A visitor to this web site asked:

How can God ever punish us for our sins, if everything happens according to His will?

The first thing you need to realise is that not everything that happens on earth is according to God's will. This is why the Lord Jesus taught us to pray, "Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Mat.6:10. He taught us to pray like this because so often His will isn't being done.

You see, God did an amazing thing when He created mankind. He created mankind in His own image. God gave man a will and the liberty to make choices. This is why we say mankind has a free will. (Genesis 1:27)

Adam and Eve had free will. The command they were given was not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (Gen.1:16-17) However, they were not created incapable of disobeying this command or will of God. They could choose to eat or not to eat. They were free to will what they wanted but God's hope was that they would will what His will was.

God did not make humans as robots but as free moral agents. God created man that way out of His desire to have a creation that would voluntarily give Him their love and their respect. The measure of their love and respect would be their obedience.

God's will was for Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Their obedience to this will would have kept them in the glory of God.

Adam chose to do other than the will of God. He rebelled against God's will. He disobeyed. He sinned. (Gen.3:6)

Adam's descendants - all of mankind - have continued to sin as Adam did. This sinning hasn't been happening according to the will of God but because mankind in his free will has been choosing to exercise that free will in disobedience instead of obedience.

We are deserving of God's punishment because we have disobeyed and gone against God's will.

Fortunately, this is not the end of the story. We have sinned and are deserving of punishment but God, impelled by His abundant mercy, has made a way for us to miss out on punishment and get in on reconciliation.

God sent His Son, Jesus, into the world so that instead of being punished and banished we could be forgiven and brought back to God. Jesus became the Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world. God laid on Jesus the iniquity of us all. (John 1:29; Isaiah 53:6.)

"He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed."

Isaiah 53:3 - NKJV

Now everyone who accepts that sacrifice - the sacrifice of Jesus as the Lamb of God - is forgiven, redeemed and reconciled to God. Jesus' death paid the total price of sin! There is no price left to pay.

All you, me or anyone else has to do is accept by faith God's merciful act in Jesus and the law of sin and death will no longer have a hold on our lives. The law of the spirit of life in Christ will make us free from all of the miseries arising from sin both now and hereafter. (Romans 8:2)

For the believer there is no fearful expectation of punishment but intense joy at salvation.

If you have not yet accepted Jesus and His sacrifice you can do so now by praying this simple prayer.

"Heavenly Father, I accept your Son Jesus as my Lord and Saviour. I accept the sacrifice He made for me. I invite Jesus to come into my heart and life. I believe that Jesus is alive today because You, Father, raised Him from the dead. I accept Him and with Him I accept life - eternal life, the life of God. I now receive my privilege of becoming your child, I renounce citizenship of the kingdom of darkness and receive citizenship of the kingdom of your Son. In Jesus' Name, I pray. Amen."

It has been presented to me that some parts of Paul's letter to the Romans could be construed as implying God operates predestination in regard to who gets to receive eternal salvation and righteousness. The following are some notes I made in reply

Apostle Paul's discourses in his epistle to the Romans can indeed cause difficulties for the readers - see 2 Peter 3:16. However, these difficulties are cleared up once you allow him to establish his purpose in this communication.

We discover, by way of his introduction as he begins the epistle, that the topic of this epistle is, "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes." Ro.1:16.

In whatever Paul is discussing or illustrating in his epistle to the Romans, his whole thrust, purpose and content is to show that there is only one option if you desire to be justified and, by justification, to be saved; namely, that of receiving Jesus! All the passages of this epistle are subordinate sections of this primary topic. We, therefore, have to come to an understanding of them on this basis. Our attempts to isolate them and then make something out of them will just get us muddled up.

In chapters 9 - and in a slightly different way in chapter 11 - in Romans, Paul has a simple message for us as his readers. He basically declares, "God's chosen to have mercy and compassion on whomever He wills and His will is that it's on those who come to Him through Jesus. God has set up this condition for salvation. Is it unreasonable of Him to make such a requirement? He has not made salvation out of reach of anyone, He has merely insisted you receive it on the terms He has determined. Is it sensible for us to argue with Him over this? Far better, let's gladly accept His kindness through Jesus Christ!"

The writings of the prophets in the Bible make clear to us that God doesn't prevent anyone from accessing eternal salvation! He invites everyone to receive salvation through Jesus. He even has his prophets declare that He wants to see everyone saved! See 2 Peter 3:16 and 1 Timothy 2:4