Choose Wisely

There are many examples in the Bible of God giving people no real choice in what they do. For example, when God sent Moses to lead the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, God said he would “harden Pharaoh’s heart that I may multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt.”[1]

Paul believed that, in some sense, he had been predestined by God, for he said that God had “set me apart even from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace”[2] to preach to the Gentiles.

Judas, Pilate, Jesus’ apostles, and each of the prophets had their role to play, for good or ill, in God’s plans. So how much free choice did they really have? How about poor Job, whom Satan tormented with the loss of his children, his possessions, and even his health?[3] Of course, even Satan did not have total free will, for he could do nothing against Job without God’s consent.

Perhaps nowhere is God’s control more apparent than in Psalm 139:16, where the psalmist says:

Your eyes have seen my unformed substance;
And in Your book were all written
The days that were ordained for me,
When as yet there was not one of them.

In Luke 12:25, Jesus has a similar message for us—our control is very limited, even over our own lives: “And which of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life’s span?”

The bottom line is that we have as much—or as little—freedom as God gives us.

But one thing is certain—he allows each of us to make one completely free choice: to choose him or to reject him.

We see this in such New Testament terminology as: repent, love, obey, believe, and faith. We see it in the greatest commandment: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.”[4] We see it in Jesus’ exasperated exclamation in Luke 6:46: “Now why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?”

However much or little freedom we may have in other areas of our lives, the Bible makes clear that we have at least one truly free choice—God or not-God.

Moses said it well in urging the Israelites to choose God:

I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him.[5]

So choose wisely. Choose life. Choose God.[6]

[1]. Exodus 7:3

[2]. Galatians 1:15

[3]. Job 1:8-12

[4]. Matthew 22:37. See also Deuteronomy 6:5, Mark 12:30, Luke 10:27

[5]. Deuteronomy 30:19-20

[6]. For a deeper dive into this topic of free will, check out Chapter 10 of my book, Beyond Shallow Faith, entitled “Is Free Will an Illusion?”