Subject: Why didn't God make people to love him? |
Bible Note: God gave his creation man the power of choice. He could choose to obey God or satisfy his own (free) will. I pulled the text below from "Thru the Bible Commentary". Enjoy it for what its worth. These are the five “I wills” of Lucifer. He was setting his will over against the will of God. This is sin in embryo. This is the evolution of evil. There is no evolution of man, but there is evolution of sin. It began by a creature setting his will against the will of God. As a free moral agent, the creature must be allowed to do this. It is nonsense to talk about a creature who has a free moral will, who can do anything he wants to, but is restricted in his movements in a certain area. Lucifer had a free will. This is man’s original sin: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isa. 53:6). Murder is sin, not just because God says it is, but because it is contrary to the will and character of God. Anything that is contrary to the character and will of God is sin, regardless of what it is. I think that some people can even displease God by going to church. Imagine little bitty puffed-up creature man, who says to God, “I won’t do what You want me to do. I am going to do it my way.” That is exactly what man is saying today. Well, friend, you are not going to do things your way, because God’s will is going to prevail in the final analysis. Therefore, the prayer of all God’s people should be, “… Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10). Anything contrary to His will is sin, regardless of what it is. The sin of Satan was overweening pride. He did not go out and get drunk, and he didn’t steal anything. He went against God’s will. He was created as an angel of light; he was the “son of the morning,” a perfect being. He was given a free moral will—he could choose what he wanted. But he was lifted up—so lifted up by pride that he set his will against the will of God. It wasn’t the purpose of Satan to be different from God; he wanted to be like God. In other words, he wanted to be God. He put his will above the will of God, and any creature who does that puts himself in the place of God. There are many men like Lucifer today. They put their wills above the will of God and take His place. That is what sin is all about in the human family. There are only two ways: God’s way and man’s way. That is what the Lord Jesus Christ meant when He said, “… I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6). My friend, you live in God’s universe today. You breathe His air and enjoy His sunshine. He never sends you a bill for either one or for the life He furnishes. You are His creature. You owe Him a great deal. You are to obey Him. In his natural state, man is unable to obey God; that is why we have to come to Him through the Lord Jesus Christ as lost sinners. Then we are given a new nature. That is what it means to be born again. J. Vernon McGee, Thru the Bible commentary [computer file], electronic ed., Logos Library System, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson) 1997, c1981 by J. Vernon McGee. |