Church, Frederic Edwin, 1826-1900. Moses Viewing the Promised Land, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library
Choose Life
“… I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore, choose life that both thou and thy seed may live.” Deuteronomy 30:19
Moses brought the children of Israel to a crossroads. It was a place of crossing and a place of choice. The cross of Jesus is a crossroads of choice for us as well.
Whatever happened to the cross?
To the Romans it was merely another two pieces of wood that could be used again until wear and tear rendered them useless for their grotesque purpose.
To the believer, they represented an intersection of time and eternity, death and life, hope and despair. The two timbers are for us, the symbols of a crossroads in our lives – a place of choice.
Life is a choice.
That is part of the message of the resurrection. That is the message of repentance. That is what makes the gospel good news.
We can choose to reject sin, death, and hopelessness and embrace life. We can make a binding, decision to embrace the future that God has planned for us. There is no darkness so deep the light of the resurrection cannot disintegrate it, but we must choose.
It is like A-B-C.
- We must Acknowledge that we have not always chosen life. In fact, we have chosen the opposite. “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), and we have chosen all three: wages, sin, and death.
We have chosen wages because we so full of pride as to believe that we must earn everything that is coming to us when in fact we can only deserve condemnation in our own efforts.
We have chosen sin because the comforts of pleasure and the familiarity of our rebellion is less threatening that trusting God with everything.
As a result, we have chosen death over life because life divorced from God’s purpose and peace in our lives is death and denial of who we were fashioned to be
- We must Believe. We must believe that some other choice is possible; that the message of Christ’s death and resurrection is real and that it is for us.
We must believe that repentance is an option and a mandate and that “the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
We choose a gift we cannot earn or deserve, a relationship where He is Savor and Lord, and as a result, we choose life.
- We must Confess. Start today.
If you believe it, confess it at the first opportunity. Confess before men and women that Jesus Christ is the Lord of your life, that you have chosen life over death, significance over meaninglessness, and hope over despair.
Don’t wait; do it now and then live out your confession daily in discipleship loving God and loving your neighbor as yourself.
