Choosing Sides
by DauntlessAnsible on Nov.11, 2008, under Commentaries
A big theme through out the Bible is how man has a choice. From the beginning God designed us with this innate gift. Eve chose to eat the fruit. Adam chose to follow her. I chose my wife. It was my choice to follow Christ. In the same way, when I sin, it is my choice.
Some may see decisions as something much larger than whether to wear blue or black pants. So what is a big decision? Buying a car, a home, having children? The decision to follow Jesus and God’s will is the single most important decision in everyone’s life.
The choice to follow Christ is what sets us apart. God could have made us to blindly follow Him without a will of our own. Imagine yourself receiving a reward. Everyone in attendance is forced to tell you that you are wonderful. Is that truly meaningful? By making the choice to follow Christ and become a servant of God, it brings glory and praise to Him. He wants us to choose.
Similar to Joshua’s challenge to the Israelites, we need to be challenged. We need to make the choice to live for God. I am challenging you today. Do you live for the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit or are you living for yourself?
December 29th, 2008 on 8:34 pm
I agree with you about how we are constantly given choices which are opportunities to “choose” God. The only problem is, when you put so much emphasis on “choice,” you fall into my favorite heresy called Pelagianism. You write that you “chose to follow Jesus,” which is true, but what about Jesus choosing you? If our salvation depends solely on our individual choice, where does grace operate?
It is tricky to walk the line of rightly emphasizing both grace and freedom. I am of the mind that in this fallen and sinful world, we can only “choose” Christ if he provides us with the grace to do so. And we can only follow Christ if he gives us grace along the way. So it is not just a matter of choosing–it is also a matter of cooperating, and being malleable to the way God’s grace is forming us.
April 7th, 2009 on 6:09 pm
I cannot disagree, Beth. Grace operates beyond anything and everything we can truly imagine. Now…I did read into what Pelagianism is…but it has been a couple months and I trashed my original response. Suffice to say I’m not pushing a heretic’s stance, rather reminding everyone that we need to live out our lives for Christ.
The grace, judgement, and mercy that God can give is beyond us. We can only be human. As our pastor has been indicating recently, the best we can ever be is human, and if we are human, then we will be what God made us to be.
Thanks for posting. You get a gold star for being the first to comment!