Lyrics
You’re standing in time, the future coming at you
And how will you choose, and how will you choose?
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom
How will you choose, oh how will you choose?
.......
To whom is He gracious
Who will feel His wrath?
Cherish His Word, and by His grace
Follow His path
.......
If you love the Lord, you will choose His way
Yes, you’ll suffer in the flesh because it craves another way
But obedience will cleanse your hands and will purify your heart
and preserve you on the Way
.......
Your mind is the eye of the inner man
Examine yourself and do not entertain the darkness
When you see it there then put it to death
Set your mind above, in His light
.......
Composer's notes
The second movement is the shortest movement in the piece but I believe its subject is one we most need to consider with fresh eyes in this present time. The subject is freedom from bondage and the exercise of “free will.” Getting directly to the point, the lyrics open with a description of free will and then ask the believer, “how will you choose?” Imagine, a person standing in the present moment, the future coming; the person imagines the possibilities and their potential outcomes, the effect their choice might have, and then … chooses!
We all live in temporality following the ill-considered choice of Adam and Eve – who pondered (with the assistance of some deception) the “benefits” of eating a forbidden fruit and in doing so conceived defiling motivations in their hearts – motivations that were manifested in their choice and disobedient behavior. Living in temporality (unlike our God Who is eternal) we are compelled to choose and choose and choose through our entire lives. Is this unending, unavoidable need to make choice after choice a burden intended to be imposed on natural man? I don’t think so, because natural man is in bondage and unable to make choices that will improve his or her spiritual or eternal state.
What bondage am I referring to? A bondage affects all (unsaved) humanity and is described by Paul in Ephesians 2:1-3. There, Paul speaks to his believing audience, reminding them of their natural state and way of living before becoming believers, reminding them of how they had all been dead in trespasses and sins “according to the course of the world”, living in the lusts of the flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and mind. He tells them that this way of life is the ordinary course of the world he is not unsympathetic. He says, look this is how we were too, every one of us before we became believers. This bondage is described by Paul from a personal perspective in Romans 7, where he recalls his experience as an unsaved but religious Jew, even as a rabbinical student. Paul told of his inability to comply with righteousness despite knowing and agreeing with what was right and wrong. We can feel the horror he felt not being able to do or not do as he wished, but practicing the very evil that he did not wish.
But one precious blessing the believer receives is the ability to be freed from that bondage. In Ephesians 2:1-3, while describing the present state of the unsaved world, and acknowledging sharing that nature before salvation, Paul was also saying we WERE in that state and we FORMERLY walked that way, but we aren’t doing that any more! That is not a statement you make to people who were not walking in that freedom! Similarly in Romans 7, after Paul describes that state and builds up to the statement: “wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?”, Paul answers that the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set us free. Moving back to Romans 6 and into Romans 8, is an exquisite explication of the reality and the basis for this freedom. To underscore the point that this freedom from bondage is available and we are expected to walk in it consider just a few statements from Paul in Romans 6:
“Are we to continue in sin . . .? May it never be!” (Romans 6:1-2)
“Do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts . . .” (Romans 6:12)
“Do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin . . .” (Romans 6:13)
“Sin shall not be master over you . . .” (Romans 6:14)
And let’s look at one from Romans 8 to make sure we understand the import: “If you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live” (Romans 8:13 NASB).
It is important to know about this freedom and to be living in it. Many do not know or would even believe this freedom exists here and now, others have experienced it and lost it. Part of the mechanism for the problem is described by Paul in Romans 6 where he says that despite what is available to you, “do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or obedience resulting in righteousness?” (Romans 6:16). Some never stop gratifying sin in their lives, others are faced with the choice and lack of knowledge or false doctrines tip the scale towards wrong choices. But by God’s grace, with the Truth and the blood, there is a way out of this bondage!
