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Submitted to About-Him by Michael Lesueur mlesueur@mindspring.com In the book of wisdom, Proverbs 1:29, warnings were being issued concerning knowledge. It speaks of the mental condition of actually hating knowledge, then not choosing to fear God. This is a choice of learning; a deliberate course of action has been taken. In Isaiah 7:14-15, a prophecy concerning Jesus is revealed. A virgin will bear a child and call his name Emmanuel. As he knows enough or obtains knowledge, he will refuse evil and choose good. More on the choice of Christ later. Further in Isaiah 56:4, God is requesting that we choose what pleases him. God would not have us be ignorant, or confused, which basically is caught up between two or more choices. For example in 1 Kings 18:21, an important question is asked; how long will you hesitate between two opinions? Man must decide, and it is God who has created and presented the choice. It is vital at this beginning juncture to bear in mind if there were only one option; there would be no choice. For God to offer a choice there must be at the least-two options for man. Here is that option, that choice that is confused for being free will. Obey God and live, disobey him, and you’re a dead man. This is the essence of what Christians believe to be free will agency. Either you do things God’s way or you will be at risk of never doing anything again. Notice Genesis 2:16-17, the choice (or the freedom of will) is given. The Lord God commands the man; from any tree of the garden, you may freely eat. This is not free will; this is The Lord giving man a choice, then advising the man which choice to make. In vs. 17 he tells him not to choose the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The Lord planted this tree-both parts of it, it did not plant or create itself. The tree is symbolic of two ways of life. It is a contrast of good and evil. This is man’s choice. He can pick- freely from either tree, but received instructions from The Lord as to which choice he should make. Remember the definition of free will, it is only free if there is no submission involved. The case in point is this: wherever God is involved so is submission. Nothing that lives can relate to God without submission to him. What God creates he absolutely rules over it, then there is the other reality or the other option-death, Revelation 2:27. His rule is also dipped in peace, Colossians 3:15. Notice this peace or love controls us in 2 Corinthians 5:14. Man was created to serve and worship God. Free will is actually something only God himself possesses. Man is not free to live apart from God, nor is he given that option in the spirit world. Listen to that again; we are not free to think for ourselves, we are free to make a choice, that decision is a life or death choice. Mankind is advised to his choice in the physical world, the choice he makes carries serious spiritual ramifications. Allow the scriptures to give a small minute picture of Gods pathology. Notice Romans 11:33-36, his wisdom cannot be measured, meaning it has no known limits. (Remember free will has no limits). No one, including Christ and the Holy Spirit can figure God out. Vs. 36, For from him, and through him, and to him are all things. Remember free will has no restraints, no boundaries. Now imagine a fenced-in space in a yard. You place your children within this space along with instructions of where within the space they can play. You, in essence, have given them a limited choice within a limited space of movement. This is an exact representation of what God has done. Yet somehow people interpret this as free will. This is truly amazing as well as evidence supporting the fact that we hold on to deception in our minds often with more conviction than we do the truth. The words- free will- are not even associated in the bible at all. Free will is overrated and worthless. If Adam and Eve’s choice, as well as mankind’s history of thinking for himself is not enough evidence to prove this, good grief nothingelse can be. Lets examine what Jesus thinks about free will. In John 6:38 Jesus reveals the sole will behind his mission on earth. He states very clearly he came not to do his will, but Gods will. Again in 4:34, it is both Gods will and work. Notice John 5:30, Christ states he can do nothing on his own initiative. He openly tells us that he cannot originate any plans or take the lead in Gods plan of salvation. Notice Luke 22:42, perhaps one of the weakest points of Christ human history, the door of life himself was nearing death. Jesus humanity was creeping up on him moment by moment. Look at our sterling saviors remark at the heat of this moment; not my will Father, but thou will be done. Oh praise the name of Jesus, the Prince of glory. The obedient Lamb of God. Jesus gave instructions on how to communicate with God in Matthews 6:10, we communicate with the Holy Father by submitting our will to him, and praying that he has freedom of his will on earth. This is the true mindset of Christ-submission to God his father. Examine Philippians 2:5 and 1Corithians 2:16. Why would anyone want free will when we can have the will or the mind of Christ? Again here is the offered choice: either you think like God or you are at risk of never thinking again. Either you choose to obey God or your choices have just simply ran out. Mans trouble begins when he decides to start thinking for himself. In James 1:13-16, the results of independent thought apart from God are shown. In verse 14 we are carried away and enticed by our own choices. The thinking process begins its selfish travel; it is here that we desire free will. Then when lust has conceived, when the choice is made, it brings forth or leads to sin. When sin is settled or when it has become a habitual way of life that leads to death. Again here’s the choice - you live like God chooses to live or you may get wiped out of existence. We were created to serve God, he is the master. In reality Christians were bought with a great price and are no longer their own. Once you made the choice to obey God-you kissed free will goodbye. (1 Corinthians 6:20, 7:23). The choice one final time; you honor God as your master and live forever, you choose to honor yourself, you will be at risk of forever being apart from him. It’s really simple, be a slave to God or to sin. Now at first glance you would think that is not a choice. At second glance just look at mankind’s present and past, then you see his future. How can mankind neglect such a wonderful choice, so great a salvation? Man does not know how to think- his precious free will is his greatest enemy, His own mind. We only basically have just two choices. We can’t even get that right. We are free in Christ, but not free to do our own will. So what is free in Christ as opposed to the choice of obedience? Freedom in Christ is being torn away from the death grip of sin. We all have sinned and are guilty. Through Christ we are freed from a well-deserved death sentence. Now loosed from deaths horrible judgement, we can walk in newness, or learn to think like Christ without a sin mental problem. That mental problem is a mind that cannot forgive itself, it cannot remove the guilty stain on its memory. The Spirit of God releases this mind and gives free passage to