Freedom and Forgiveness

Lesson Objective: Understand what true freedom is and why God gave it to us and that God is always seeking to connect with His children no matter what they have done.

Divine Principle Reading

God, being omniscient and omnipotent, must have known about the deviant acts of the first human ancestors which were leading to their Fall and was surely capable of preventing them from carrying them out. Why, then, did God not intervene to prevent the Fall? 

In accordance with the Principle of Creation, God created human beings in His image, with the character and powers of the Creator, intending that they govern over all things as He governs over humankind. However, for human beings to inherit the creative nature of God, they must grow to perfection by fulfilling their portion of responsibility. While people are still in this realm, God does not directly govern them because He wishes to allow them to fulfill their own portion of responsibility. God will govern them directly only after they have reached full maturity.

If God were to interfere with human actions during their growing period, it would be tantamount to ignoring the human portion of responsibility. In that case, God would be disregarding His own Principle of Creation, according to which He intends to give human beings His creative nature and raise them to become the lords of creation. If the Principle were ignored, then its absoluteness and perfection would be undermined. Because God is the absolute and perfect Creator, His Principle of Creation must also be absolute and perfect. In summary, in order to preserve the absoluteness and perfection of the Principle of Creation, God did not intervene in the acts that led the human beings to fall.

Activity:

1. Explain:
   1. God created human beings with the hope that they would inherit the creative nature of God.
      1. In order to do so, they must grow to become like God by completing their portion of responsibility.
   2. This means that God must allow human beings to make their own decisions and choose freely.
   3. If God were to choose for human beings God would be taking away their free will and their creative nature.
   4. God desired object partners who could relate with him in unique and creative ways.
2. A conversation lacking uniqueness:
   1. Split the youth into small groups of about 3-4 people and hand out papers that have these notes written on them:
      1. Question: What is your favorite season? Answer: I like spring because of the blooming flowers and the new life that comes after the cold winter.
      2. Question: Where would you dream vacation be? Answer: My dream vacation would be at the beach because I can enjoy the sun and surf on the waves.
      3. Question: What is one of your favorite ways to spend your free time? Answer: I like reading books in my free time because they take me to a new world.
   2. Have the youth answer the above questions with the above pre-determined responses in their group.

1. A unique conversation:
   1. Keep the youth in the same groups and have them answer the same questions.
   2. Instruct them that this time they can answer for themselves and elaborate on why they chose those answers.
      1. What is your favorite season?
      2. Where would your dream vacation be? iii. What is one of your favorite ways to spend your free time?
   3. Explain:
      1. If God took away our portion of responsibility we would lack our unique personalities and characters. Instead, we would become the same type of people without the ability to express ourselves in unique ways.
      2. Instead God wants us to have the freedom to grow into unique representations of His dual characteristics so that we can interact with unique aspects of His character.

Concluding Point: While it may have been easier for God to step in and prevent the Fall from happening, He also would have lost an essential part of creation. God wants us to follow our passions and relate with Him in ways that are fulfilling and meaningful to us. Without that freedom God would lose the ability to have unique relationships with us as His children. 

Divine Principle Reading

What if Adam had reached perfection without having yielded to fallen Eve’s temptation? The providence to restore Eve would have been relatively easy because, although she had fallen, Adam still would have remained intact as her perfect subject partner. Unfortunately, Adam also fell, and humanity has multiplied in sin to the present day, perpetuating the lineage of Satan.

Activity: Forgiveness

1. Explain:
   1. We see that the Fall is an act which has had a negative impact on all of human history.
   2. Even still, God loves Adam and Eve and desires a personal relationship with them.
   3. God’s heart is one of love, forgiveness, and compassion. We should never be afraid of turning to God for forgiveness.
2. Share a testimony of a time in which you were able to receive forgiveness from God or your parents by offering up what was on your heart. If you don’t have a personal testimony, share briefly about the benefits of offering things up to God and God’s love.
3. Give time for everyone to reflect while listening to peaceful music about something that has been weighing on their heart or something that they need to let go.
4. Ask them to write a letter to God about what has been bothering them and offer it up.
5. Go outside and stand in a circle with your youth. Bring a lighter with you, or if you are able, have a small fire prepared outside.
6. Sing a slow holy song together such as “Oh, Light of Grace.”
7. While singing have each person take turns burning their letters to God.
   1. Explain that burning our letters is symbolic of offering up our burdens to our Heavenly Parent.
8. Hold hands and give a short message about God’s unconditional love and being made anew.
9. Close in prayer and offer up all that has been burned on paper today.

 Concluding Point: God will always love us no matter what. Let’s not repeat Adam and Eve’s mistake by hiding in shame. Instead, let’s turn to God with our burdens and lay them down.

If some of your youth are wanting to talk to their parents, you may need to help them prepare their parents by giving them a script so that the parents don’t react in a negative way and reinforce any ideas of distrust. Here’s an example of a script, “I have something important to tell you, but if you get upset I won’t do it. If you can promise to listen and not say anything, I’ll try to tell you.”