It hit me while I was watching a commercial for a new cell phone.
"It's all about control."
We want to be masters of our own universe. We want the sense that we are in control.
Imagine the power that is supposedly in our hands when we purchase the newest Android or iPhone. We can search anything, watch anything, visit anywhere, almost do anything. "There's an app for that."
It's the ultimate power trip. I have the universe at my fingertips…or at least it feels like it.
The atheistic philosopher Nietzsche summarized human motivation as the "will to power." The drive to achieve, to subdue, to reach a higher state of power and control. He may not have been too far from the truth.
Technology seems to be humanity's attempt to define and determine his or her own environment. The further we go in our technological pursuits, the more we feel like we have things under our control. We have the power to create our own virtual world, to define our own identity, to choose our own morality, to entertain ourselves endlessly, to be our own deity.
But is it real?
All of these things give us the illusion of control…but it is only an illusion.
We are not in control.
And deep down we know it.
We feel it every day. Our health is out of our control. The choices of others are out of our control. The tragedies of life are out of our control. The world and its wars and disasters are out of our control. The reality of death is out of our control. Even our own thoughts and emotions often feel out of our control.
We are weak, powerless, vulnerable mortals…with a desperate hunger for security and control.
Or as Scripture would say…we are glorious creatures, made in the image of God, designed to subdue and rule the earth…but broken, alienated, self-centered, and subject to death because of sin and its devastating impact on our souls.
We want to be our own gods rather than submit to the one true One.
We want God to bow to our will rather than for us to bow to His.
But ironically true freedom doesn't come with all our technology, self-defined morality, and illusion of control.
It comes in running to the Sovereign One who was willing to lay aside His power and position, to humble Himself, to enter our world, to be a servant, and to die for our sins.
It is the paradox of Truth.
The one who tries to gain control of everything ultimately loses everything.
But the one who gives control over to Jesus Christ gains everything in Him.
Ah yes, the illusion of control. One of the greatest deceptions present in the church today. Perhaps the worst example of this is found in the teaching of many that state that "our God is sovereign" in all His actions, His thoughts and intents, His dealings with mankind as a whole and the individual in particular. But for all of our bluster and our insistance that God is "sovereign" there is deep within too many folk this notion that His sovereignty has been ceded to man with regard to his salvation. Nestled in our concept of this "sovereignty" we find an idol. One that is worshipped by countless thousands of those who claim to be born again. One that keeps those who bow to it from the real joy in the Lord that is found only in brokenness, humility, and ever increasing gratitude to the Lord Jesus for the salvation He has gifted to us. The idol's name is the "free-will of man". Somehow, the story of Adam's death in the Garden has been changed to accomodate this idol. Many will readily concede that he died a spiritual death because of his disobedience to God, but secretly, they also insist that Adam's will (and therefore all mankind's will) somehow survived God's pronounced death and lies "dormant" until the day that this man comes to his senses and chooses God and "accepts Jesus as his Savior". But Scriptures teach no such thing, rather the precise opposite. Man's ability to seek God, much less to "choose" Him, died and remains dead until regenerateed by the Holy Spirit. There are hundreds of Scriptures that bear this out, but man has, by his own wisdom, chosen to ignore them, opting instead to worship himself and his imagined "free-will" which only perpetuate his sinful condition.
Many a man has attempted to articulate this truth, and many still cling to the idol described above. There is one irrefutable source that will settle the matter, the Word of God. Sadly it is ignored, massaged, tweaked, and lied about by those who would rather hold on to the illusion of the control of their own eternal destiny, rather than bow humbly before the God Who created them. One of the biggest lies floating through the church today is to say that God has ceded His right of choice as to who is saved and who is not to the whim of a dead man. The bestowing of the gifts of grace, repentance, faith, and salvation are held at bay (or so he thinks) by the man who claims this "right to choose" is still alive and well within himself, yet he does not and cannot know his real condition until it is revealed to him. Nevertheless, he will pray a prescribed prayer and make his choice "for Jesus" and convince himself that all is well with his soul for eternity, when in reality he is still bound for hell just as he was before his "prayer" and his "choice."
Oh, what a horrible thing it is, this illusion of "free-will" especially when it comes to the saving of our soul. If a man can be saved by the choice he makes via the action of his will, then he has no need of grace.
May the Lord be pleased to grant us wisdom in this matter and silence those who teach otherwise by saying on the one hand "God is sovereign" and on the other hand teach that salvation is gained by a "free-will choice."
Darrell, since I read your comment in Healcatcher it has bothered me. I’m not quite sure what you are exactly saying. The “easy believeism” gospel being preached today is an abomination and “carnal Christianity” is an oxymoron. A profession of faith at the age of 12 is not eternal salvation and does not permit one to live a life of abomination. However, man does have a responsibility to hear and respond to God’s call. He didn’t predetermine in eternity past (as I hear too many pastors teach) some to experience eternal bless and others to suffer eternal torment.
I’m probably reading this cross-eyed, as I often do, but toss in my worthless two cents anyway.
This response is based on my editing of an article by Dr. Bob Utley, retired professor of hermeneutics published in the Free Bible Commentary. I was doing a study on Revelation 14 and this commentary brought you comments to mind.
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He loves them so much He was willing to send His own Son to die in their place (cf. John
3:16; 2 Cor. 5:21). But He has chosen that sinners must respond to Him in trust, faith, repentance, obedience, service, worship, and perseverance. God does not send anyone to Hell, but unbelievers send themselves (cf. John 3:17-21). . . . Oh, the pain of willful rebellion in the face of sacrificial love!
14:12 Perseverance is a major theme throughout the book (cf. Rev. 1:9; 2:7,11,17,19,26; 3:5,10,12,21; 13:10; 21:7). God's people have been shown to be faithful even in the midst of persecution.
"who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus" A similar description of believers is found in Rev. 12:17. Notice that the emphasis is on a personal faith relationship with Jesus, followed by a lifestyle of obedience (cf. Rev. 12:17; Luke 6:46).
Mature Christianity consists of A relationship with Christ, doctrinal truths, and a daily Christ-like walk
"Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord"
"for their deeds follow with them" It is a paradox of Christianity that as believers we are gifted by the Spirit at salvation for effective ministry to and for the body of Christ (cf. 1 Cor. 12:7,11). God calls, equips, and produces eternal fruit through imperfect believers. It is His gift, His Spirit that empowers, but saints receive a reward for their faithfulness, availability, and perseverance.
Believers are not saved by works (self-effort), but they are saved unto good works (cf. Eph. 2:8-9,10). God's will for every believer is Christlike service (cf. Rom. 8:29; Gal. 4:19; Eph. 1:4)!
We each do have a part to play in our salvation and that part is faith and obedience—only through His Grace. Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, [it is] the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.