Life is full of choices. The most vibrant memories are often tied to difficult decisions made along the way, decisions that have shaped and directed life’s path. Some good decisions simply brighten the path while some completely redefine the trajectory of the journey and refocus the traveler. Some bad decisions are simple mistakes that teach a lesson and do no irreparable harm while some are final and irreversible. Regret is the emotional response to a memory of making a wrong decision. Contentment is the pleasure we take in a life lived as a result of good decisions.
When viewed this simply, there seems to be a very clear delineation of ‘good’ versus ‘bad.’ One should strive to make good decisions, and avoid making bad decision. In the end, at least we know our whole existence is up to our own decision-making, right? Life is a game, and we can win by making the best moves. We lose because we allow ourselves to make bad decisions. This is the logic of the self-determined and enlightened modern human. However, this is one of the most dangerous and deceptive lies the Enemy has ever whispered in the ear of humankind. It was indeed the first lie told to humankind in the Garden of Eden, that they should be able to decide right from wrong, good from evil, on their own.
“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Genesis 3: 4-5, NIV
Ever since humankind fell for the great lie in that garden, each of us carries the genetic predisposition toward self-determination, autonomy, rugged individualism, and the idea that we are really in charge of our own destiny. In other words, since the first humans fell, we are all fallen in sin. To this day, we are fallen in sin.
What is the chance a good man, a really truly good and righteous man, would lie or steal or kill for self-gain? King David lied to cover up his affair. Isaac stole his brother’s birthright. Moses killed the Egyptian taskmaster. These men are regarded as great men, men who made some of the more critical decisions and led the most important episodes in the history of our faith. Even these great men made morally reprehensible decisions.
The idea that we humans can and most likely, given half the chance will, fail at making good choices is all too obvious when I look at my own biography:
There was the time I lied to my second grade class about having a pet snake, only to be caught when my teacher asked my parents if I could bring it in for show and tell. I didn’t have a pet snake. (Why did 7-year-old me want a pet snake?)
There was the time I was caught spending unsupervised time with my girlfriend when I was supposed to be at another friend’s birthday party. I would have gotten away with this bad decision had my friend not inadvertently ratted me out when he shouted, “hey man, missed you at the party!” when he saw me the next evening out with my parents. Busted.
I’ll certainly never forget the bad driving decisions that found me facing the same judge for the third time in a single summer. My need for speed met his advice to get a new suit and slow down, and hefty speeding fines, and raised insurance rates.
There are many, many multitudes of other examples of how I’ve tried to do things my way, made decisions, and faced the unfortunate consequences of the choices I’d made later. Of course, there have been some good decisions (maybe ‘lucky guesses’ is a better way to put it) I’ve made along the way too:
I could have eaten the cold burger covered in day-old mayonnaise on that overnight trip I took with the marching band back in high school. That was a close call. It could have all ended for me right there.
I carefully avoided having to pick between two female friends to ask to the Homecoming dance my sophomore year by allowing my mom to set me up on a blind date with her friend’s daughter. Not only was the girl really cute, she was also totally disinterested in me and a complete train-wreck for a date. Wait… maybe this one doesn’t go in the ‘good decision’ file after all…
I am certain it was my decision to pack the raw chicken for a beach bar-b-que meal I had planned on a camping trip a buddy of mine and I took in grad school to a remote barrier island. While the meal tasted just fine, it hadn’t occurred to me during the planning phase that I’d be making it with second degree sunburns covering my body, woefully dehydrated after a day in the scorching sun, and without the proper methods of washing my hands I’d also contract salmonella. On an uninhabited island. Miles from civilization. Ok… this one definitely doesn’t help my decision-making record…
Maybe you could recap your life’s list of decisions and find a similar pattern. Maybe there’s something to the idea that we humans are really not good at making decisions. Maybe that stems from the fact that we are all heirs of the Fall and keepers of the great gift of sin, the gift that keeps on giving throughout human history. What can we ever do of our own will and power to correct our life’s course? We cannot rely on ourselves for reliable decision-making, and even if we know for sure we need to trust God above our own selves, we also know ourselves well enough to know how hard that is to do.
Thank God for the doctrine of Effectual Calling, otherwise known as ‘Irresistible Grace,’ one of the five points of Calvinism (the I in the acronym TULIP). In short, we are able to trust that, regardless of our inability to truly choose good because of our human condition of sin, God’s grace is available for God’s people because it is simply irresistible to God’s people. As God calls each one of us, we are unable to flee from his grace, and the effect is transformation, regeneration of the sinner into one who can do good by God’s grace. The truth is, when it comes to making a good-versus-bad decision, we humans are unable to really choose. We are dead in sin. We are not inclined toward good decisions. It is God’s grace which allows us to live into contentment knowing we’ve followed God’s will in making good decisions.
You may want to write this whole idea off. It’s easier to think you are really in control of your destiny, and that you have the ability to make all the right choices for yourself and exist without the need of a savior. And it’s easier to think that you are the one who can decide to be saved, and to choose who your savior is. My only question - when did Jesus ask you if he should die for you all those centuries ago? When did you decide?
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
The Apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians 2: 1-10, NIV
Thanks be to God.
J.M.D.