Recovery in the Bible (RIB)

THE QUESTION CORNER

Some things are just plain beyond my comprehension, such as Jesus saying that we humans are born descendants of  Adam and Eve: children of men, born of water, and that, unless we are regenerated, re-created -- i.e., born a second time -- we will die with the sin nature that we inherited from them. What I can't resolve is that Second Birth is said to be necessary, yet also the gift of God, so how can that square with Christ's claim that we have free choice? 

To my human brain, pre-destination (as in Romans 8:14-9:22) seems to cancel out God's claim that we are free. At the same time, I am ale to comprehend that His Omniscient All-Knowing must mean He knows NOW how each one's free choice will turn out. I get that He sits beyond the constraints of time, so He must be already seeing the tapestry as finished.

So here's a thought. Maybe, just maybe, we are born as passengers on this big boat called Earth. Maybe, just maybe, all of us passengers are invited to "walk the plank" leading from Earth to GOD (as Jacob saw the ladder, as Led Zeppelin saw The Stairway to Heaven). Maybe, just maybe,  God beckons to to each and every one of us by revealing The Cross as the Way Across. Scripture  in 2 Samuel 14:14 says that "God devises means that His banished be not expelled from im," and Peter writes in the New Testament (2Peter 3:9) that "The Lord is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance."

Even then, not everyone will choose to come across. Sometimes it's because they are busy being busy and never find the time to look over the rails at The Great Deep. Sometimes they do look, but what they see seems neither practical nor logical nor likely. They may see that His arms are indeed bridging the gap, open wide, but more so, they that He is hanging by them bloodied and dying. They are told this is The Bridge, indeed the Only Bridge. But they don't think so, and therefore, they choose to refuse.

I'm thinking God knows the outcomes, yet still gives each one of us free choice while we live on Earth. I feel better thinking that maybe, just maybe, He shows He is the Way Across to each and every person -- one way or another, so it is the gift of God that we are given to accept or not.

Such is my puzzlement about "pre-destination." What think you?!?

This photograph is from a Facebook page called Live Life in Color.