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SERMON
In looking at some of the basics of evangelical theology we began with the question: What is an evangelical? An evangelical is one whose life is grounded in the "evangel," the good news that God was in Christ reconciling all things to himself. Last week we looked at God the Creator who, we were reminded, is still in the creation business. Today I want us to shift our attention to the Creator's crowning achievement: humankind - you and me. So we move from the doctrine of God to the doctrine of humanity - evangelical theology to evangelical anthropology.
I want to look at our human nature, and in particular at what I believe is perhaps the single most important factor available to us in setting the course that our lives will take. I'm talking about free will. That is fundamental to an evangelical understanding of human nature. Now I realize that the doctrine of free will doesn't seem to peacefully coexist with predestination - a point of theology near and dear to every Presbyterian's heart. The doctrines of free will and predestination are rather like oil and water. Because free will means that God has invested us with the capacity to make real choices that have eternal consequences. Predestination, on the other hand, asserts that God, being sovereign, knows everything there is to know in advance. That is, he already has our destiny within his perfect control.
But I want you to understand that predestination is not fatalism. Fatalism says, "What will be will be and there's not a blessed thing you can do about it." Predestination, however, admits that, while God already has our destiny under control, we can choose our destiny. Are you confused? Welcome to the club. One of the curious paradoxes of Reformed theology, one that makes theologians lose sleep and in some cases their sanity, is this. While we confess that God is sovereign, all knowing and all-powerful, nevertheless he has created creatures with real freedom to choose, with the capacity even to reject the sovereign will of the Creator who created them.
There is an undeniable tension between God's sovereign will and our fearful and wonderful capacity to make choices - including choices about how we will respond to his will for our lives. Psalm 139 has long been a favorite of mine largely because it is so candid in admitting that tension without trying to explain it away. David began that song, you'll remember, by saying, "Lord, you have searched me and you know me." That's a great opening line. It's so disarmingly honest.
Most of us, I daresay, aren't particularly comfortable admitting even to ourselves that there's someone who knows absolutely everything about us - down to our most intimate thoughts. Doesn't everybody want a little privacy? Yet David is willing to admit that God really does know him quite completely. And he spends the next twelve verses of his song describing in detail just how intimate and thorough God's knowledge of him really is.
Then comes one of the most remarkable things about this psalm. In the process of praising God's omniscience, it gradually dawns on David that God's knowledge of him is not secret knowledge. In other words, it's not like a heavenly cookbook in which God alone has access to that particular recipe known as "David's life." David began to realize that God wants to share his remarkably intimate knowledge of David with David. In effect, God had been saying to him in his meditation, "David, I want you to become the best 'you' that you can possibly be. And so, since I know you far better than you know yourself, let me introduce you to yourself."
And as God shared with David his intimate knowledge of David's "inmost self," as God began showing him what was going on deep inside that marvelous apparatus called the human soul, David responded, "I am fearfully and wonderfully made!" Why those two words - fearfully and wonderfully? I think it's because David had caught a glimpse of the most fearful and the most wonderful thing about ourselves, and that is the human will - our almost limitless capacity to choose. God in his infinite wisdom created us with the freedom to determine the course our lives will take. Have you taken the time to consider that marvelous fact? The human will is one gift that sets us apart from all the rest of God's created order.
Nearly everything else in creation is subject to determinism. It may be due to a particular molecular structure or a genetic configuration or the rigid interlock of instinct. But animal, vegetable or mineral, they are all pre-programmed and cannot choose their course, their destiny. A rock will always be a rock. It can never choose to be anything but a rock. A tree will always send down roots and send out branches and bear fruit according to its kind. Animals will always act according to the particular genetic and instinctual patterns that have been programmed into them.
But on the sixth day of creation God created a unique species. He said to himself, "Let us make man in our image - male and female." Everything else was pre-determined. But God endowed this one unique species with the fearful and wonderful capacity to choose the life they wanted to live. It's an amazing gift when you think about it; though I daresay we are seldom conscious of the gift. But we all have it.
Without exception we can't choose our parents. And there's really nothing you can do in advance to change your heredity - the genetic characteristics with which you enter the world. Those are set before you make your grand entrance. But given those two factors, from the moment of your birth you are faced with a universe of alternatives from which you may choose, and the choices go on as long as you're alive.