One weakness of the free-will model I present, is that it may suggest to the reader -- especially a person living in our current culture of strong self-determinism -- that freedom allows a self-determined life to obey God and do so from natural strength. This would be an absolutely incorrect conclusion. As we will discuss in the context of the Third Movement, when we are born again we are essentially reconnected to God and partake from Him life that works in our hearts to produce motivations that manifest in our daily lives “fruit of the Spirit” – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). But this also requires us to crucify the flesh with its passions and desires (Galatians 5:24), which too is not done of our own strength – in doing so we are doing so by the Spirit (Galatians 5:25, and see Romans 8:13 where we are told quite clearly that it is “by the Spirit” that we are to be putting to death the deeds of the body). Thus we are told in Romans 8:2-4 that God sent His Son Jesus as an offering for sin, thereby condemning sin in the flesh, “in order that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”
Just to be clear to my fellow citizens: what we are talking about are choices, decisions, actions that come from grace, from a heart that now desires to follow and obey. But definitely NOT from outward compliance with rules while having a heart that is defiled. Of course without Christ this may be all you can do but what we see angering Christ vis-à-vis the Pharisees was this hidden state while pretending to be better, holy, good, in a terribly hypocritical attitude. Instead, God’s plan is for the heart to be transformed, manifest God’s qualities, leading to good outward obedience (Romans 8:2-4).
It is a life that cannot be lived in bondage, so He provides a way to freedom. But it also cannot be lived in natural strength or motivations from an unsaved heart, a heart not enlivened by God. This life can be compared to a call to walk upon the surface of the water, in faith stepping out of a boat and by that faith drawing grace to walk upon the surface to our Lord. But note our participation. Peter called to the Lord: bid me Lord to come to You. Ok, come! And then Peter responded and was doing so til the natural occurrences around him shook his faith and he began to sink. But immediately our Lord was there, He’d closed the gap immediately and grasped Peter and lifted him up. God calls and we respond by grace He provides.
So we start talking about the bondage that the natural man is subject to and the freedom from that bondage that is available to the believer. Remember though that this freedom is not for a self-determined life but to serve God and by God’s grace; not in a person’s own will and strength but by His leading, His work in the heart (motivations and desires), His enablement. I can’t help noting that Bob Dylan had it right when he sang “you gotta serve somebody” (as Paul described in Romans 6:22), but Dylan didn’t note that such service is by participating in and by way of grace provided to us.
But we shouldn’t assume that the freedom provided means that escape is certain or that the service of God is undertaken by a fully mature person! Instead what the Word describes is a process of development that requires active involvement of the believer, engaged in an upward call to pursue maturity in Christ. In a grittier description of this process we can consider the parable of the laborers who were engaged at different times of the day but all earned the same pay. A description that is to me more inspirational is provided by Peter in 2 Peter 1:5-11.
5 Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence,
knowledge, 6 and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, 7 and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love.
8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins.
10 Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble; 11 for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.
In this process of maturing, we are in the process of repenting and crucifying the flesh, seeking to renew our mind, in all seeking to escape corruption. The Spirit directs us to “come” or “go” or “come away and crucify that”, while the body and mind pull in the opposite direction. The mechanism of temptation and how it can draw us into sin is well described by James in James 1:14-16.
Worries and other pressures also come against us. Standing between the leading of the Holy Spirit and worldly pressure and temptation: how will you choose?
Paul’s description of the natural man in Romans 7 shows that in that state temptation could (and would regularly) exceed the ability of the fallen man to resist – even when he knew it was wrong and didn’t want to do it. In the believer’s state we are told that God does not allow us to be tempted beyond what we are able but are provided a way of escape. Why does He allow us to be tempted to such an extent? This is an important question and we need to understand it. By His grace, leading, enablement, we are told put off sin, to cleanse ourselves from sin, to pursue the upward development described by Peter. But it isn’t described as a given or easy. In fact, we are told that many will not endure but will fall away (see the Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13:18-23).
We can now look at this whole mechanism: the believer is led by the Spirit but still tempted by flesh, the mind and the world; confronted by choice between obedience on the one hand and indulging temptation on the other hand; living in space time so we must choose and choose and choose, and where Christ clearly did not ask the Father that we be removed from the world at this stage or that stumbling blocks be removed, and where freedom is provided only to the point that no temptation is more than we are able to pursue escape; where these choices result in either purification of the heart (putting off impurity) or going in the other direction, and thus constitutes a refiner’s fire as described in Malachi 3:1-3, and 4:1-2.
