Over the years each of us have made decisions which at the time seemed insignificant but later proved to be the decisions which changed the course of our lives. We may have even said, "If I hadn't of made that choice, who knows how differently my life would have turned out?" Well, GOD foreknew and therefore offered unto us those choices. HE is the one who arranges events which bring us to those junctures where our choices are made that our life may open up into new frontiers. Because of HIS purposes, GOD has laid across our path certain crossroads where we are confronted with decisions about which way to go. By HIS grace HE prepares us to be able to choose the right way, which sometimes we do but too often we don't. However, as we regularly measure our progress with what Scripture shows us the right way is, we are able to realign ourselves and improve our navigational skills. GOD exercises enough control over our lives that we are exposed to the choices, but not so much control that our freedom to make those choices is compromised.
PROVERBS 16:9 A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.
Though all of our choices are foreknown by GOD, that is not to say that our choices are predetermined. GOD makes available our choices, but it is us who must decide which way to go. Hence the repeated admonition in Scripture for us to make the right choice. Otherwise, if all of our choices were predetermined, why then are we warned in Scripture to "beware", and encouraged to "walk worthy" and "faint not". There must be some degree of personal responsibility as we answer the choices we are confronted with. Even though GOD knows what choices we will make, HE still allows us to choose which way we will go within the parameters HE has set. We are reminded of Paul's admonition to the Philippians.
PHILIPPIANS 3:13-14 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Forgetting the glory of the old man and reaching for the glory of the new man he "pursued swiftly" the prize. Paul ran for the crossroads. He learned to eagerly anticipate the opportunities GOD had prepared in his future. HE discovered that GOD never closes one door without opening another. When he lost his eyesight on the road to Damascus, all that he had lived for suddenly became pointless. Howbeit, three days later, a new and better way opened up before him when Ananias came in unto him and said, "Brother Saul, the Lord...hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost" (ACTS 9:17). Paul had been at a crossroads and the choice he made was one that changed the course of his life. On the other hand, when the nation of Israel refused to make the right choice and repent, GOD eventually closed the door of faith upon Paul's "brethren...according to the flesh" and another door was opened up unto the "elect of GOD" (ACTS 28:28).
We considered in the opening words of the Preface of this study what is meant by the saying that GOD is no respecter of persons. HE is however a respecter of decisions. If a person insists on choosing death over life, GOD will oblige him. Even so, HIS mercy may still return one to the right way, as with Jonah, who almost too late acknowledged his error. He chose to sail for Tarshish instead of going unto Nineveh as GOD had directed him. He chose to walk away from the will of GOD and to go his own way. As a consequence of the choice he freely made, he was thrown into the sea and drowned. Howbeit, just an instant before death he sought forgiveness. Here he recounts his experience as he was drowning, "...I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me" (JOHAH 2:2). Three days later as Jonah was decomposing in the belly of the fish, he was regurgitated upon the beach where GOD brought him back to life. Then it is written, "And the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go unto Nineveh..." (JONAH 3:1-2). The reason Jonah was given a second chance at life was so as to accomplish GOD's purposes. Mercy, like grace is always at GOD's discretion, according to HIS purposes.
Every man is responsible for the decisions he makes. True, GOD has mercy and GOD has grace, but HE also has wrath. Look at what HE did to Sodom and Gomorrah or even more emphatically imagine HIS fury when HE destroyed the entire world with a flood, because "every imagination of the thoughts of his [man's] heart was only evil continually" (GENESIS 6:5). Almighty GOD is not someone who is just sitting around waiting for us to ask HIM for favors. HE has HIS own agenda; HIS own purposes. We are either moving with HIS purposes or we are moving against them. HE is the only fountain of life of which we are either forsaking or having our thirst quenched by. There is no switch whereby we can turn HIM on or off at our discretion. We don't move GOD. HE has already moved. We either climb aboard and become part of HIS purposes, or we sit as blinded in the dark and strain to hear what can't be heard or see what can no longer be seen.
