When I consider the fact that I am one single human being in an entire universe, I begin to sense the humility of how small I am. When I think about time and eternity, I am, again, humbled by my itty bitty little "bleep" in the existence of life. Initially, this causes me to feel insignificant and maybe even puny. What are my hopes and dreams compared to the combined hopes and dreams of all of humanity? How is it possible for a "bleep" to truly make a difference or even matter?
But then history is full of "bleeps" who have changed the world--Plato, Socrates, Cleopatra, Alexander the Great, Galileo Galilei, Leonardo da Vinci, Amerigo Vespucci, Francis Bacon, Queen Elizabeth I, Martin Luther, St. Fancis of Assisi, Mother Teresa, Ghandi, Martin Luther King Jr., and the list goes on...
God grants different gifts and abilities to different people, but when He created humans, he implanted a common ingredient that would be passed on through generations--"God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them" (Gen 1:27 NIV).
Made in the image of God--what exactly does that entail? I'm sure it involves many things, but a significant aspect of being made in the image of God involves free will. The ability to choose is sacred--humans can choose to believe, reject, abuse, abstain, pursue, doubt, hate, love, work, build, break, create, kill, judge, reconcile, etc. No other created thing that lives on Earth can do all these things. Humans can reason, weigh options, and make decisions entirely on their own. The kind of decisions that one makes determines their legacy or "bleep".
To choose is a power of the gods--a profound gift given to humanity. Humans have the power to choose their attitudes, they can command their atmosphere, and they can choose how they want to impact others. The sorts of decisions that one makes determines the level of authority they will exercise. So it is sobering to realize how often the power of choice is taken for granted.
Taking free will for granted is not a new problem. In John 10:34, Jesus berates the people for refusing to believe in His divinity and scolds them for acting like a mob instead of exercising their right to make their own decisions. Jesus directs the people to recall the words of King David (in Ps 82:6) when He asks,"Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, “You are gods”’?" (John 10:34 NKJV). Jesus essentially asks the people why they, who have been given the ability to discern truth, to judge the validity of information, and make their own choices,could look at His fruits and call Him a liar.
The Hebrew word translated as "gods" in Psalms 82:6 and John 10:34 is Elohim. This word is not always used to represent the one true God; it can also be a reference to something that has strength, might, power, and the right to judge (Web 1&2).
Put all this into perspective. Not only did God grant humans existence, but He allowed humans free control over their own minds--no dictator has ever done that! This ability, when one chooses to give control over to God, results in a profound transformation. Often the legacies that are most honored are the ones left by those who freely chose to let God change their hearts and minds.
A person cannot be guilted or forced into choosing to truly follow God. A person who believes out of fear cannot evolve into a person with a strong, beautiful character and steadfast faith. Such a change is supernatural and cannot take place without willing compliance.
Supernatural change is a difficult process. Maybe it is so difficult because it requires one to go against what most people perceive as normal. This change also demands risk, but not without the promise of transformation. And get this, God took a great risk in granting humanity free will. In fact, God took the greatest risk of all by placing Jesus at the mercy of humanity with the explicit desire of providing a way to give humans a chance at perfect and holy immortality. I have to admit that it blows my mind that God allowed the gift of free will to continue beyond Eden. But it is this fact that reveals the nature of God's love and the beauty of His creativity. God loves to take what is broken and restore it. God wants to turn all people into beings of strength, power, with the ability to judge or discern between good and evil--gods--elohim. Ultimately, God will erase all the side-effects of sin from those who choose Him.
This gift of transformation is a beautiful mystery--one that even the Angels are in awe of. Peter, one of Jesus' disciples, writes about this phenomenon in 1 Peter 1:
"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy
he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or
fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are
shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be
revealed in the last time. In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a
little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These
have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than
gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory
and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you
love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are
filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end
result of your faith, the salvation of your souls . . . Even angels long to
look into these things (verses 1-9,12 NIV).
If God's incomprehensible, unconditional love for a damaged race, if the change that serving God brings to a soul, if the ability for humanity to exercise supernatural abilities stirs up a desire in angels to understand--to get a grasp on the profound beauty of something that words simply fail to express adequately, how can it not overwhelm us with gratitude, praise, and a desire to willingly let God shepherd us? For it is only when one freely commits to God that they can develop something more precious than gold--genuine faith. Such a faith will be so transforming that God will rename you, just as He renamed Abram, Sarai, Jacob, and Saul of Tarsus.
In his sermon, The Weight of Glory, C.S. Lewis makes this profound observation about humanity's potential:
"It is a serious thing,to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no 'ordinary' people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations -- these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whome we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit -- immortal horrors or everlasting splendours" (1942).
God has called us to greater works (John 14:12)--to become beings with the splendor, courage, justice, power, and love that is attributed to gods and goddesses. No one who embarks on this journey with God will be insignificant.
Web 1: http://www.ou.org/about/judaism/di.htm
Web 2: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05393a.htm
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