God wants good for us while here on earth, but His plan revolves around our union with Him later. His purpose is fulfilled only as we receive Christ, and then enter into a lifelong pursuit of God, in spite of our bent toward choosing self in place of Him. This is why God allows sin such power in our decision-making. Our ongoing battle with the flesh, as we’re relentlessly confronted by a world steeped in sin, boils down to just one thing: radical choice—decision with real meaning.

But how could a good God give evil the right to exist at all, much less allow it to have such destructive power over us? Again, choice is the answer to this age-old question. In His eternal wisdom, God ordained that His children choose Him freely. And the more difficult the choice, the better He seems to like it. It makes the value we place on Him all the more meaningful.

As Christians, wouldn’t it be wonderful if sin was no longer a problem? If sin wasn’t an issue, wouldn’t it be a lot easier to wholeheartedly live for Jesus? Great thought!—just not within the realm of reality. Still, what could possibly be wrong with wanting complete freedom from sin’s influence so that single-minded devotion to God might be a bit less stressful?

Well, we need to think about what letting us slide through life in the comfort and security of sinlessness would ultimately achieve. Its only possible outcome would be a good life here, with the added hope of even a better eternal life in heaven. What’s wrong with that, you might ask? The trouble with this notion is that, while nice, it doesn’t line up with God’s plan. He has a much greater purpose for our lives, because our destiny with Him in heaven is so much more than just a wonderful place to spend eternity.

How do you feel about yourself? Are you happy with who you are? Or do you sense the need for change in your heart? Most of us do. It’s frustrating, though, when change doesn’t come quickly. It causes us to lose hope that it ever will.

 It’s different with God. He has a purpose in allowing painful circumstances. That’s because He needs to deal with the weakness of our flesh. He must go deep within our nature to rebuild our character—a true change of heart. And this is a process He can accomplish by no other means than time and suffering.

God’s purpose for creating us as He has, sheds a lot of light on why He allows sin to be a problem. Understanding our freedom from the power of sin is so important! Why? Because through it, God offers us unfettered relationship with Himself—in spite of ourselves—the true source of transformation.

Is our heart capable of genuine change? I can see how I truly have changed, initially through my born-again experience, and then more slowly over the many years since. But in many ways, I’m the same person I’ve always been. I see it when I’m confronted by something that challenges the self-will still residing at the deepest levels of my being. Our flesh seems to be incapable of fundamental change—controllable maybe, but not entirely changeable.

         Paul agrees that this is so in his teaching in Romans 7. On the other hand, The Bible implies that we have the power to change our heart by our choices. Can both be true? I think they can. The transformed lives of millions of Christians prove that the heart can indeed change. But unfortunately, there are millions more whose attitudes and behavior shed doubt on it. What’s the difference between the two? Choice. Decisions made in response to our circumstances hold the key.

Self-interest, ugly as it may be, is actually a gift of God. It helps us make our way in this world. Having a healthy sense of self-worth—feeling significant—motivates us to reach toward God’s purpose for our life. It’s rooted in the fact that we truly are valuable.

God showed me this in an unusual way. Next door to us lived a child with Down Syndrome. He functioned at the level of a three-year-old, though he was much older. But his condition allowed him to speak freely from the heart—totally without pretense. Every time I saw this young man, he asked, “Do you love me?” Now we wouldn’t dare express ourselves like this, but isn’t this need at our very core? “Am I significant to you? Am I deserving of your love?” Self-interest—a gift of God? Yes! Because an inconsequential life is tough to bear, and one that is meaningless is practically a death sentence.

It is said that man is a free moral agent, meaning he possesses unrestricted power in making moral choices—what we call free will. Undeniably, God’s eternal purpose required that man be given the ability to choose, not merely between right and wrong, but more importantly in regard to the lordship of God over his life. Yet what appears on the surface to be the ability to choose freely is something more than merely free will.

Man’s rejection of God does not in any way mean that he possesses freedom of choice in regard to everything else. Rather, in refusing to accept God’s purpose for his life, he inevitably opens himself up to control by another force—Satan. The tool the devil uses to subjugate man is his will, which is inherently rooted in self-interest. So instead, we should think of this self-serving attribute of man’s nature—what we commonly call free will—as self-will.

Why are cars called autos? It’s because they’re self–powered. In the Greek, the word autos means self. God has designed us with the capacity to make our own choices—we’re self-propelled, so to speak. Self is simply me, a personal being given the glorious gift of existence and awareness. But this gift of life has the effect of placing me at the center of my own personal universe. Sure, we deny that the world revolves around us. Yet given the true nature of self, it’s hard to believe otherwise!

The Bible uses the term heart to convey the idea of self. Think of the heart as the engine that runs our being. Both our mind-set and our behavior are dictated by what is in the heart. Jesus said, “The good man brings forth what is good out of his heart; but the evil man brings forth evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart.”