God's Power and Mercy On Humanity's Free Will

By Grace Dola Balogun

In "God's Power and Mercy On Humanity's Free Will," embark on a transformative journey through the intricate interplay between human choice and divine providence. Within these pages lies a profound exploration of the pivotal role that free will plays in shaping our spiritual landscape and our relationship with the Almighty.

Delving deep in

• Language: English
• Publisher: Grace Religious Publishing
• Release date: Mar 13, 2024
• ISBN: 9798869245250

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Preface

In the beginning, God Almighty created the heaven and the earth: The Scripture revealed that God is infinite, he is eternal, God always exists - he is self-existent, who is what he is, that is not a time that God did not exist - he is the Omnipresent, Omniscience, and the Omnipotent who reigns and live forever more; Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit the Holy Trinity One God forever and ever Amen. The psalmist says: Before the mountains were born, or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God (Psalms 90:2). Therefore, God always eternally and infinitely existed before he created the earth. No one before him, none like him, he is above all things in heaven and in this earth. God created Adam and Eve in his own likeness; Adam and Eve were finite beings, but they have communion with God in a loving, personal way. God created the earth to provide a place where his purpose, will and goals for humanity will be fulfilled. God created Adam and Eve in his own likeness so that he could maintain a loving, intimate, personal relationship with them throughout eternity. God designed Adam and Eve with Body, Soul, and Spirit, which possess mind, emotion, and will with which they can maintain a good relationship with Him and freely worship him; serve him, love him, be loyal, and be of gratitude to God, and to be able to fulfill God desire, and so that God's desires might be accomplished in their life. They will be able to live forever in eternity, enjoying what God has prepared for them.

Adam and Eve used the free will that God gave them to answer Satan's temptation in the Garden of Eden; they disobeyed God's command, and therefore, they fell into the sin of disobedience. Because Adam and Eve were created in God's image and in God's likeness, they began their life on earth without sin. Male and female were both created in the image and in the likeness of God. Based on how they were created, they could respond to and have fellowship with the trinity; He made them rule over all the other creations of God, such as fishes in the ocean, birds of the air, livestock, all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground. Then God said, Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground. So God created man in his own image; in the image of God, he created him; male and female, he created them. God blessed them and said: "To them, be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground. Then God said: I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth, all the birds of the air, and all the creatures that move on the ground, everything that has the breath of life in it, I give every green plant for food. And it was so. (Genesis 1:26-30). Therefore, all human life was initially derived from Adam and Eve; they were created on a lower order, and they were to be dependent on God. God created humans in a form that reflects how He would later visibly appear to them, anticipating the incarnation of His Son, who would dwell among humanity to redeem us from sin. Adam and Eve began their life on this earth as sinless creatures because they possessed moral likeness to God: wisdom, a heart of love, and the will to know right and wrong and to do right. They lived and maintained a good relationship, good communion with God in the Garden of Eden, and moral obedience with intimate communion; God blessed them spiritually and physically. Adam and Eve committed the sin of disobedience.

Adam and Eve were God's creation, and he gave them the responsibility of working under the direction of God the Holy Spirit by caring for all God's creations; this good relationship, which was very harmonious between them and God, was lost because of the sin of disobedience. In the beginning, human beings were bound together with God through their belief in God and their obedience to God's absolute truth. Life through faith and obedience is the principle governing Adam's communion with God in the Garden of Eden. God instructed Adam and Eve not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; he told them that they would die if they transgressed God's will and ate from the tree; they accepted by faith what God instructed them. God's commandment was given to Adam and Eve as a moral test. He gave them the choice to believe and obey or to disobey God's Will. God planned that as long as Adam and Eve believed God's Word and obeyed God's command, they would continue in eternal life, and they would continue to be blessed with communion and intimate fellowship with God. With us today, as long as we maintain intimate relationships with the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, we have eternal life from this earth to heaven.

We must not let the sin of disobedience rub us of eternal life, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Satan attacked Adam and Eve; he told them they should not obey God's command of what to eat and what not to eat and that they were not going to die. Adam and Eve exercised the free will that God gave them for things, good morals, and obedience behavior; they believed Satan. As a result, Adam and Eve sinned. The curse of sin affected all of creation, including humanity, which was created in the image of God. Satan undermined their faith, communion, and relationship with God. Spiritually, they perished as the presence of God's Spirit departed, and they became aware of their sin and nakedness.

Consequently, they lost the ability to hear God's voice, to communicate with Him, and to perceive His presence in the Garden. When God called out to them, they hid from Him, consumed by shame and guilt. This is the first time Adam and Eve used their free will. They felt guilty, conscious of their sin, and very afraid. Both were spiritually dead. They could not hear God's Words, and they felt very ashamed to stand in the presence of God.

Adam and Eve tried to set themselves up as God's equal; they determined their standard way of living; through their fall, the human race became independent of God and began to use their free will to distinguish between good and evil. Until today, people of this world have decided for themselves what is good or evil. This was from the beginning; it was never God's will because God intended his creation to know only good in dependence on him and his world. Because of Jesus Christ's redemptive work, those who confess Jesus as their Lord and Savior return to God's original purpose and plan for the human race. They rely solely on God's commandment, His Word, to determine what is good, and they know that no evil will come near them as long as they put their life in Jesus Christ's Holy hands. Adam and Eve's good relationship with God was lost, and they were driven out of the Garden of Eden. However, God Almighty loved the human race and his creatures so much that he determined to destroy Satan and his work and to conquer Satan and reconcile the human race to himself by giving us his only begotten Son to pay for our sin with his pressures blood.

Chapter 1: Free will Develop Humanity to