Life is a series of choices. Some of them, you make. Most are made for you. Starting with your conception, God chose for you which one of myriad eggs would be released and which of millions of gametes would fertilize that egg to make a zygote. That choice determined your DNA for life.
But God’s choice of your DNA was only the beginning. Choices that your mother made while you were growing in her womb, choices that your father made and choices that community and national leaders made without your input, all determined uncounted aspects of your life. All of this happened without your choice or approval.
Embryologists have yet to learn when you made your first choice. When did you first do something that was not determined from outside of you—and what was it? Was it a thought? Was it the voluntary movement of an arm? Was it at two weeks’ gestation, or eight weeks? Whatever and whenever it was, it was a choice within strict limitations. Choice to clench your fist—is only possible if you have a fist to clench. A choice to swing it at something is limited by the reach of your arm.
That is the thing about choice. It is always the result of God’s prior choice. Because we are His creatures, no one of our choices is fully free. Some of the limits placed on your choice are direct limits from God. Others come through other people.
God alone determines how tall you are and how high you can jump. By physical training, you can strengthen your body to get closer to that God-imposed limit, but you can never exceed it. But there are other limits that God imposes by way of command. God’s “thou shalt not” requires your agreement. Unlike the law of gravity, you are not forced to obey. But those who don’t obey bring all sorts of trouble and misery into their lives.
The judgment of God lies at the intersection of these two sorts of choices. He first makes choices for you that equip you to do things. Then, He tells you how you ought to use these things. For instance, he gives you legs to walk, arms to carry, eyes to see your brother in need, and more food than you need for yourself. Only after giving you all these gifts does he say, “go feed your hungry brother.”
You can either obey his command because He enabled you, or you can defy Him. The choice is yours. But one choice is right and the other is wrong. God is the judge. God is the judge because He gave you the choice in the first place. He is not an intruder into your choices, He is the giver of choices.
God gave us our lives, our bodies, our choices and then taught us how to use all these great gifts. Not only do you have no reason to resent His loving guidance to those who keep His commandments, you learn by experience that God’s will is always better than your own ideas. His ways are sheer delight, wholly human, and fully satisfying.
Best of all, God became a man just like you. He, and He alone, made all the right choices. He lived the perfect life of love. He could do anything He wanted—with unlimited power and sovereignty. But He chose to use His human body—the body of the Word made flesh—to live for you and to die for you.
That’s why it is such a comfort to know that, on the Day of Judgment, God will sit on the judgment seat in the body of Jesus. Your judge will be one who lived the human life. Your judge will also be the One who died that you might live.
Believe in Him and you will have no need to be afraid in the Day of Judgment. Believe in Him and your life, already now, will begin to look like His life. And that’s a beautiful choice.
