We all got it coming...

Self examination is never easy and seldom fun. Invariably in the dark watches of the night, we start to think about all that we are not. And worse yet, all we could have been. Depending on one's view of the world, of how things come together and relate to each other, the conclusions a person can come to can lead to dispair either way.

On one hand, I could do no different. I am predestined to make the decisions that I have made due to the inexorable cycle of stimulus/response...every action and reaction linked together since I was able to make conscious decisions...like some math problem with an interminable number of steps that plods onward till I breath my last.

Or, I am entirely responsible for the decisions that have shapped my fate.

I think the truth, as in most things like this, can be tricky to explain.

I read Acts 1:17 today and it says "Judas was one of us, chosen to share in the ministry with us."
Remember, at the Last Supper, when Jesus says "One of you will betray me" (Matt. 26:21) no one jumps up and starts pointing to Judas yelling "I KNEW IT!!!" The Apostles are even recorded as asking "Lord, is it me?" (Matt 26:22) The Bible doesn't say that all the Apostles except Judas healed the sick and cast out demons (Matt 10:8). We can probably safely assume that Judas fit right in with the rest of the Apostles. He was chosen to share in the ministry with them by Jesus.

But did Judas have a choice? And if he didn't, what does that say about the choices we make everyday? The Bible says that Jesus is the "Lamb of God slain from the creation of the world" (Rev. 13:8) and if God has salvation wrapped up before the world is even created, before man has even fallen, then it is a safe bet that He is not going to leave that whole plan in the hands of Judas unless He knows what is going to happen (and He does).

God has perfect knowledge--past, present, future--and the aspect of that present knowledge assures us that Judas was chosen because Jesus knew He would need someone to betray Him unto the death prescribed for Him in the Scriptures. Jesus knew that Judas would perform exactly as needed, that he would make the neccessary combination of freewill decisions to bring Him to His arrest in Gethsemane. So then, Judas (and thus all of us) have freewill. But God knows what decisions we will make, how we will respond to the stimulus we are confronted with. This is how the Bible can say that He has made all things, even the wicked for the day of doom (Proverbs 16:4). God's foreknowledge of our freewill decisions does not nullify our responsibility for the decisions we make, nor does it make God responsible for the evil in the world.

Apart from humanity having the capacity for choosing between good and evil, the possibility for us to have true relationship with both God and each other is nil. Thus, your worldview and belief about the nature of humanity (created or accident of evolution) will affect every facet of how you live. If you believe humanity to be highly evolved animals, then there is no basis for any law other than the law of nature: the fittest, most adaptable organisms survive and all others die off.

Most people do not want to live this way. Modern, secular man prefers to shield himself with the protections of Judeo-Christian culture (Law, Justice, Human Rights) while denying the God who inspired it. He wants an account (Creation by evolution) without accountability (The God of the Bible).

There's a line at the end of Clint Eastwood's western "Unforgiven" when after killing the two cowboys who maimed a prostitute, one traumatized young assassin says to his veteran partner "Well, I guess they had it coming" to which the older assassin replies "We all got it coming, kid."

This life is like that. We've all got it coming. But the freewill that brought that wrath upon us also can deliver our salvation. We can choose to follow Jesus or we can do things our own way and hope for the best...but the wrath of God is coming. Only the blood of Christ can save us.