…And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
REVELATION 22:17
It is inherent in the nature of man that his will must be free. Made in the image of God who is completely free, man must enjoy a measure of freedom. This enables him to select his companions for this world and the next; it enables him to yield his soul to whom he will, to give allegiance to God or the devil, to remain a sinner or become a saint.
Graphic: Rachel Wojo
And God respects this freedom. God once saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good. To find fault with the smallest thing God has made is to find fault with its Maker. It is a false humility that would lament that God wrought but imperfectly when He made man in His own image. Sin excepted, there is nothing in human nature to apologize for. This was confirmed forever when the Eternal Son became permanently incarnated in human flesh!
Graphic: Just Being Brutally Honest blog
So highly does God regard His handiwork that He will not for any reason violate it. He will take nine steps toward us but He will not take the tenth. He will incline us to repent, but He cannot do our repenting for us. It is of the essence of repentance that it can only be done by the one who committed the act to be repented of.
God can wait on the sinning man, He can withhold judgment, He can exercise long-suffering to the point where He appears lax in His judicial administration—but He cannot force a man to repent. To do this would be to violate the man’s freedom and void the gift of God originally bestowed upon him. The believer knows he is free to choose—and with that knowledge he chooses forever the blessed will of God![1]
Graphic: cc southbay
[1] Tozer, A. W., & Smith, G. B. (2015). Evenings with tozer: daily devotional readings. Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers.
Hat tip: Truth 2 Freedom: July 5 – God Never Violates Our Freedom of Choice.
Note from Christine:
Yesterday, we celebrated Independence Day. It is the day that 242 years ago, America became a free nation via the signing of The Declaration of Independence.
Ben Franklin wisely stated to a woman who asked, “What type of government have you given us?” Franklin replied, “A Republic, if you can keep it.”
Lately, we have seen many unhinged people on the far left political spectrum rant and rave against all that helps keep our nation free. They use issues to further their desires for more socialist/communist ideas and forms of government. Don’t they know history and the hard-fought battles against such evil, failed and dictatorship types of government? I guess not. Perhaps it isn’t being taught in public school education anymore. It certainly appears to be lost on most of those who attend, or have attended liberal/leftist colleges and universities and staunchly agree with the aberrant, extremist leftist professors who push their ideology upon the students.
Ronald Reagan quote
“The ultimate determinant in the struggle now going on for the world will not be bombs and rockets but a test of wills and ideas — a trial of spiritual resolve: the values we hold, the beliefs we cherish, and the ideals to which we are dedicated.”
— Ronald Reagan (1911-2004) —
Yes. We continue to go through “a test of wills and ideas.” One’s choice does depend on the essence of repentance at the foot of the cross of Jesus Christ. Ultimately, it is a spiritual struggle, as the last paragraph in the quoted topic above reveals:
[God] cannot force a man to repent. To do this would be to violate the man’s freedom and void the gift of God originally bestowed upon him. The believer knows he is free to choose—and with that knowledge he chooses forever the blessed will of God![1]
Hat tip: Truth 2 Freedom’s blog.
Tags: free will, God, repentance
Talk Wisdom 
July 5, 2018 at 11:43 am |
Truth2Freedom bleated:
And one other time God saw everything he had made, and behold, he repented that he had made it, and chose to destroy it all.
According to his own book, those were his own words, and they are the words all Christians claim to believe. Humans make mistakes, but an allegedly perfect God can’t make mistakes! I don’t lament that; I’m just pointing out certain inconsistencies in doctrine.
And so it was:
Oh? Can you provide any examples of that—“book, chapter and verse”, as our hostess likes to say? Also, what exactly is this ‘gift of God’ originally bestowed upon us? Inquiring minds want to know.
Note to Christine:
I read T2F’s post. It was painful (the format, not necessarily the message).
Something which attracted my interest was his claims of what he calls ‘postmodernism’ and its inevitable consequence:
Nobody exemplifies that kind of (non-)thinking than that of our current *resident. One of his minions referred to their subjective reality as “alternative facts”–about the Great Southern Wall to keep out “those people”, about trade tariffs which will keep US farmers and manufacturers from foreign markets, and about the unprecedented and continuing foreign interference in our elective process–all the more striking compared to his predecessor, who preferred facts to hyperbole.
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