No one undergoing a trial should say, “I am being tempted by God.” For God is not tempted by evil, and He Himself doesn’t tempt anyone. But each person is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own evil desires. Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is fully grown, it gives birth to death. James 1:13-15 HCSB
When we say that God gives us free will, we must understand what this means. This means we have the freedom to mess up as much as we want. It means we have the freedom to destroy our lives if we choose to do so. It means we have the freedom to spend eternity in hell. In Romans 1:20-24 Paul speaks of the guilt of the Gentile world. He says that God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteous people. He goes on to say that we can all see God’s eternal power and divine nature all around us through what He has made. Therefore, people are without excuse. If people know God and fail to glorify Him as God or show gratitude to Him there are dire consequences. He will cause their thinking to become nonsense and their senseless minds will be darkened. Sounds like a lot of our politicians have failed to glorify God, doesn’t it? But it’s not just the politicians. There was a time in my life when I lived that way. I exercised my free will and it got me nothing but heartache. I had some senseless thinking going on. My mind was darkened from the truth. In verse 22 Paul says that claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals and reptiles. We have so many idols that we worship today. There are so many things and events that we put before God.
We don’t do this without consequences. While it may seem that turning our thinking to nonsense and darkening our minds would be punishment enough, it won’t stop there. Paul says in verses 24-25 that God delivered them over in the cravings of their hearts to sexual impurity so that their bodies were degraded among themselves. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served something created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever.
We live in a world where people are prideful of their sin. They are prideful of things that are an abomination to the Lord. What has happened to our society? Sadly, we see as early as Genesis 3 that our free will became our downfall. Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, and the rest is history.
We discipline children because we love them. We don’t allow them to eat a couple pounds of chocolate at one time because we don’t want them to get sick. We tell them to stay away from open flames. We teach them to look both ways before crossing a street.
But as adults, if we want to stick our hand in a fire and leave it there it is our prerogative to do so. Of course, we will get burned and will be in tremendous pain, but it’s our choice to make. As James explains it in our Scripture passage, sin is a lot like that. We can sin if we want to. God never tempts us to sin, the devil handles all that. But the choice is ours. It’s our decision to make. But we must be prepared to live with that decision.
The devil tempts us to sin because he knows that our sin will bring about our destruction. He knows that sin will cause us suffering and pain in the long run. Remember he is prowling around seeking someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8). He seeks only to kill, steal and destroy (John 10:10).
What we are seeing in our nation today is an abuse of the free will that God has given us. Sadly, many think that they can use this free will, and all will go well for them. This is not the case. We can go against God’s word. We can live like the devil, but there will be hell to pay.
I have decided to trust in my Lord and Savior. I have sought shelter in Him. I know that no matter what this old world brings, He will keep me safe. He will never forsake me.
Our world has become a scary place. You will pay a high price for exercising your free will and going against God. You must ask yourself is it really worth it?
Have a great day!