The book of Judges in the Old Testament was the setting for my Daughters of the Promised Land series. If you read Judges, you will find a pattern of sin, oppression, cries for help, a deliverer, peace, the death of the deliverer, and the pattern starts all over again. As long as the judge who saved the people of Israel from their oppression lived (oppression brought on by their sin against God), the people enjoyed a measure of peace. But shortly after the judge was buried in the cave, the people slipped right back into doing one thing—what was right in their own eyes.
That’s actually one of the saddest statements in Scripture. The reason? Because the people did not seek God. They chose to go their own way. We do the same thing today but today we phrase our choices differently.
One of the sermons at Door of Hope church in Portland, Oregon puts it this way:
We live in a culture which defines freedom the way the Bible defines sin: complete autonomy.
Complete autonomy. I hear that word a lot more today than I ever did in my youth. Actually, I’m not sure we ever used that terminology back then, but we still wanted to do as they did in the time of the judges—what was right in our own eyes.
I’ve understood for a long time that no one likes to be told what to do. Not the tiny toddler who will vehemently shout “NO” or our oldest citizen who can still grow belligerent and defiant if you try to cross them or suggest they might be wrong. No one likes to be told they are wrong or they should do something a different way. We want to make our own decisions, and actually God has created us with that ability. He gave us choice, which gives us the freedom to say yes or no. We don’t have to do what we’re taught or believe what others tells us is true. God won’t even force us to believe Him, though He spent sixty-six books of Scripture wooing us with His grace and love so we might want to believe Him.
The problem is – autonomy – choice – the absolute ability to decide for ourselves doesn’t fit with the God who made us. It really doesn’t. He created us in His image and came into this world to show us what God looks like. Then he lived love so we could understand what love looks like too. He gave everything out of His great love for us—all with the desire to have us choose Him. He chooses us, that’s true, but He also gives us choice to decide for ourselves. (Don’t ask me to explain that because it’s a theological debate that will never end and I just accept that both fit together in a way only God understands.)
When we choose to do what is right in our own eyes, we choose against God. That’s what Israel did in Judges over and over and over again. They never once learned from the history that came before. They just kept repeating the same sinful choices. But lest we judge them too harshly, we all do the same. If not for God’s grace, we would never choose Him. He helps us to see Him and even grants us faith to believe Him. But that means if we accept what He offers, we have to give up our will, our autonomy, for His.
C.S. Lewis put it this way:
There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, ‘All right, then, have it your way.’
It’s not easy to say to God, “Thy will be done.” It’s called absolute surrender, and it means saying to that sinful nature we are born with, “I’m done with doing what is right in my own eyes. I want God’s way, not mine.”
It means coming to the cross and realizing what actually took place there. God cancelled our sins there. He took them on Himself and paid every debt we had against God and stamped “paid in full” on that certificate of debt, never to be brought up again. It means realizing that God did that for you, for me, and if we want that forgiveness, that reconciliation, we have to surrender all and cling to that old rugged cross every day of our lives.
We exchange our life for His. We accept His grace for our pain. We feel His mercy for our brokenness, His healing for our wounds. By His stripes, we are healed.
But surrender is not easy. It will cost us everything to give up our choices, our will for His. If we think His will is too restrictive and too costly, then we misunderstand that surrender actually brings true freedom. By losing our life (our will, our choices), we find it—a new life that lasts forever. We move our citizenship from earth to heaven, so though we still do good things while we are here, we know that this world can no longer hurt us as it once did because our Redeemer is strong.
And when we realize that we belong to God for eternity, we also see that someday all of the injustice in this life will be dealt with.
“Human beings in a fallen state will never provide the world with justice and righteousness.” Josh White, Door of Hope
If there is no God, there can be no justice. But a perfect God, Creator, Savior, Judge, will one day make all things right. We don’t like to imagine ourselves judged by anyone. (Maybe that’s why the book of Judges in part has that title—not just because judges ruled the land during that time but because they didn’t want anyone judging them. So very much like we are today.
We want to see others judged though. We want evil to see its righteous end. We want justice for the oppressed. We’ve always wanted that, even those who don’t want to accept God or His free gift. But we can’t make it happen. We never could.
We can make a choice to stop wanting what we think is right and seek what He knows is right. We can come to the cross and repent, turn away from our sin against a righteous God and say, “Your will be done.”
Martin Luther said, “Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.”
Once we know Him and we surrender that autonomy to do what we want without censure, that doesn’t mean we will never need to repent of current sin that might rise up within us. We will always be a fallen broken people this side of eternity. But that’s the beauty of grace. Our sins are gone. Later repentance simply restores us when we start to slip back into things we used to do and be. It keeps us dependent on His grace. Because we are. We truly are.
If not for God’s great grace, we wouldn’t have a choice in the first place. We would not use words like autonomy or do what is right in our own eyes because it is God’s grace that gives us choice to decide for or against Him. The benefits of choosing our own way pale in significance to the benefits of choosing His..
True freedom comes in knowing Jesus. Saying, “Your will be done,” is only the beginning of a transformed life that is full of greater things than we can ask or imagine.
But it is our choice. What is yours?
~Selah
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