If we are fortunate enough to be offered the choices which can deliver us from this darkness unto the light, we should delight in HIS chastening and seek HIS reproof. The only thing GOD respects is our decisions. Knowing by foreknowledge what those decisions will be, HE then prepares events to coincide with our choices. If Paul would not have "obeyed the truth" and had a change of heart during his three days of blindness, I doubt if GOD would have sent Ananias to heal him. And if Jonah would not have had a change of heart as he was drowning in the sea, GOD would not have sent a fish to return him to land.
ROMANS 2:6-13 Who [GOD] will render to every man according to his deeds: To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life: But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile: For there is no respect of persons with God. For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law; (For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.
Who can deny that GOD will hold man accountable for his decisions? These at Rome of whom Paul was writing thought that they were a special class of "Believer" and would not be held accountable for their actions. Often we hear this kind of talk in Christian circles today. Many think that because our Lord died for them and they have made some public confession with their mouth, that they are then free to live as they please. They think that every time they sin, all they have to do is confess their sin or ask forgiveness and all is as it was before. If that was the case, then we might as well throw out much of what Paul wrote in his epistles. "Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord" (EPHESIANS 6:8). And again, "But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done: and there is no respect of persons" (COLOSSIANS 3:25). GOD may forgive us our sins, but we will still be held accountable for the consequences of our decisions. One of the temptations Satan used on our Lord was in trying to convince Him that because of who He was there would be no consequence if He jumped from the "pinnacle of the temple". Fortunately, Scripture always returns us to the truth.
1 CORINTHIANS 10:12-13 Wherefore, let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bare it.
GOD never tempts us HIMself (JAMES 1:13), but HE does allow us to be tempted. Many wonder why GOD just doesn't remove all the temptations from our lives? Why does there have to be good choices and bad choices? The answer is that if GOD didn't allow the wrong road as an option, then the right road would loose its distinction. If there wasn't a wrong road gone down because of a wrong choice, then there couldn't be a right road gone down because of a right choice. There would actually cease to be choice, hence there would be no more freedom, for the essence of freedom is one's ability to exercise choice. It follows that without more than one choice there ceases to be any choice.
Just as every action requires a re-action, so every element of our lives requires an opposite element for it to exist. Without a positive there would be no negative. If we never got thirsty or hungry, there would never be a way to quench our thirst or satisfy our hunger. If we were never chilled to the bone, we would never know the warmth of a glowing fire. And if we didn't ever feel faint from the midday sun, we wouldn't know the pleasure of a cool breeze or the relief from the shade of a tree. If there was no death, of what value would be life? Isn't it true that one appreciates his health most affectionately after recovering from some illness? If all of life was a stagnant pool of mediocrity, wouldn't we all become even more apathetic then we are now? Without the highs and lows wouldn't life be a monotonous, endless routine which we would all come to hate? Isn't it the hills and valleys that make driving so enjoyable? So with life, it is what lies hidden around the bend ahead that peeks our interest.
How could we ever learn to lend a helping hand if none of us ever needed a helping hand? How would we learn patience if everything was provided for us whenever we wished for it? What kind of a world would it be if no one ever needed a smile, or a comforting touch, or a reassuring word? If there was no wrong choice possible, then no right choice could be sought after. As such, unless one has sat in darkness, he will most likely never be inclined to seek the light.
However, this is not to say that GOD still doesn't choose one person for one purpose and another for a different purpose. We each have our own peculiar choices to select from. Each vessel's race is laden with choices customized for his specific function. Just as every body needs its different members to function properly, so the Body of Christ, the true Church, needs each member of that one Body to function differently. No two vessels are identical and no two vessels have the same function to perform.
EPHESIANS 4:15-16 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.
Still, the choice as to whether or not each vessel will perform rests solely with each of us. What is wrong with the world isn't so much that there is an evil way. It was GOD HIMself who placed in the midst of the Garden of Eden the one tree which was the wrong choice. But all goes wrong when the evil way is chosen while GOD's way is forsaken. HE by HIS grace offers the right way. We are the ones who determine which road is taken, and that makes all the difference.
The Road Not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
and sorry I could not travel both and be one traveler,
long I stood and looked down one as far as I could to where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
and having perhaps the better claim, because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for the passing there had worn them really about the same,
and both that morning equally lay in leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.
by Robert Frost