Quite a few years ago I gave an exam to a mathematics class. I was feeling lazy that week so I used an exam from a previous semester. A few minutes into the exam a student came to me, pointed to a particular question, and said, "I don't think we covered this question in class. Did we?" Although it is not usual for students to completely forget something that was covered in class, this student was absolutely correct. I had decided to skip the content that was asked in that particular question. Even though it was a multiple-choice question, it would have been very unlikely for students to get this question correct.
Unless the students had studied this material in another course or on their own - which was unlikely - they would not have the ability to correctly answer this question unless they got lucky with a guess. They had a 20% chance of guessing correctly. I decided to just give the entire class the answer to that question.
I stood and clearly announced to the class, "May I have everyone's attention. I'm sorry for the interruption, but there is a question on the test we did not cover. So, I'll give you the answer. The answer to question number eight is D. Did everyone get that? D is the answer to question number eight." Furthermore, out of the kindness of my heart, I also wrote on the chalkboard "The Answer is: #8.) D."
How could anyone get #8 wrong? I gave it to them! Free of charge! No problems. No worries. All they would have to do is follow my direction.
However, believe it or not, two students got the wrong answer to question #8. Two students!
I had to ask, "Why did you not listen to me and record the answer to #8 as D? I gave you the answer."
One student said, "I wanted to see if I could get the answer on my own."
The other student said, "I thought you were trying to trick us."
I was at a loss for words. Why would a student do such a thing? Then I thought about the spiritual world.
As a Christian I believe that Jesus Christ lived a sinless life and gave Himself as atonement for our sins. That is, we are not capable of paying the infinite debt to a perfect God. That debt is a result of our sin. A perfect God cannot permit sin (imperfection) in His presence. Perfect justice cannot let this sin (which is a result of disobedience) go unpunished. God's perfect love paid our debt through Jesus' death on the cross for our sins. But, this perfect love does not force us to accept it. Love is never forced upon us. We can accept it and we can reject it.
Some might try to tell God that they wanted to see if they could pay their debt on their own and get to Heaven by their own works or by some other way. Others might try to say that Christianity seemed too easy; they thought God was trying to trick them. Neither response will work. There is only one correct answer.
We are told in the first chapter of the apostle Paul's letter to Romans that we are without excuse. God has given us all the answers we need.
