[Image of an orchestra playing in harmony, guided by a director]
We think a free will is willing what you want . . .
Which is like going where you will . . .
The only problem is that my will can bump into your will . . .
The one who gets his will is called the master and the one who must surrender his will is called the slave. So, we vote for presidents, kings and various leaders because they promise to enact laws. The laws are like boxes that protect your will from my will . . . And my will from your will . . . If I violate the law, the king shrinks my box.
The area inside my box, I refer to as “my rights.” And claiming my rights and moving around inside my box I call freedom or “free will.” It’s like a walled city—the walls are meant to protect and save the citizens, but in the end, the walls trap the citizens, turning the city into a prison—a living hell.
We as humans love to draw boxes because they appear to help us not have to deal with each other’s messes. I pretend I’m free—and yet I’m not free to love, and love is life—and I feel awfully alone.
•We Americans think we’re better than the Russians because we think we can draw better boxes—but we’re still just drawing boxes.
• And we Christians think we’re better than the Moslems because we think we can draw better boxes—but if we’re drawing boxes, we’re still just drawing boxes.
• In the Old Testament, God even helps Moses and the people draw boxes—it’s like He says, “You want knowledge of good and evil? You want boxes? I’ll help you draw boxes…” Read Leviticus. It’s packed with boxes. The people are enslaved by bad will . . . and they think they are the box that they have chosen . . . which means that each of them is their own deepest prison.
Ironically our idea of “free will” is a prison, and we’re utterly terrified of freedom.
In other words, Jesus scares us . . .
Until the moment we encounter Jesus on the cross, we haven’t encountered a will as free as that of Jesus. We can barely even begin to conceive of His Freedom.
Think about it, at the cross:
It’s not only the will of other people that we bump into—
It’s the will of God … and the will of God is called reality.
Jesus had walked on water. He had turned water into wine.
He could say to a mountain, “Move” and the mountain would move.
As if reality itself was His will. That’s some pretty amazing free will.
And yet it wasn’t just the power of His will; it was the character of His will.
For now, they saw that the Man that raised the dead was choosing to die . . . at the hands of His enemies… in the most horrific way they could imagine.
In other words, His will is Love . . . and all “reality” cannot change it.
All the principalities and powers of this world cannot change it.
It terrified Pilate. He had never met a will he couldn’t change—a will he couldn’t break . . . with beatings, scourging and the threat of a cross…
In a few hours, Jesus would hang on the tree in the garden…
– The principalities and powers would do their worst…
– Creation itself would deny Him His life…
– And even His Father would seem to have forsaken Him…
And still, He cried, “Father Forgive them” and “into your hands I commit my spirit.” Still, He loved God and loved us—His neighbor.
Jesus is free will. He is the Good Free Will of God in human flesh—even our flesh, our earthen vessel covered in crap . . . our dark box. He was choosing from inside your box.
Well, His body broke upon the tree and His blood spilled out
And that blood sets us free.
All human words and explanations fall short at this point.
See? I think we can barely begin to imagine how free the Lord wills us to be.
But we can begin to imagine . . .
Two very good friends can begin to imagine . . .
A mother or father with a little child can begin to imagine . . . A bride and groom in communion in the sacrament of their covenant
begin to imagine . . .
See? You can begin to imagine what it would be like if there was a communion of wills—rather than the construction of boxes . . .
It would be like instruments that harmonize in a symphony.
They don’t make war; they make music.
It’s what it would be like if the bride’s will actually enjoyed submitting to the groom’s will and the groom’s will actually enjoyed submitting to the bride’s will—it would be ecstasy and it might result in life.
And imagine what it would be like if all our wills were in harmony!
Imagine a communion of wills in communion with the Creator’s Will . . .
We would be the manifestation of over seven billion dancers each animated by one song, which each heard in the depths of their being, and then freely willed into existence with ecstatic joy.
We would be God’s masterpiece created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we would walk in them or maybe dance in them (Eph. 2:8-10).
We would walk in them, and it wouldn’t be bondage but absolute freedom, for we would will God’s will, as if it were our own will because it was.
The thing that changes the world is not kings, governments or programs—including religious kings, like pastors and evangelists—or religious programs. The thing that changes the world is the free will of God welling up in you.
A smile or a kind word that’s not scripted,
A heartfelt and sincere “I’m sorry” or “I forgive” or “Father into your hands I commit my spirit.”
You can’t change the world by demanding rights and creating boxes.
The world changes when your box is destroyed,
The world changes when your heart of stone cracks, and through it, a fountain that you did not create flows through it.
The world changes when you trust Love.
The world changes when you believe the Gospel.
This devotional was prepared by Kimberly Weynen, Peter Hiett’s assistant. It’s primarily a compilation of excerpts from the sermon entitled The Election (The Beautiful Thing IV). You can read, watch or listen to it in its entirety here:https://relentless-love.org/sermons/the-election-the-beautiful-thing-iv/