Why Didn’t God Make Us to Always Choose Right?

Now, the second question is also a very good question, and it is an even more difficult question in that regard. But the Bible answers this question. I believe the Bible answers this question. So here it is. Since God knows everything, He knew that people were going to sin.

Why didn’t God make us so that we would do the right thing all the time? Now, that’s a great question. You know, that shows that someone is doing some thinking, you know, about the world and about… And I think this question came from a higher-up Bible class, maybe our teens, I don’t know.

It might have come from a fourth and fifth grade level, I think, maybe. But the Bible teaches that God made people to choose between right and wrong. When He made Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, He set before them the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Genesis chapter 2 and 3 teaches us about this.

And, He said to Adam, He said, “…Thou shalt not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for in the day that you eat thereof, you shall surely die.” Okay? And so, there it was. A choice that Adam and Eve could make to either eat of that tree or not eat of that tree. They could either be obedient to God or they could disobey God. That was the choice.

And, you know, the possibility of having a choice also entails the possibility of negative consequences when we make the wrong choice. And that’s what God says. You eat of the tree, and that day you shall surely die, you know. So, that was the consequences.

So the questioner wants to know, well, why couldn’t God just have made us to always choose the right thing? And the answer to that is because without the ability to freely choose, or without the aspect of there not being any negative consequences to our choice, that is, to choose the wrong thing instead of the right thing, We would have to live in a rubber room, all right? And a rubber room is a place where one is entirely safe because no one can harm another, no one cannot, no one can be harmed in this rubber room.

Now, what kind of life would that be? Would you want to be put in a rubber room where you could always, where you were always choosing the right thing? You go outside the rubber room, the possibility of choosing the wrong thing is there. But if you stay in the rubber room, you always choose the right thing. What kind of life would that be?

Well, it wouldn’t be a free life. It’d be more like a prison, right? So let’s break this down a little bit further. There are only really two possibilities to eliminate all wrong choices. First, to always choose what is right, God could intervene. Let’s say you’re out here in the world and you’ve got a choice before you. You’re going to either not steal the popcorn. I’m just using a crazy illustration. I don’t know. Or you’re going to steal the popcorn. Not stealing the popcorn is the right thing to do. Stealing the popcorn is the wrong thing to do, right?

Okay. Now, let’s say you’re about to steal the popcorn. And God says, whoa, stop. You can’t do that. Don’t steal that popcorn. And since God is telling you, you’re like, oh, okay, I’m not going to do it. Well, how does that work out for us? Well, it means that God would be intervening at every moment, telling us not to do things all the time.

Do you like it when somebody else tells you not to do stuff all the time? What do you think? It’s hard to live that way, isn’t it? It’s hard to live that way. But let’s say God would have to intervene somehow. If a murderer pulls the trigger, he would have to stop the bullet.

If somebody jumped off the side of the building, he would have to suspend gravity. He would only be allowed for safe things to happen, right? There would be no risk in the world, and all outcomes would guarantee to be good, to be right.

But that’s just another version of the rubber room, isn’t it? Without any consistent laws of nature, that would mean it would be impossible to do just about anything that involves risk. What kind of life would that be? Would it be a free life? Why did God make us free to choose anyway? And why should there be negative consequences?

To bad choices. Well, God wanted us to have the freedom to choose because without free choice, not only would bad consequences or bad things be eliminated, but good would be eliminated also. Because without the freedom to choose good and bad, you can’t choose good either. It wouldn’t be you choosing it. Let me give you an example.

I used to do a little computer programming years ago, and so I know how to write a little computer code. And let’s say I go home and I’ve got a computer over there, and I’m going to program my computer every 10 minutes or every 30 minutes. I’m going to say, my computer’s going to say, Kevin, I love you. Okay. You know, that would probably be alright for a while.

But then, you know, at some point, I would start to realize, you know, that computer’s not telling me it loves me. It’s just a computer. It’s doing what I told it to do. There’s no freedom there. It’s been programmed.

And ultimately, I cannot credit that computer with loving me because it has no choice. It’s just a computer with no will of its own. It has not freely chosen to love me. Would it be any more impressive if God did that with us? No.

You see, the possibility of love wouldn’t exist. But listen to Galatians 5 and verse 13, because this is key to understanding the answer to this question. Paul says this, We’ve been called to liberty. We’ve been called to be free, to have freedom.

Only, do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love, serve one another. You see, that’s what freedom is intended to do. It’s intended to show that we love other people and that we love God. Without that freedom, we can’t show that we love other people. Your mom and daddy can never show that they love you. You could never show that you love them. We could never show that we love God without freedom.

That’s the connection that Paul makes right there in Galatians 5, verse 13. For a proclamation of love to have any meaning, a free choice is required. A free will being like you and I, we are free will beings. And when we sincerely say to someone else, I love you, that is meaningful.

Well, because we’re saying it of our own choice, of our own origination, of our own desire. It’s not just programmed into us, but rather it’s free. And it involves a risk, because telling someone else you love them entails the possibility they may not love you in return.

And that can be difficult and hard. But it’s worth the risk. It’s worth the effort. C.S. Lewis said this, and he was a very good thinker in these areas. He said, If a thing is free to be good, it is also free to be bad. And free will is what has made evil possible. Why then did God give them free will?

Because free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having. And I think that’s a great summation of the answer to the question. The poet said, “‘Tis better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all.” But a world without free will, a world without the possibility of making right and wrong choices, is a world with no risk, and a world with no love, and who wants to live in a world with no love?

Not me. I want to live in a world where there is love. And I hope that you want to live in that world also. Love binds everything together in perfect harmony, Colossians 3 and verse 14 tells us. And it enables us to draw near to God and to draw near to one another.

That computer that’s sitting in my house over there, it can never draw near to me. It can never love me. It can say it because I’ve programmed it to, but it doesn’t mean anything. But when you say, I love you, that means something, because you’ve been able to freely choose to do that.

So, yes, God knows everything. He knew that people were going to sin, and He made us so that we could have a choice between right and wrong, so that there could be true love in this world. And you know what? It was worth it. It was worth it.

What about you tonight? Do you love God? Do you want to demonstrate that love for Him this evening? If you’re not a Christian, you can do so through hearing His Word and believing it, repenting of sin, confessing Jesus as Lord and being baptized for the forgiveness of sins. You know, God has demonstrated His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5 and verse 8 says, but tonight you have an opportunity to demonstrate your love for Him. And some of you have already done that just by being here. But maybe you need to become a Christian. If you need to do that, we’d be happy to help you. If you need the prayers of the church, we can help you with that also. If you have a need, please come make it known while we stand and while we sing.

End of transcript. Thank you for reading along!