GOD’S GIFT OF FREE WILL

Stephen’s martyrdom is an example. The members of the Sanhedrin acted in their freewill and stoned Stephen to death. The charge was blasphemy. They thought they were honoring God by defending their beautiful Temple. 

Stephen was a Godly man; a Spirit-filled man. He did not deserve stoning and all the more by wicked religious leaders. Stephen’s ‘crime’ according to the temple leadership, was prophesying that the new worship order built around the death and resurrection of Jesus would not need the temple. Jesus Himself is the temple of the New Covenant; hence, the Gospel would go forward without Herod’s temple (John 2:21).

When Stephen was martyred the Jewish rebellion against Rome was about thirty-five years away. Caesar’s legions destroyed the temple and the city of Jerusalem (Matthew 24:1-2). Counting from Abraham to Christ, Abraham’s descendants had more years living without a temple than with it.     

God endows every person with the gift of a free will. For freedom to be truly free, however, we are responsible for what we do with our freedom. If God is responsible for what man does with his free will, then freedom is not free.

Free will is God’s gift to all people, worldwide. For free will to be truly free, however, people must be totally and solely responsible for their choices and what they do with their decisions. 

The members of the Sanhedrin used their free will to frame false testimony against Stephen and acted in their own free will by charging him with blasphemy. It was clearly a murderous abuse of free will.  

The answer to why evil exists is wrapped in the blessing of this free will. God created the first man, Adam, and gave him freedom to the point he could say “Yes” or “No” even to God Himself. Adam said “No”, thus abusing his free will, and the consequences were huge (see Genesis 3).

It pains me to admit, but I have said “no” to God before too, and Oh! do I regret it. I also give thanks to God for His forgiveness.   

A huge lesson of history is that people are born selfish, and sin originates and blossoms in that selfishness (Psalm 51:5). Moms and dads rearing children see it routinely: 

I want what I want when I want it, even if I hurt you getting it, and don’t tell me to share! 

This moral selfishness can cut deep wounds.

Could not God have prevented the atrocity of Hitler and World War II? Yes, He could. But to be fair, it would have required God to remove free will from every living person because we all have done selfish deeds that hurt God – no doubt not to Hitler’s depth of evil, but none the less sinful. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; no one is righteous, no not one” (Romans 3:12, 23).

If God did take our free will from us, we would all be puppets with no ability to think, choose, and act. Then, everyone on earth would be nothing more than marionettes on God’s strings.

For free will to be truly free, evil people must be free to abuse it. 

But that is not the end of the story. God can take such a brutal event as the death of His Son by crucifixion and turn it into a whole new era of blessing and fresh beginnings. God did just that with the death of Jesus the Messiah.  

We all must be sure the great judgment day is ahead. God Himself will be the Judge and He will balance the scales. This time all sinners will be facing, not a human judge, but the Judge of all the earth. 

Both Jesus and Stephen had to face false testimony. But in God’s court, no amount of gold will buy a single false accusation. And this Judge will accept no bribes.   

So, what balances the scales and makes God’s plan of free will fair?

Abraham’s appeal gets in right: “Will not the Judge of all the earth will do right?” (Genesis 18:25).

It is a fact that an eternal judgment is ahead, and God will balance the scales. Indeed, many people who have mistreated their fellow man leave this world in death and the scales are not balanced. But this time they must stand before the eternal Judge and no attorney will be able to set them free. 

Indeed, dear reader, if you have a lawyer he must stand before the Judge too.  

“It is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment: So, Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation” (Hebrews 9:27-28 KJV).

“I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God;  the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books….”

“And Oh! what a weeping and wailing
When the lost are told their fate.
They’ll cry for the rocks and the mountains.
They’ll pray but their prayers are too late.”
By: Bertrum Shadduck, 1894

We live in a sinful world covered with abused free will. But blessed truth this: no one will enter God’s heaven who has rejected Jesus Christ God’s Son. The accused will beg and bargain, but the Judge will say, “Depart from me; I never knew you” (Matthew 7:23).

And, with 100% accuracy, every person who has been washed in the blood of Jesus the Lamb of God will be warmly welcomed into God’s heaven.