The choice is mine – Why should I choose God?
In the beginning God created the universe, the earth, the creatures that inhabit the earth, and man. To date, there is no irrefutable evidence to the contrary, only theories that extrapolate possibilities and establish stipulations and conjectures to provide possible alternative explanations of our existence and the universe in which we live. In short, we are offered an alternative explanation for believing or assigning our faith as well. So let’s work from the predicate God is. If we stipulate that God is then we must also stipulate the description of God and the events credited to God must be exactly like the only written account we have of God, the Bible; Tell us. After all, God tells us that the Bible is his word. (John 1:1 in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God) Jesus is the word of God, reminding us that Jesus was God incarnate. (John 1:14 And the Word became flesh (Jesus) and tabernacled among us. And we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth) We can cover this in more detail in another session.
From this account we know that God created man in the image and likeness of God. Knowing that we were created in the image and likeness of God, then we know that we were created with the attributes of God. We know that we were created without knowledge of evil and therefore without the intention of suffering any disease, such as death, disease, lack, hatred, greed, lust, prejudice, etc… the list goes on. Being created in the image of God, we were created to be expansive, loving, unlimitedly abundant, healthy, eternal, etc. And the list goes on. In short, we were created to live without the influences of evil, but with the potential to learn or know it. We were created as God with free will to make our own decisions. God did not create puppets, he created man, free thought, free choice, man.
Being the man free to choose, bad thing. Man had it all at no cost to the species. Man had dominion over all the earth and all its inhabitants, and all vegetation of all kinds. The man would not know the death, nor the disease, nor the anguish, nor the disappointment, the man in a word would only know the paradise. Man lacked one thing, the knowledge of evil. God is a perfect, holy and righteous being who dwells where sin is neither present nor permitted. Just as there is light and darkness, life and death, there must be both evil and good. Evil is the antithesis of good. God created everything with a possible opposite, or the possibility of existing simply as a result of the absence of intention. In other words, God did not create evil, rather evil is the inevitable result of the absence of good. God created the angels. The most beautiful and wonderful of these angels was Lucifer. Lucifer, like all higher forms, was created from intent, and within intent there is potential, the potential to exercise free will choice.
Lucifer made the decision that he did not want to serve God and, more specifically, he did not want to serve man as is God’s command for all angels. (Luke 2:9-14; Hebrews 1:6-9, 14; 2:6-7; Revelation 5:11-14; 19:10; 22:8-9) (1 Corinthians 4:9; Hebrews 1: 13, 14) (Revelation 5:11-14). Man was created a little lower than the angles, but angels were created to be servants (not in God’s image) of God and a part of this service was to provide whatever service man needed. This was God’s intention. Both men and angels will worship and dwell together God. Lucifer defied God in this way and of course was cast out for eternity. Man challenged God with disobedience in the Garden of Eden, when he was tempted by the fallen angel; man succumbed to temptation and ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge. When the man did this (the man throughout this study represents both male and female), the man became aware of the evil and in doing so brought all the curses of evil upon himself. This was man’s choice, not God’s, God had warned man to eat what he wanted, but not from that tree or he would surely die.
We must choose God because he has already chosen us. Sin separated us from God, but he did not abandon us or who we are meant to be. We must choose God or our only default option is to spend eternity apart because sin is not allowed and cannot exist in the presence of God. God knows this after all, he established all order in the spiritual and physical realms. We call them spiritual laws and the laws of physics. God found a way to reconcile us to himself without breaking any of the spiritual laws that he established to govern himself and all the properties of the spirit. God did this because he loves us and intends for all of us to choose; he must be forever in her presence in paradise. God’s plan was for Jesus Christ. Jesus is God incarnate, who came to earth and lived as a man. As a man, Jesus faced the same decisions we all face. Jesus out of obedience to the father or the law, and out of love for us, lived a perfect life without sin, without defiance or defiance of God. Jesus took our sins upon himself and paid the price for us.
Jesus went to the depths of total separation from God, to the evil and perfect sinless rose in victory, victory for us. Just as a man, the first man, separated us as a species from God by assuming a sinful nature that could not be allowed in the presence of God; a man Jesus atoned for that sin and reconciles us to our original state. When God sees us in his presence in Jesus there is no sin, that evil nature is removed. When we accept Jesus as our redeemer, our reconciler, and our intercessor, we are healed and returned to the state of grace in which we were created. When we allow Jesus to be our atonement by choosing him as our Lord and Savior, we become him and he us. (John 1:12 but to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, power was given to become children of God) some contemporary versions such as the NAV use the word children instead of sons, because it applies humans since we were created both male and female. Jesus says that if you have seen the father, you have seen me, and if you have seen me, you have seen the father. Jesus tells the father if you see those you gave me, you see me. God is faithful to forgive us through
Jesus the Lamb of God, the final atonement. We only need to confess our sins showing recognition that they exist, and ask for forgiveness by claiming the gift of the blood of Jesus shed for our redemption and we are redeemed, reconciled with God and made whole. (Romans 10:9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved) Who in their right mind would know about an asteroid the size of extinction who is headed for earth? Wouldn’t they tell their friends and family and do whatever they could to save them and themselves? Who among us with a fatal disease, if offered a certain cure for free, would not accept it? Who among us facing a death sentence would not accept a pardon even if we were not innocent enough to have a second chance?
Man condemned himself to eternal separation from paradise, and God his father and creator. Man was deceived or tricked into doing this for which he was expelled from the presence of God. This same deceiver works day and night every second, just as he did at the beginning of man to deceive us and convince us that we too can ignore God and turn against him as equals. He knows there is no hope for him. He is not loved by God as we are. He knows that God loved him but he created him with the intention of serving only. He knows that God created us to be his children, in his likeness. He is poisoned by jealousy and greed, his sole purpose is to take from God everything he can, the only thing he can take from God, his children.
Why? Because he knows that God leaves the choice to us. That is why you must choose God. God sews you first of all in all that he has created. Jesus gave all that is to God for our sake. No one forced him, he did it out of love for you and me and love for our father and creator. He did it because only he could do it. He did it because he knows the fate of the deceiver and all who put their faith and trust in his lies. We must choose God because choosing God is choosing eternal life. Choosing Jesus is choosing a pardon, even if we are certainly guilty. Choosing God makes available to us all the provision He created for us. No one is too far away, no one is too bad, and no one, regardless of his crimes, is beyond the love of God and the provision of Jesus Christ.
Choosing to accept the gift of Jesus and be reconciled to him, God, and the Holy Spirit is not only the smartest choice you can make, but also the easiest. It is by grace through faith that we are redeemed, not by works, at least no one should boast. In other words, all you have to do is accept it. All you have to do is acknowledge that you are a sinner (as we all are) and that you are separated from God by that sin, and ask Jesus to wash you in his blood or atonement and reconcile you through himself with God our father. He is ready to do it now! He calls us joint heirs with himself. He said that he has gone to prepare a mansion for us, and if he were not so he would not say so. He will come again, maybe before or maybe after you make your transition from this lifetime. He promises that if you accept and truly believe, it won’t matter when he comes because you are already redeemed and reconciled. Ask him now; do not let another minute pass apart from all the provision, love, peace and paradise that was destined for you when we were created. Reconciliation not only secures your eternity, it gives you access to everything God’s word says you must have here on earth.