24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.25 For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? Matthew 16:24-26
Yet in this age there are many stumbling blocks to participating or enduring. Doctrines that tell us we can indulge and still be saved; doctrines that tell us it’s already determined free will is irrelevant; doctrines that tell us our efforts in this process are “works”; doctrines that tell us He will do it so we should just be open to Him working in us and otherwise relax; doctrines that tell us doctrines aren’t important and all positions are to be accepted or ignored for the sake of unity. The point here is NOT to fight against positions you disagree with. But be careful – as said in the First Movement, “beware of cheap grace and wooden horses, and golden cups that are filled with unclean things.
The overall picture seems very clear: The only path to salvation is to crucify the old life – to lose your old life for His sake. Let us all strive to clear off the overgrowth on the Way: how will you choose? Remember too the consequences for bad choices, those still remain in operation.
Going back to a thought introduced in the first movement: is there a potentially unresolvable conflict between perfect justice v and perfect mercy? I believe the overall arrangement shows us that there is not an unresolved conflict and in fact each quality supports and enhances the other. God gave His only begotten Son to die for the sins of the world, His blood providing the basis for forgiveness, redemption, justification, sanctification. By grace He sends conviction, “who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” asked/admonished John the Baptist. For those who seek to flee John instructed, “make ready the way of the Lord, make His paths straight” meaning turn your soul and heart away from where it was and towards Him and “bring forth fruit in keeping with repentance! ”For those pursuing repentance He granted the Word and then faith, enabling the decision to follow Christ. And then into the refiner’s fire for such period as He determines. And in that process people must endure along the Way. By this, mercy underscores and strengthens justice: either those righteous and righteousness in the Kingdom are increased or, for those who received this mercy and then fell away, judgment is confirmed.
Similarly justice underscores mercy. Mercy and caring love are the standard and goal, justice is not about power enforcing a dictate but it serves as the banks of the river of mercy: He gave His Son, He gave His Holy Spirit, He gave grace upon grace for people to escape corruption and to be united to God Who would sustain them in transformation and goodness, mercy so abundant but without being a license to sin.
Your mind is the eye of the inner man
In Section E, we leave the message about the importance of choice and receive a message about implementation. The main point of this message is that what we focus on or think about will affect our heart so if your mind is set on things below, you may be defiling yourself before God. So it is imperative to be aware of where your mind is set.
Now to support this proposition, consider that if your mind is set below, you must want something there; something there is valuable to you. And as we are told “…for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Matthew 6:21
James provides a similar description from another direction:
“But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.” (James 1:14-16)
When you are tempted, you are carried away from the faith and a mind set on things above to this particular temptation. As you pursue or contemplate it, lust in your heart is conceived, giving rise to sin which brings forth spiritual death. How can you understand the contribution of your heart to this sequence of occurrences? Consider Christ’s explanation from Matthew 15 where some Pharisees confronted Christ and asked Him why His disciples transgressed the tradition of the elders in not washing their hands before they ate bread. While a large point is made concerning traditions that transgress the commandments of God and consideration of what is really important to God, Jesus said that it isn’t what enters the mouth that defiles the man but what comes out of the mouth because what comes out of the mouth comes “from the heart, and those defile the man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders. These are the things that defile the man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the man.”
So, if we set our mind on wrong things, they will bleed through and negatively impact the heart, resulting in evil motives and desires that defile us. Therefore, it is imperative that we focus on what we take into our minds, whether it is from our eyes or our other senses. Also, we should be aware that defilements in the heart give rise to evil thoughts that we might then contemplate again, creating a growing problem for us. So we must take care where we set our minds; if something pops up in front of us, we have a brief instant to turn away from it. And we must pursue Paul’s admonition to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. On this last point, let us consider that we don’t just generate thoughts over things we have perceived. We are social creatures, hearing things from others (James 3:5) directly or via media, we have our own memories and imaginations, we have spiritual enemies that seek to pull us down as well.