Here is something that has been on my mind for sometime: It is written that God has created us with free will, the ability to choose. In order for us to choose, we are also equipped with the ability to think. But the Holy Spirit through St. Paul says, "For by grace you have been saved through faith" (Ephesians 2:8). So as a Christian with an ultimate goal of salvation of my soul, I need to have faith. "Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1). Clearly, faith doesn't require a whole lot of thinking and there is definitely not a whole lot you could choose from. That is, when I believe that there is a God and this God could save me with His grace, I am believing in someone I cannot see and also believing in something that cannot be proven. It is all good and well, unless I choose to use my ability to think because the whole thing lack a logical explanation as salvation require no human effort. So here is the problem - what good is the ability to think and a free will to choose, if my only path to salvation is a complete trust in God and His ways, I am not left with a much to think about or to choose from, am I?
There used to be a time in my life when a question like this would have been more than enough to keep me away from God. Fortunately with the grace of God, I have overcome that problem. Nowadays I don't doubt my faith, instead I try to understand it; I seek my answers with reverence, and from my limited experience, I know that the answer would be given to me if it is something I should know about. Anyway, what I am trying to say is that the answer for this puzzle came to me today out of the blue, while I wasn't even thinking about it, all I had to do was write it down.
When God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, He wanted the people to base their ability to choose on those commandments. The Commandments didn't prevent sins from happening, but it gave the Israelites an awareness, the ability to judge one's own actions to be right or wrong. Thus Israelites were given a shot at salvation by exercising their ability to think, and using their freewill they could choose not to sin. If we look at the ability to think and free will to choose from this angle, it is actually not a bad thing to have after all.
The only problem was that by the time Moses died, the Israelites had interpreted this ten commandments into over 600 laws, and at the time of Jesus' birth, these laws were over 6,200 pages long. Imagine the burden this put on the life of Israelites trying to make a rational decision on matters of day to day life. St. Paul quoted Deuteronomy 27:26 to fully explain the dilemma, "For all who depend on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, 'Cursed be everyone who does not persevere in doing all the things written in the book of the law'" (Galatians 3:10). If you choose to follow the Law in order to be saved instead of "grace through faith", then you are bound by the law and "For whoever keeps the whole law, but falls short in one particular, has become guilty in respect to all of it" (James 2:10).
When we think about free will, we automatically think about the ability to choose one or the other, often one is good and other is evil or one is right and other is wrong. Now most us, while exercising this option to choose, do not purposely choose what is evil or what is wrong. However, we tend to make mistakes while exercising our free will - our err in choosing often causes us to do the wrong thing or the evil thing, to sin. In other words, "The commandment that was for life turned out to be death for me. For sin, seizing an opportunity in the commandment, deceived me and through it put me to death"
(Roma 7:10,11).
Grace of God is offered to humanity through the spilled blood of Jesus Christ on a cross. For those who have faith to believe that Jesus Christ is the only Son of God and accept Him as the Savior, the grace of God is a free gift. Sins are forgiven upon repentance and confession because Jesus Christ paid the price for our sins with His blood, "He himself bore our sins in his body upon the cross, so that, free from sin, we might live for righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed" (1 Peter 2:24). No such protection is offered to those who choose to live by the Law - if you break a law, be prepared to face the consequences. Thus we have a choice to exercise our free will, not just between good and evil, but also between good and good.
"Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect" (Romans 12:2)
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