him unstoppable. Now one of the greatest enemies to this process is selfishness, which is the soul of free will. Free will is the mind of man desiring his own power, his own choice, and his freedom from sin on his own terms. Free will is a dressed up term for selfishness. You cannot pass from death to life and maintain free will. Notice 1 John 3:14, we know we have passed from death to life, this is the great change or the greatest death possible, by one inward emotion that is now turned outward-love. Selfishness is eroded and love is installed as an outgrowing concern for others. It is outward in its inner true nature. Always desiring to help others, which is a vital characteristic of God. Taking free will from a human is like taking a pacifier from a baby, we think we cannot live without it. This type of thinking has an underlying belief that when something goes wrong, why we always have ourselves which is very comforting- we just love ourselves. Whatever it is we can fix it; Christianity becomes a self-improvement program. This is a vital misunderstanding of the nature of God as parent. Only God can improve man, he cannot save himself. Star trek has captured millions of admiration for its television and movie pictures involving man, aliens and robots. These robots have ability to evolve into humans, ultimately thinking for themselves while having emotion. These androids will never go against their programming. God has already accomplished that feat but it is totally misunderstood therefore ignored. People don’t don’t even know that God created evolution. One characteristic God does not want even in Pastors is being self-willed. Look in Titus 1:7. Come to know and understand that free will is free choice, it starts and ends there. God is the author and finisher OF OUR THINKING. Either you learn to think like him or your free will may be limited to three score and seventy years of existence. God’s tolerance is extraordinary but not limitless. Study 2 Timothy 2:15 and remember with knowledge comes the freedom to choose, but you must be wise. We cannot be expected to make intelligent decisions if we do not have and understand all the available facts. People believe in free will because we want to survive, to be or not to be is a question of existence, not a choice, as it should be. We have been given life and we do not want to give it back. It is ours; the will to survive can override any other thought process if given the chance. This is one of the primary, strongest tests given to The Great Christ, would he relinquish his will to survive and submit his life and death to God. This is an insight to the strength of free will; it’s the only place where Jesus displayed his own will to survive. This is a great temptation, submitting to death. The door of life himself was asked to walk into the door of death. For all of one perhaps two seconds Jesus asked to be released from the Great all knowing will of God. Then he made the greatest statement any man can make, lets forget my will Father, my ways, my choices, my plans, and let your will be done. Think about the beautiful contrast of two statements made to honor God’s will. Job declared “even while you slay me, yet will I trust you”. This is what God is after; this is exactly what he is creating. In the final analysis let’s examine the reality of a mind after it has submitted to God. Is it really free? Is it still an individual entity? What’s God going to do with it now? Again using the fantasy of star trek there is a race of aliens called the Borg. This factious race of creatures is indeed fascinating in that there are millions of them, yet they think and act as one unit. Having one central point of reference that keeps track of and supervises all. In my view this is the closest scenario of God that I have seen. With the exception being that somehow God is able to offer individuality without inherent independence from him .In Ephesians 6:5, Paul addresses slavery, something in place during those times, the admonition being to obey those who are in authority. The motivation he instills to the reader is to serve as if serving God himself. That ought to motivate Christian slaves but notice this subject is continued, expanded on. We are really slaves of Christ and how we carry ourselves is seriously related to God. We need to concern ourselves with how God views us in our everyday living. This is a pattern of interwoven destiny. Look at vs. 10 and 11. Be strong IN THE LORD, put on HIS ARMOUR, notice the dependant tone here, it is always toward God. It is asking you to perform-BUT IN A CONFINED MANNER, that being God. This is not independent effort, and it can be confusing. Its like telling someone to do something, then in the next sentence telling them there’s nothing they can do. To help in understanding God here’s a better example; it’s like telling you to go ahead and jump-but to jump into his arms. Begin to understand that, this is vital in seeing God’s ultimate control, which is insurmountable responsibility that we cannot comprehend. God is responsible for all life, even the lives of those ignorant thinking has condemned. How can God keep track of all life? How can he know so much? Again using a computer as example, howbeit a primitive example, his mind must be only minutely similar but far, far greater in power and ability. Just imagine a mind a trillion times infinitely greater without limit than all our computers combined -- alive, bursting with so much raw unadulterated absolute pristine power, so wise and resonantly intelligent and soaked in pure love that is in perfect control of both the fiber of reality, the beginning of reality and the ending of its misunderstood stages, that he himself is reality. He is the fabric of existence as well as the immaculate thread that holds it together. The only correct way to accurately explain God’s power is to say that he is so powerful it is beyond explanation. Just to look at what he has already done and continues to do is truly awesome to behold. Looking at what awesome power bombs show when they explode, then to imagine that God could destroy an entire universe with just a thought is truly frightening. With just no effort he could simply will everything out of existence. What’s even more amazing is that God has made a being that he will actually enter into a direct personal relationship with is truly magnum opus, the greatest plan of artistry conceived. God does not use a machine to do all this, he uses his will. The will of God is all-powerful. Nothing is independent of his will, his awareness, and his mind. Nothing - is-without his will. Who carries out his will, his son Jesus the Christ, that is the tool of God. In Colossians 1:16, all things were created by him. The Father has great things planned for his masterpiece, man. In 1 Corinthians 2:9, the natural mind or will of man cannot know the plans, but the Spirit of God reveals SOME of it to submissive minds. What is a submissive will, look at Mark 12:30, you love God with all you have, your whole heart and mind = will. Ephesians 6:6, doing Gods will from the heart. God is going to improve everything about humans and change them into another creation, a total new being of righteousness. This is the destiny of total submission to Gods will.
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