Against Heresies: Book IV
Chapter 39: Humans are gifted with the ability to discern between good and evil; thus, without coercion, they have the freedom to obey God's commandments through their own will and actions, thereby avoiding the punishments reserved for those who rebel
Humans have gained the knowledge of good and evil. It is good to obey God, to believe in Him, and to keep His commandments, and this is the true life for humans; not obeying God is evil and leads to death. Since God gave humans such mental power, they can understand both the good of obedience and the evil of disobedience. This allows the mind, through experience, to wisely choose better things, ensuring that they are never lazy or neglectful of God's command.
Learning that disobedience to God, which deprives them of life, is evil, they should avoid it completely. Understanding that what preserves life is obedience to God, they should diligently follow it with earnestness. Humans, therefore, have twofold experiences: knowing both kinds of actions, they can choose better paths with discipline. Without knowledge of the opposite, how could they understand what is good? A clear and definite understanding of what is presented is better than mere opinion. Just like tasting helps the tongue distinguish sweet from bitter, vision helps the eyes distinguish black from white, and hearing helps the ear recognize different sounds, the mind uses the experience of both good and evil to firmly hold on to what is good through obedience to God.
First, by repenting and rejecting disobedience as something unpleasant and distasteful, and then by realizing its true nature—its opposition to goodness—so the mind never attempts disobedience again.
But if anyone avoids the knowledge of both good and evil, they unknowingly strip themselves of what it means to be human.
How, then, can someone be a God who has not yet been made a man? Or how can someone be perfect who was only recently created? Again, how can someone be immortal who did not obey his Maker in his mortal nature? You must first hold the rank of a man and then later partake in the glory of God. You do not create God, but God creates you. If you are God’s workmanship, then wait for the hand of your Maker, which creates everything at the right time, in due time for you, whose creation is ongoing.
Offer Him your heart in a soft and willing state, and preserve the form in which the Creator has shaped you, keeping yourself pliable, lest you become hardened and lose the impressions of His hands. By preserving this form, you will rise to what is perfect, for the moist clay within you is hidden there by the workmanship of God. His hand fashioned your substance; He will cover you inside and out with pure gold and silver, and He will adorn you to such a degree that even “the King Himself shall have pleasure in your beauty.” But if you, stubbornly hardened, reject the work of His skill and show yourself ungrateful towards Him because you were created a mere man, by being ungrateful to God, you have lost both His workmanship and life.
For creation is a sign of God’s goodness, but to be created is inherent to human nature. If you offer Him what is yours, that is, faith in Him and submission, you will receive His handiwork and become a perfect creation of God.
If, however, you will not believe in Him, and will flee from His hands, the cause of imperfection will be in you who did not obey, but not in Him who called you. For He commissioned messengers to invite people to the marriage, but those who did not obey Him deprived themselves of the royal supper. The skill of God, therefore, is not defective, for He has the power to raise up children to Abraham from stones; but the person who does not obtain it is the cause of their own imperfection. Similarly, the light does not fail because of those who have blinded themselves; while it remains the same as ever, those who are blinded are in darkness through their own fault. The light never enslaves anyone by necessity, nor does God force anyone to accept His skill. Those who have turned away from the light given by the Father and transgressed the law of liberty have done so through their own fault, since they have been created as free agents, possessing control over themselves.
But God, knowing all things in advance, prepared suitable places for both groups. He generously provides the light that those who seek the light of incorruption desire; but for those who despise and mock, avoiding and turning away from this light, effectively blinding themselves, He has prepared darkness appropriate for those who oppose light, and delivered a fitting punishment upon those who try to avoid submission to Him. Submission to God is eternal rest, so those who flee the light have a place worthy of their escape; and those who escape eternal rest have a dwelling that matches their flight. Since all good things are with God, those who choose to flee from God deprive themselves of all good things; and having been deprived of all good things in relation to God, they will consequently fall under God's just judgment. Those who avoid rest will rightfully face punishment, and those who shun light will rightfully dwell in darkness. Just as in the case of this temporal light, those who avoid it lead themselves into darkness, making themselves the cause of their lack of light, and thus dwell in darkness. As I have already noted, the light is not the cause of such an unfortunate condition for them. Similarly, those who flee the eternal light of God, which contains all good things, become the cause for themselves of living in eternal darkness, lacking all good things, having made themselves the cause of their existence in such an abode.