The fact that God has given to mankind His moral law presupposes at least a couple of things. One thing is that humans can actually understand the difference between moral good and evil. We may radically disagree about what is good or what is evil but most people admit that somehow there are actions that fit the two categories. Just a little side note, some of the most judgmental people I have ever met are those who believe that there is no such thing as good and evil. They will shove a boney finger in your face and with veins protruding, angrily shout at you that you are “wrong” for believing that there are moral rights and wrongs--interesting.

A second thing is that humans are capable of making moral choices. We call this free will or moral volunteerism.

Okay, great, but how does human moral volunteerism work? Glad you asked.

The first thing that humans need to make free moral choices (either good or evil) are the “things” to choose. This may seem obvious, but there need to be various things available to choose in order to have free will. If you only have white to choose from, then you don’t have any opportunity to mix and match colors as a decorator. The second thing that humans need to make free choices is the apprehensive power to see things as good or bad. Included in this apprehensive power is the ability to judge whether an object is good or bad. If a person judges an object as bad, he/she will move away from it or avoid it. However, if a person judges an object as good, he/she will be drawn toward it.

At this point I would like you to think about the powerful story of Adam and Eve and the Fall in the Garden of Eden. God had placed different “objects” in the garden that He said were good and one that He said was going to cause evil. The objects were trees. The one tree that God said Adam and Eve could not eat from was the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” The Serpent came to Adam and Eve and presented a different way for them to look at the forbidden tree. Read this now:

Genesis 3:6 “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband,…”

Before the Serpent worked on Eve’s apprehensive ability, the First Couple stayed away from the forbidden fruit. After he convinced Eve that she should apprehend the fruit as “good,” the couple moved right in and ate the stuff. The Serpent tempted Adam and Eve to see something that was deadly as good. He worked on their apprehensive judgmental powers.

The third thing that is needed for free choices is that thing which moves a human to action and that is the will. The human will is moved by man’s judgment. In other words, the human will is the servant of our judgment. If we judge something as good—no matter how deadly and dangerous it may be—we will take action and move toward attaining it. For instance, I may be deeply in debt and barely able to make it from paycheck to paycheck; but, if I convince myself that taking a loan out for a new 400 horsepower GTO is a “good” thing, I will engage my will to get that loan. In other words, the power of man’s free will is in his/her apprehensive power and judgment.

The fourth thing needed for free choices is what is known as the “motive power.” Simply put, I can want something very badly and have willed to get it, but if I can’t get to it, I won’t have it. We might also call this the ability to carry out one’s desires. For example, I may make the bone-headed decision to buy a GTO (using my poor judgment), but if I don’t have the credit to get the loan, I won’t have my dream car.

In order to have moral actions there must be something to choose, then it must be apprehended and judged. This is followed by the engagement of the human will and the motive power which carries out the command for action from the human reason.

That’s how it is done.