Article: "It’s Your Choice"

It’s Your Choice
God won’t force you to choose Him… but He hopes you do—in fact, He was tortured for you.
Phillip Townsend

Note to the reader: I request simply that you read the article in its entirety and read the verses provided in their context, and that you do so with a humble, honest, and open heart. “Do not harden your hearts…”; rather, “He who has ears, let him hear” (Hebrews 3:8; Matthew 13:9).

Becoming a parent has taught me a great deal about myself. Through parenthood, the Holy Spirit has been able to teach me to be a better man, even in areas of life beyond being a dad. Parenthood has also helped me better understand my Heavenly Father and His relationship with His children, more specifically, how His children treat Him.

I have seen the independence and rebellion that is ingrained in a human being from the moment a child has the ability to choose. I understand unconditional love, even in the face of rebelliousness. I’ve felt indignation at my child’s intentional testing and decided disobedience.

I know the feeling of wanting to help my child when he doesn’t want my help. I’ve experienced trying to lead my son to safety as he fights me to unknowingly move closer to danger. I am much better acquainted with Matthew 7:9-11. I know what it’s like to be taken for granted by my son.

I’ve seen my son doubt me due to his perceived fear of the situation. I am familiar with trying to show my son something I know he’ll enjoy as he rejects the good thing that I have for him. I can now appreciate what it’s like to be disregarded for a material trinket. I have already known the heartache from attempting to express my love to my son only to be pushed away by him.

I’m not implying that parenthood is some dreadful assignment or that my son is a horrible child. To the contrary, being a parent is a rich and blessed experience, and my son is a wonderful human being who brings unmatched joy into my life. He is an amazing gift to me from my Father, and I praise Him for giving my son to me.

I point out these negative things, however, to elucidate the inherency of humankind’s propensity toward sin and to illustrate the very ways we treat God our Father each and every day. I also point out these occurrences to underpin another aspect of a parent-child relationship that serves as an allusion to God’s relationship with us: parents cannot force their children to always do or be what they want, nor can they make their children love them or want to be with them.

God’s relationship to us is slightly different because God actually could force us to do or be what He wants. But then that’s not a relationship, nor is it true love. That’s a dictatorship. That’s a creator constructing mindless, heartless figures to predictably act and respond to his will. So instead, in order for the possibility of relationship to exist—for there to be an honest, naturally developing, deep connection and interaction based on love between God and His children—He gives us the ability of choice: the option to choose Him or not.

To demonstrate this further, I want to talk about my aunt. She was adopted by my grandparents—much like we are adopted into God’s family by faith in Christ (Ephesians 1:5). She eventually made the choice to no longer have anything to do with her adopted family. My family, especially my grandparents—her parents—tried to reach out to her, to help her and draw her back into the family. But she chose her own path, one that didn’t involve our family. Short of physically dragging her home, tying her up for the rest of her life, and forcing her to be part of the family, there was nothing they could do to bring her back into the family. They didn’t force her, even though they loved her dearly, and so she is no longer an involved member of our family.

God, too, is a parent—our eternal, heavenly Father. There are countless numbers of people God is trying to reach. People He wants to be in His family. People He desires to save from destructive lifestyles and decisions. But something separates us from God, who is perfection. It is our rebellion. It is our pride. Our sin. So rather than lording His perfect standards over His children’s heads—and He does have standards, just as any good parent does—He made it possible for all of us who rebelled against Him and continue to do so (and that is all of us), to come back to Him. To be with Him.

God went as far as humbling himself from the omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent being He is to adorning the inferior, limited garments of human flesh (John 1:1-17), being born in a stable (Luke 2), and living a meek, self-denying, outwardly focused existence to reach His people (Matthew 4:23-24; Matthew 9:18-36; Mark 2:13-17; Luke 15:1-7). He became man in Jesus to be with His family.

He then died on a cross—a brutal, humiliating death—as a way of opening up the doorway to Himself so that His family could continue to be with Him for eternity, even though we continue in a lifestyle of sin and rebellion before and after believing in Christ’s sacrifice for us (Romans 5:7-9). And all He asks of us is that we accept this truth—that we believe—so that we can be with Him (John 3:16; Romans 10:9-10; Ephesians 2:8-9). He says, “I love you,” and gives us either the choice to say, “I love you, too,” or the choice to not reciprocate and no longer be an involved member of His family.

What he hasn’t done is go to the lengths of physically dragging His family members home and tying them up so that they don’t hurt themselves anymore and don’t run from Him anymore. He’s not going to force you to be with Him as part of His family. He won’t force people, even though he loves them all so much. He lets them choose: Him or the world; His life-giving, blessed ways or their ways; belief in Jesus Christ or unbelief; love for Him or no love for Him.

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God (John 3:16-18 ESV).

God has given us the chance to escape our state of separation from Him—a condemnation due to our rebellion. God our Father won’t force us to choose Him—He leaves that choice up to you.