Choices and Consequences

“Men are free to decide their own moral choices, but they are also under the necessity to account to God for those choices.”   A. W. Tozer.

When the Holy Trinity set forth to form all of creation, he/they determined in his/their unity to create a being like them.  “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Genesis 1:26).  None who truly has a right understanding of who God really is would dare to suggest that we come close to being “like God.” However, the oldest and greatest of sins and, in fact, the most common of all sins is when man asserts himself above the almighty and decides to be more like God than the creator intended. 

When God created man in his own image, it was to fellowship with him and to represent God as a moral agent in his creation. In order to accomplish this task, God gave mankind something no other creature possessed – the right to choose. Much can be said about the sovereignty of God and the idea of determination in general, but it cannot be denied that mankind can make choices that are moral in nature.   When Joshua stood before the people of Israel and said “choose this day whom you will serve…” he was not delusional or speaking of an illusion. He spoke of a real ability to choose between the God of his fathers and the gods of the nations.

The gospel that the apostle Paul lays out in Romans 10 is a gospel that is filled with the responsibility of man to call on God. In fact, “everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved” (Romans 10:13).  Despite Paul’s clear proclamation of the sovereignty of God and his roll in calling men to salvation in Romans 8 and 9, Paul makes just as clear a proclamation in Romans 10 that it is man’s responsibility to call on God.  Furthermore, Paul does not just leave it there.  Paul points further to man’s responsibility in the process of salvation when he goes on to say “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent?” Each man has a choice to follow after God or to go his own way.

The problem with having the freedom to make such a choice is that sometimes the wrong choice is made, and with wrong choices come consequences.  When Adam and Eve chose to disobey, they introduced death into the world – they themselves experienced an immediate spiritual death and left all mankind with a legacy of death thereafter. 

Death, however, is only the beginning of the consequences associated with making choices that are contrary to God’s laws and precepts. The prophet Isaiah says in Isaiah 59:2 that our iniquities separate us from God.  When we make moral choices contrary to God’s law, it breaks our fellowship with him. Since all of us have sinned, that means all of us have been separated from God, and for the rest of our lives we face the ongoing consequences of being separated from God.  Romans chapter 1 speaks of some of these consequences as God gives us over to greater and greater passions and lusts.

Ultimately, death does come and after that, as the writer of Hebrews says in Hebrews 9:27, comes the judgment. Each of us will face judgment and the judge at that time will be none other than Jesus Christ himself, and he describes that judgment in Matthew 25.  After separating the sheep (those who follow him) from the goats (those who do not follow him), he will send the goats into outer darkness where they will be forever separated from God. We who were created to represent God and be in fellowship with him will be eternally separated from him by our transgressions.  There are none who are exempt from this judgment and there are none who can escape it.

As horrific as that sounds, the greatest consequence of our choices is not to us but to God himself.  Because none of us can escape the consequences, God had to take drastic measures in order to restore the originally designed fellowship between God and man. That can only come through punishment for our transgressions, which we are unable to bear.  As such, the greatest consequence of our transgression is the death of God’s only begotten son, Jesus Christ, as a substitutionary atonement for the consequences of the sins we have committed.  Through his death, and through our faith in him, we can have peace with God and be reconciled to him, but only after God poured out the wrath of God and the full and complete punishment for the sins of the world on his only begotten son.

Every day we make moral choices.  Many are good, but many more are contrary to God’s law.  Outside of Jesus Christ, those bad choices heap judgment on our own heads.  In Christ, however, when we make bad choices we heap judgment on the head of the one who saved us.  It is a paradox beyond comprehension.  There is great comfort in knowing that God’s great love for us has resulted in salvation and restoration of our souls.  However there is great guilt, pain, and sorrow in knowing that our ongoing transgression continues to bring punishment on the object of our worship.

That paradox should create within us a desire for change.  The shame should awaken within us a hunger and thirst for righteousness.  When we truly understand the consequence of our choices, it should drive us to holiness – not for our sake, but for the sake of and glory of God.