Daily Devotion

“God made you without you. For you gave no consent that God should make you; how could you consent when you did not exist? So He who made you without you does not justify you without you. He made you without your knowing; He justifies you with your willing. Yet it is He who justifies, lest the righteousness be your own.”

Augustine · Sermon 169.11.13 (translated from the Latin, PL 38)

Scripture

Deuteronomy 30:19 Today I call heaven and earth to be my witnesses to you. I have set before you life and death, good and evil. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live.

Reflection

When God created me, He did not seek my consent; yet in saving me, He respected and called upon my response. This is not because His power was limited, but because His love does not rely on coercion. Deuteronomy 30:19 clearly states that life was already laid before me, but God did not take the step of "choosing" for me. Without God, I have no possibility of salvation; but if I refuse to respond, God does not make me a passive object. True faith is neither the comfort of fatalism nor the pride of self-salvation, but being awakened in grace and responding in responsibility. Every day of obedience is a true "choosing of life."