marked by reconciliation and forgiveness.  His ultimate goal is that there would be reconciliation and forgiveness, even in the cases He allows divorce.  Take the example of Hosea (Hosea 2:2-7, 3:1-3).  God can even heal wounds like that, and it is a beautiful picture of God's love when this happens.  The spouses are not the only ones effected, though.  My parents are divorced and have been for years.  I can tell you that it still has an effect on me.  If anyone says differently about themselves, they are either ignorant of it or dishonest about it.

We are told not to lie, gossip, or covet, yet we do these things all the time.  Those "little white lies" are still lies, and they still hurt when the person you lied to realizes that they really cannot trust you.  Gossip is still rampant in the Church, and it is amazing how many do it without even realizing they are.  How often have you wanted something that someone else possesses?

I have talked about these sins above for two reasons.  The first is so that you would understand how mankind has abused the freewill given by God.  This abuse of freewill is the cause of all that pain you feel.  When someone chooses to go their own way instead of following God it will break hearts.  Yours has already been stomped on by one of these rebels.  The second reason is so that you will understand that you do it, too.  You and I are also rebels running over hearts on our way to what we think we want.  The next time that someone carelessly punches you in the heart, remember that you have punched a few yourself.  Love in spite of the pain.  Forgive those who sin against you (Matthew 6:12).

The hope for those of us who keep hurting others is in the fact that God does love us, even in our sin.  When it was revealed that Adam and Eve sinned against God, what was the first thing God did?  It was not to yell at them or smite them or even to drive them from Him.  He told them the reality of the situation, and that they would be punished.  Then He showed them that He still loved them.  He clothed them.  You can even see the depth of God's love when you see that He clothed them with skins.  That means that an animal had to be killed, the first sacrifice for sin, "And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them" (Genesis 3:21).  God cannot tolerate sin, but He loves us despite our sin.  He loves us so much that He paid the consequence for our sin and died in our place to free us from it because we cannot do it ourselves.  All you have to do is accept the gift.  At that point we can start doing the good things we were meant to do instead of the thrashing others' hearts, "But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved — and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,  not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them" (Ephesians 2:4-10).


/// One might think in reading this that it could pertain to one of several people in my personal life.  It does not, and it was never intended to.  Any rebuke I might give to another would be in love and born of the desire to see that person become more like Jesus.  It certainly would not be written publicly. ///