Question:
Answer:
God created every human being with the power of free choice, as we see in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. They were created to live forever, if they stayed close to God, but were told that if they ate of the forbidden fruit, they would surely die. They knew the consequence of a wrong choice, yet listened to the devil when he told them that God was a liar, and that they wouldn’t die. God could have created us to do only good, to be human robots who loved Him and would never reject Him. But who could love a robot? God gave us all free choice, and never interferes with our choice. Whatever the choice, good or bad, God honours our choice and does not love us any less.
Joshua 24:15 “And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this
day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
Genesis 3 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ”
4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Imagine if, after Lucifer had sinned for the first time, God simply killed him. Sin would be gone, but what would the other angels have thought? They would not have sinned, but would they have loved God or just feared Him? God knew, when He decided to give the power of free choice, that it was only a matter of time before someone would choose wrongly, and bring sin into the universe. But He decided that if the universe could witness what sin caused, that it would show them all how terrible sin is, and how wonderful God actually is, and they would choose not to sin, and to forever love God, and not fear Him. As part of the sin problem, God decided that the Creator Himself would become a man, live a perfect life, and take upon Himself the sins of the world. In this way, everyone had an equal opportunity to have salvation and eternal life, seeing that the price of salvation had already been paid by Jesus on the cross.
1 John 4:8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
2 Corinthians 5:21 For He (God the Father) made Him who knew no sin (Jesus) to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
John 3 14 “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”
1 Peter 2:24 who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed.
And that is why God, although He knows the future, gives us all the opportunity to choose our own destiny. Yes, we are all born into sin, but the price for the sins has already been paid, so we don’t have to try and earn our salvation, it is a free gift from God. God knows the end of each one, but He does not choose it, He leaves the choice to each individual, and does not interfere, unless ask to do so. Knowing the future, and determining the future, is not the same thing. God knows, but respects our choices, even though He loves us all, and wants us all to be saved, to be with Him forever, face-to-face.
1 Timothy 2 3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is … not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
Ephesians 2 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of your-selves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.
As with Adam and Eve, our choices and their consequences, are clearly spelled out (see John 3 above). We choose to accept God’s free gift of salvation, for which the consequence is eternal life in a perfect place, with God. Alternatively, we can choose to reject God’s gift, for which the consequence is to perish, to be totally destroyed, along with Satan, his demons, and sin itself. The choice is ours.
I trust that this makes sense to you. God bless!
