America's Fictional God

A few weeks back, I was stuck in a hotel watching movies, and happened to see part of the Jim Carrey flick "Bruce Almighty." One of the things that stuck out to me was that when Morgan Freeman, who plays God in the film, gives Bruce (Carrey) his powers, one of the conditions he gives for using them is that 'you can't violate anyone's free will.' I didn't get to see the rest of the movie to see how that theme plays out, but I think its a humorous and somewhat accurate caricature of how most Americans see God. God is a benevolent old man, with great powers, but He doesn't dare transgress our free will. So apparently 'free will' is greater than God.

I thank God that He is not bound or limited by our 'will', nor does He wait for us to take the initiative before He acts. Thank God that He did not consult us first before decided upon His course of salvation for us in sending Jesus Christ to die on the cross. And I thank God that He did not leave it up to my 'free will' (or lack thereof) before He chose me by His grace (John 15:16) and saved me in the waters of baptism. A god that is subordinate to human 'free will' is not a god I would want to worship. But the Triune God of the Scriptures is no such thing. Truly God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is worthy of all worship for bringing salvation to humanity despite all the sinful opposition of our human wills.

Comments

LPC said…
Apparently when it comes to man's freewill, God has to bow down to that. Man's free will is Lord over God, yeah, that is another way of saying it,
9/11/2006 8:58 PM
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