Faith and Life

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God and free man

Our affection and respect for each other often stop as soon as  the other says NO where we say YES. We want too quickly to remodel the other person according to our norms. With God, things are  different. He takes us seriously as we are. He lets us keep our freedom and our will , even if we say NO to Him. God gave man his free will  as a gift. And for this reason, He respects it more than anyone. He does not amend His decisions like an annoyed or disappointed human person.

We will again and again interpret God's respect for the freedom of His creatures as God's weakness. "God is good, He is love itself and won't take it that seriously if we misbehave. We will all get to heaven!" Love cannot defend itself against such misunderstandings and wrong interpretations, not even divine love.

God's love for us cannot be extinguished,  even if we take advantage of it  by doing evil. But does this mean that our actions have no consequences? God is faithful, but He is also just. He takes our free decisions seriously, including saying NO to His love. For this reason in particular, consequences  apply to man. It is not God who turns away when we sin. It is the other way around:  people who sin turn away from God. And God does not stop them. He lets them go. He does not impose Himself if people want to go their own way. In this case, the NO to God remains for time and eternity. But if man recognizes that his decision was wrong, he may change it, "return to God" as the Bible puts it. God waits for this to happen.

He does not want good to be done under  pressure  and force; it is supposed  to be man's own deed. Our dignity lies in this freedom. We bear the weight, the responsibility for our free action. We not only reap the fruits of our good deeds, but are also responsible for misusing our freedom to do evil.

Humanity in sin and guilt

Nobody likes to be called to account for his actions. We would prefer not to be responsible to God or to other people. We would like to be "totally free". The good that God wants often seems to be diametrically opposed to what we really want to do. We quickly decide "freely" against the will of God. This NO to the will of God, the main source of evil in this world, is called "sin" in the Bible.

We have to recognize the word "sin" in its entire awful reality; otherwise everything that follows will remain incomprehensible. There is really only a single sin: rejection of God's love. For this reason the Old Testament also calls it "faithlessness", breach of the covenant with God. With this, people proclaim that they are self-sufficient, that they do not need God. Egoism destroys the longing for God.  to be continued