God's Will? Hmmmmm....(Part 3)
“Understanding this aspect of God’s will acknowledges that while we have the power and ability to disobey God’s commands, we do not have the right to do so. Therefore, there is no excuse for our sin, and we cannot claim that by choosing to sin we are simply fulfilling God’s sovereign decree or will. Judas was fulfilling God’s sovereign will in betraying Christ, just as the Romans who crucified Him were. That does not justify their sins. They were no less evil or treacherous, and they were held accountable for their rejection of Christ (Acts 4:27-28). Even though in His sovereign will God allows or permits sin to happen, we are still accountable to Him for that sin.” This argument was put forth by a rather well-known Christian Evangelist and writer. What he says is that although the betrayal of Jesus was God’s sovereign will ((meaning his absolute right and power to do all things), Judas was to be blamed for allowing himself to indulge in sin. Does this argument really make sense?
A Christian is indoctrinated to think that God has a Will in his/her life making them totally dependent upon HIM to make any decision. Personally, when I was riding on the wave of my new found spiritual euphoria (I was young and impressionable), I prayed long and hard over almost every decision I had to make. Be it going out to watch a movie or deciding if I should ask my Dad for a new Discman or if should beat my sister up for behaving worse than my neighbour’s dog. The truth is, despite my naivety, not once did I ever get an answer from God. My Mom would tell me,”You need to learn how to discern and look for signs from God.” So I grabbed my magnifying glass, fedora and whip (a la Indiana Jones) and started hunting for signs. I’d look for them everywhere i.e. sermons, worship, conversations, random verses; anything at all that would affirm my prayer or request to God. Any coincidence would be my affirmation.
Over time however, I realised that there is no such thing as coincidence only the deception of it. That’s how we are isn’t it? We crave attestation and grasp on to the hope that it will be granted. In the case of my star crossed friend, her religion clearly stated that she shouldn’t marry a person out of her religion and yet she had a relationship with someone outside her religion and later ended it because of her sudden awareness that she breached her religious boundaries. Did she really think the God would exercise His mighty prowess and convert the guy into her religion or did she hope? What irks me is that she still has not gotten over him nor has she discovered God’s answer to this. She floats in spiritual limbo and her prayer everyday is, “God please tell me what to do”. The blatant fact is that God has already told her what to do in his Word but she just cannot accept the finality of it. Herein seethes the conundrum.