Free to Choose?
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. Ephesians 2:10 NASB
Prepared beforehand – Please, no “predestination” theology here. What God has prepared beforehand (Greek proetoimasen) is “good works.” God has a plan(s) that include becoming like Him in all we do. We are designed to perform the works of the Lord. We are expected to walk in them (a Hebrew idiom for obedience and performance). This has always been YHVH’s desire and He has constructed His creation to support this desire. How has He done that? By building in obligation! You and I are not born into a neutral world. We do not arrive with a tabula rasa. We show up as debtors; debtors for the gift of life, for the epoch we enjoy, for the culture we inherit, for the family we join, for the community we are bequeathed. From the moment we are born, we owe. And the commandments are the way we pay.
“When a man becomes aware of the great value of the Mizvot, and to what extent it is his duty to perform them, he is certain to become eager to worship God; he will be anything but remiss. What is apt to confirm this eagerness is the realization of the many favors which the Holy One, blessed be He, bestows upon him at all times and the great miracles which God performs for him from the moment of his birth until the day of his death. The more a man reflects upon these things, the more will he recognize the great debt he owes to God who confers favors upon him. That awareness in itself should act as a preventive of sloth and indolence. Since a man is unable to make return to God for His beneficence, he may at least be grateful to Him and obey His commandments.”[1]
“Contrary to the philosophical idea of free will, the Mussar concept of freedom is played out on a field of preexisting obligations. We are obviously free to choose between meeting our obligations or not, but this is neither an unlimited freedom nor a neutral choice. In fact, it is even misleading to say that we are ‘free to choose’; whether we choose to meet our obligations or not is a consequence of the forces of yetzer ha’ra and yetzer ha’tov yet we may be entirely unaware of these forces unless we have engaged in the difficult work of Mussar.”[2]
“Destined to good works” is the inevitable result of newness in the Messiah. Participating in the coming Kingdom is the inescapable design of the ‘olam ha-ba. You and I were created in the context of obligation. The Greek idea of individual liberty is a seductive myth. Yeshua certainly recognized this in his famous statement about not serving two masters. “Serving” is always in the equation. Can you put aside that alluring fable of “free” will? Do you realize that you have a debt to pay simply because you are alive?
Topical Index: free will, proetoimazo, prepare beforehand, obligation, Ephesians 2:10
[1] Moses Luzzatto, Mesillat Yesharim, p. 95.
[2] Ira Stone commentary on Moses Luzzatto, mesillat Yesharim, p. 97.
Oh, the seduction of the myth called “My Way”. I looked diligently at the people (including myself), who were walking in different facets of this myth, to see if there was truly such a thing. What I actually found, through bitter experience, was that every time I attempted to pursue such a thing, no matter how I twisted or turned it, and no matter how I tried to work it from a place of good intentions, I either ended up stepping on someone else’s toes (and usually got socked for it), more often than not (I think that, perhaps, if I would have been a man, and/or wealthy or with connections, I would have gotten away with it more, and the people around me would have lied to me more, and I would have not been able to see it quite as soon or quite as clear), or they ended up stepping on mine, guaranteed. Not one time, ever, was I successful in completely being able to get the thing called “My Way”, with no chaos. Ever. Conclusion: There Ain’t No Such Thing.
This stuff we try to call “My Way” ended up finding itself in the same bin that I eventually started putting all the other stuff that I never could find a way to make any sense out of; you know, the stuff that I eventually put the label of “evil” on. I think the non-thing we insist on referring to as “My Way” is evil, too, by virtue of the fact that, like all that other stuff that doesn’t make any sense, really doesn’t actually exist. I finally came up with that about the time I set out to determine, by asking, what exactly the verse where Paul says “all THINGS are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient” was talking about. About the time I set out to see what exactly he meant by that designation “all things”, I was dumped back into the creation, where “all things” were blessed and called “good”. Well, I think evil is the absence of things. In fact, I think evil is a vacuum in reality where something real should have existed, but did not because of a choice someone made to negate it at that point. Choices, after all, are all about THINGS – about reality – but some choices are about the negation of that reality, and those choices are evil, that being why they are.
