Once, in an attempt to justify making sinful choices, someone said to me, “God is not a robot.”
Now, I am assuming this person was attempting to convince me that God’s requirements are fluid; that, unlike a robot, God’s will and reaction can change, even from what He has stated in His Word. I assume this person meant to tell me that God’s reaction to sin could not be predicted; that perhaps He would just be okay with a decision to live away from His expressed Will.
But this person said a mouthful when saying “God is not a robot.” What was said was truer than ever even imagined. Let’s just notice a half-dozen “ways” that God is surely NOT a robot:
- Robots are not authoritative. Robots do the bidding of the owner. God is supremely authoritative. He IS the inherent owner (Psalms 100:3).
- Robots cannot feel: compassion, wrath, pleasure or pain. Our God feels all of those things. He pities us as a father pities His children (Psalm 103:13), while His holiness calls Him to wrath upon our rebellion (Deut. 9:7).
- Robots cannot administer reward or punishment. God is the rewarder (Heb. 11:6). He has reserved the ultimate punishment for those who have walked on the blood of Jesus, for that is the ultimate insult to His authority (Heb. 10:29).
- Robots were created by men from materials made by God. Men were created by God from dust, inhaling the breath of life from God, Himself (Gen. 2:7).
- Robots are easily destroyed. God is indestructible, thus everlasting (Psalm 90:2).
- Robots are amoral; not possessing character. The rightness or wrongness of anything a robot does is determined by the programmer. God is inherently holy in character.
God is not a robot, for sure. But that fact is the antithesis of our permission to ignore His Will for our lives.