You choose to become educated or to remain a simpleton. If you choose education, you might opt for formal education or choose to educate yourself by the books you read and the experiences you have and the people you encounter. You might choose to marry or to remain single. It used to be that if you married, you might choose whether or not to have children. These days you can choose to remain single and still exercise that same choice with society's yawning consent. If you cannot have children you might choose whether or not to adopt. And once you have children, it is your choice what sort of parents you will be.
You can choose what to do with your time. Of all the things you could be doing right now, you have chosen to come to church to listen to me talk to you about your choices. And that's your choice. Your choice of friends, the kind of people with whom you associate, even your daily relationship with God is up to you. Behind every command in Scripture there is an implied choice. The Lord says, "Forgive your neighbor." That's a command - but also a choice. He says, "Love your enemies." That's a choice. When the Lord says, "Be still and know that I am God" or "Don't be anxious about tomorrow," those are choices, even though they're also commands.
In fact, I'm convinced that everything God wants us to learn will only be learned personally as we make choices about them. And when we fail to make decisions, we have made a decision by our indecision. What all this means, of course, is that the possibilities for our lives are virtually limitless. What a gift! To be able to literally choose the life you want to live. It's wonderful!
Yet note this well: while my free choice is my greatest blessing, it is also my greatest burden. Because while I am free to choose as I will, I am responsible for the consequences of my choices. There is something inside us that cringes when we hear that. We all want freedom. But the deep desire of our fallen human nature is to be free to choose, but also to be free from the sad consequences of our choices. To which the Lord says, "Sorry. That's not possible." The witness of Scripture on this point is unequivocal. While you may succeed for a time pretending that you are not responsible for the consequences of your choices, they'll always catch up with you.
Now certainly there are those who take issue with this evangelical assessment of the human condition. Their arguments are appealing and frankly, many of them are quite sound - as far as they go. If their frame of reference is psychology, they might argue that both heredity and environment are responsible for many of the predicaments we face. And of course that's true. If they argue from superstition, then your current problems can be explained by the fact that you're a Sagittarius. If they are coming at it from a religious point of view, they might say that "the Devil made you do it" or that it was just "bad karma" or maybe "the gods were angry with you." But it has been my experience that, more often than not, the bottom line of these approaches is to say that you are not responsible for the consequences of your bad choices.
Now obviously heredity and environment and predisposition and a host of external circumstances do influence the course our lives take and we would be foolish to deny it. But how we choose to respond to those influences has a tremendous bearing on the results. Two people with identical circumstances (with the same heredity, environment, culture, religion, pressures, influence and family) might respond in radically different ways. Why? It depends on the choices they make. Look at Cain and Abel, or Jacob and Esau, or Saul and David. Why the difference? Their circumstances weren't binding. But once they had made their choices, the consequences were binding. And one day they had to answer for their choices. We all do. But to whom?
One of the less appealing titles for the Lord is the term "Judge." But according to Scripture, the One whom we know as Creator (the One who designed us with the freedom to choose) is also the Judge to whom we are answerable for the choices we make. The witness of Scripture is quite unequivocal. Paul says in Galatians: "Do not be deceived. God is nobody's fool. People reap what they sow." The letter to the Romans lays it out this way: "God will give to every person according to that which he has done. For God does not play favorites." And Jesus puts the matter this way: "I tell you that people will have to answer at the day of judgment for every careless word they utter. For it is your words that will acquit you and your words that will condemn you." That sounds rather clear to me.
It all comes down to this. Through David's marvelous psalm God says to us: "I want you to know that you are wonderfully made. You have a freedom to choose unlike any other freedom in all of creation. But you are also fearfully made, because you stand accountable for the choices you make - and because there is a judgment by a holy God." And what that message says to me is that there is one critical issue that underlies every one of the choices I make - choices about my attitude, my actions, my desires, my habits. And that underlying issue is simple, direct and clear. These choices that I'm making - are they good or are they evil?
Nearly everything in my life is there by choice - conscious or otherwise. And every one of those choices is grounded in this issue: Is it the right thing to choose or the wrong? Is it moral or is it immoral? Is it pure or impure? Is it holy or is it sinful? On the basis of my choices my character is developed. And on the basis of my character I will be judged. David is right. "I am fearfully and wonderfully made, and I know that full well." God help me.
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