FREE WILL
CAUSE-EFFECT
Fourth
of six devotions in Covenantal Alignment
series
Genesis
2:16-17: “And the Lord God commanded the
man, ‘You are free to eat of any tree in the garden; but you must not eat of
the tree of knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely
die.’”
Free will at work: Sammy’s mommy warns, “Sammy, take your hands
off that cloth. Play with your trucks on
the floor. If you pull the cloth,
everything on the table will crash down on you.”
Sammy smiled at his mom as he chose
to pull the cloth. As the books on the
table crashed down on his head, Sammy fell down crying. Free will cause-effect. Sammy was warned what would happen if he
pulled the cloth (cause). He pulled the
cloth—and books fell on his head (effect).
We should never be surprised when we
get exactly what we were warned would happen beforehand. God wasn’t playing when He warned not to eat
from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
What did He say would happen should Adam disobey eating from that ONE tree
in the entire garden?
You will surely die!
Cause-effect is God’s Kingdom rule of
ethics [ETH-iks]. Ethics describes moral
code-of-conduct. Morally ethical people
act upright. Moral people never lie. Moral people can be trusted. They display high integrity [in-TEG-ri-tee],
meaning total honesty. Moral people can
be depended upon to do the right thing all the time. Ethically moral people live with a clean
conscience.
People’s free will chooses actions
that are either ethically moral—or not. And that is precisely why God designed
covenantal guidelines like cause-effect to rule our relationship.
The opening Scripture quotes God’s
specific cause-effect rule. IF you eat
from that tree, you will SURELY die. Our
Father is clear about Kingdom rules, so we need to listen up.
This IS God’s Kingdom, not ours!
Rebels lose.
IF we are going to rule under Jesus
in His millennial reign, we MUST obey the rules our Father sets, OR there will
be consequences (Revelation 20:4-6). Consequences
[KON-se-quen-sez] are penalties resulting from disobedience. Consequences are the “effect” of disobeying
God’s rules, the “cause.”
No one should be surprised with
cause-effect consequences.
Take Home Nugget
People who’re aligned with (obedient
to) God’s covenant rules are blessed.
Disobedience brings punishment.
The lesson that’s linked below
contrasts Joshua’s blessings when entering the Promised Land to punishment when
people disobeyed God. This is important
because individuals are either aligned or misaligned with God’s covenant—and
are blessed or punished accordingly.
Holy Father, help me to choose
living aligned with Your covenant, like Joshua. I want Your grace like He had
with you! Help me to choose correctly,
in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Adapted from “Ethics: The Rules of God’s
Kingdom.” Dr. Tony Evans. December 22, 2015. http://www.crosswalk.com/devotionals/alternative-view/
J.D. Griffith
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