The gift of free will and choosing a Christ-like life.

"But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient

from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 

and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.”

(Romans 6:17-18)

While reading this you should have a little think, or even a big think, about the choices you have made today. Unless you’ve only just woken up and reading this is the first thing you’ve decided to do today (and why not?) you have probably made tens, hundreds or even thousands of tiny decisions without even realising it, and possibly you’ve made some important big decisions too.

Each of those decisions has been based on the options that you’ve had. It might be which colour socks to wear, when to step off a kerb, or what to eat, but each one of them has had an impact on your life, no matter how small it may be. Imagine the result of making the choice to step off a kerb at the wrong time!

Your decisions, even the tiny ones, can impact your spiritual life too if they lead you towards sin.

“God is greater than our heart, and knows all things,"
(1 John 3:20).

God is eternal. He exists in the past, present and future simultaneously, knowing all things for all time. That’s a bit of a brain-bending concept to get to grips with…and it sometimes throws up an issue when it comes to free will:

‘If God knows everything, including the future, and has a plan for me, do I really have free will?’

The answer is quite simple…yes you do!

Just because God knows what you are going to choose before you choose to do it, it doesn’t mean that you don’t make the choice yourself. I know that if I put my hand in a flame I am going to get burnt. I know what the future holds at that moment of choice; it doesn’t mean that I am predestined to burn myself (or not). It is entirely up to me.

Much of life is like this…when we are at a crossroads…when the options in front of us can lead us down different paths. We often know what the likely outcomes are going to be of taking each path, at least in the short term, and often the long term outcome is pretty clear too. We usually know whether or not the choices we make are likely to please or displease God, and even though we could choose badly, He gives us the freedom to make them. It is one of the most precious gifts He has given us as it shows just how much He loves us and how much we truly mean to Him.

One of the very first things you find in the Bible is Adam being given a choice. God shows very clearly, right from the start, that His relationship with man is based on his love for us and that we have free will. He warns Adam of the dangers of the tree of knowledge of good and evil and tells him not to eat its fruit.

“The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
(Genesis 2:16)

God is all powerful. He could have prevented Adam and Eve from eating the apple, but He wants love and friendship, not puppets. As a good and loving father, he cares for us, warns us of the dangers, but ultimately He accepts that we must make our own choices and then live with them, even if those choices break His heart.

So what should we do?

It says in Romans 6:17 that it is good when we “become obedient” to Jesus’ teaching. The Bible doesn’t say we are forced to be obedient, in fact it shows quite the opposite; we make the choice to become obedient to God. Once we were “slaves to sin” and then, through choosing to accept Christ, we become “slaves to righteousness”. Some might worry about the use of the word slave here, and wonder if that means God gives you no choice in what you do. Does being a ‘slave’ in this sense mean the removal of free will? No. Even a slave can make choices, such as whether to obey his/her master or not. However we must recognise, as the slaves of ancient times would have, that there will be consequences as a result of the choices we make.

We can choose not to obey God. We can choose to reject Christ, but in doing so we have to recognise that there will be consequences as a result. If we choose wisely and live our lives as “slaves to righteousness” we will be rewarded with eternal life in Heaven with God. If we remain “slaves to sin” the outcome will be very different indeed.

If we choose the Christian life and work hard to live it every day, if we believe in God and accept Christ as our saviour, then we are exercising God’s gift of free will. No one can force you to believe something…faith is a choice.

One of the most amazing things about God is His inexhaustible capacity for the forgiveness of sin, that no matter what choices you’ve made in the past, no matter which paths you’ve taken, He is still there, loving you and waiting for you to choose him.

Why not make an incredible choice today?

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that 

whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”

(John 3:16)