LEARNING ACTIVITY #17

In earlier Learning Activities we saw that God's plan before the foundation of the world was that all mankind would believe in Him and thereby have eternal life and fellowship with Him. He even provided the sacrificial death of His one and only Son, Jesus Christ, as the complete payment for the sin of the entire world. The requirement on the individual is that each person is responsible for their believing in God in order to appropriate all that He has already done for us.

When we analyze the above factual information, a logical question we might ask is: Why did a God who is all powerful not make us so that we all would believe in Him? The answer to this question is found in the material of Learning Activity #16. Agape love requires a decision or choice and in order to decide for or against something a person must have a free will.

If God had "fixed us" so that we would all love Him there would be no meaningful love involved. We would be no more than human robots who were programmed to act in a prescribed manner. There would be no free will involved, therefore no agape love. God had to permit us to have a free will so that we could decide to either love Him or reject Him.

Using your Bible, look up the following verses and write them in the space provided. As you proceed answer the questions as they appear in this document.

1. John 3:15 _____________________________________________________________
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2. What does the word "whosoever" in the verse above mean to you? _______________________________________________________________________
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3. John 20:31 ___________________________________________________________
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4. In the verse above, what is the free will action that is required to have eternal life? _______________________________________________________________________

5. John 11:26 ___________________________________________________________
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6. In the verse above, what is the result of choosing to believe in God? ___________
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7. Romans 1:16 _________________________________________________________
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8. What do the words "to every one that believeth" in the above verse mean to you? _______________________________________________________________________
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Click on Self-Check below to check your answers.

Self-Check

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