Well, at the end of my day, not only could I not find anything in reality that functioned as an entity that looked like My Way; nowhere in that Good Book could I find something called My Way, either. I found things called God’s Way, and things called No Way, and things called Highway (LOL) but no thing called My Way. Conclusion: all the nothing in the universe is My Way; I can have it all! I mean, I found my fist clenched so tightly around that nothing, and found myself swearing fiercely “It may be nothing, but at least it is MINE”, but I also found that God was not able to put anything into that hand because it was not open to receive it. I realized that about the time I started jumping up and down about the fact that He had promised me that He would give me so much that I would not even have “room enough to receive it’. Well, His stuff does not come with its own room: room is what I have to bring to the deal. A hand clenched around nothing is not open to receive something. Duh. And what opens that hand? I have to ask to receive, but I also have to be grateful. Those two things are what I use to build that room. “My Way” not required. In fact, at that point, I think that wasted effort just gets In The Way. (I think I am going to have to quit, here… I mean, there is only so much that even I can talk about nonsense…)
“my way or the highway”;
“to much is given, much is required”
“acts of kindness”
” making the right or wrong choices”
“take the high or low road”
“do I go left or right”
“what’s behind the door”
“do I walk away or stay in a situation”
“fight or turn the other cheek”
We are shaped by our environment, experiences, and education on how we make choices. ” Free to choose”; “free will”, carries or can be a heavy burden for some in relation to religious up-bringing.
Yes it can! and always does.
This is the season for grace. He does not want us enslaved.
He took us out of Egypt knowing full well we would enslave ourselves to each other in the land. That is why He built grace into the Torah, the constitution of the Kingdom.
Every seven days we are released from the physical labor of our lives so that we, our servants, and the animals can come and enjoy fellowship with Him. Then we have the Shmita, freedom from indebtedness to other men which gives them authority over our lives making it possible for them to prevent us from keeping the Shabbat. Then there is the 7th of seven years. When Slaves are released to go back to their ancestral inheritance and given an opportunity to do a better job of stewarding it so that they can demonstrate to the younger ones how to keep themselves out of bondage which prohibits another man to have authority over us at any level making it possible for you to be able to enjoy intimate fellowship with YHVH on the Shabbat. All of that so that we have the opportunity to make the Shabbat. All because He wants us near to Him on the seventh day.
But even with all that freedom at our disposal there is still our desires to contend with. We can be the freest of the free and still be in bondage to the desires of our own hearts. So the question is, do we use our freedom to make the Shabbat and acquire a taste for the things of Him, or do we use our freedom to do our own pleasure?
It’s for you to choose and what you choose demonstrates your priorities.
So choose this day whom you will serve. Choose to make the Shabbat your delight.
Yeshua set us free from the bondage of the pharisees and Sadducees so that we can now keep the Torah which if followed keeps us from putting ourselves into bondage to the whims of others which in turn allows us the freedom to Shabbat.
Embrace that grace and choose to worship HIM.
Paper or Plastic?
We are absitively, posolutely free in all of our choices. Love never forces. Love must be free to choose, for Love itself is a choice! A settled choice. However, (and herein lies the “rub” ) none of us are free from the consequences of our (own) choices! For very choice, the good, the bad and the ugly, the big and the seemingly small, all are followed by? That’s right, campers! – A “consequence.”
It sure nuff’ is difficult to pull a good consequence out of a poor choice. How many of our wounds are self-inflicted? Could it possibly be true? (uh-huh), Yes, and amen! (“verily,” my friends) We will reap whatever we sow. This is the Law of the harvest.
Sow good seeds- the harvest is good. Sow those wild seeds and? And what? Pray for crop failure?
Hallelujah (Praise the LORD) for free will! Today, we each are capable of choosing! Choosing the good over the evil. Choosing the best over the “not so good.” (Some discretion required). Choosing obedience rather than rebellion. Choosing love, rather than hate.
And btw, are you “experienced?” What, he inquired, are the consequences of obedience? (Simply) Choose YOU this day Who you will serve! As for me and my house? “We will serve the LORD..”
~ We will “serve the LORD with gladness” and (We will) come before His Presence with joyful singing” ~