John 14:6
The Way to Life and God
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Deuteronomy 30:11-20
The Offer of Life or Death
11 Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. 12 It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, “Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” 13 Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, “Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” 14 No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.
15 See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. 16 For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.
17 But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, 18 I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.
19 This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live 20 and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
God gives us free will...In this free will, He allows us to make our own choices...God offers us life or He offers us death...It seems, in my opinion, that there are only these two choices in life...We know (on the other hand) that we have many choices and can choose many things, but in the end Jesus tells us we can only serve one Master...This takes us back to these two choices of life or death...The master (we have) can be an idol, money, a drug, a job, or anything that our mind treasures...But Jesus sums it up for us and says we cannot serve both God and money...One will take a precedent over the other...In another example of only the two choices, Jesus tells us that we have two choices on our road in life...There are two roads in life, we have to choose...One is a narrow and straight gate to life, or a wide easy, undisciplined roads on lifelong journey -that leads to destruction...Jesus' offer of life (as He explains life) is narrow, difficult, and hard for us to accomplish...It even seems we are promised troubles...Jesus tells us in this world, we will have troubles (John 16:33)...We are told we will have suffering in our lives...
This is unusual in a sense, that we know God is in control and therefore we are under His fate, but yet He is so Almighty and so powerful that He can still give us our freewill and free choice...We are both under His fate (God's Plan) and under our freewill...This is very complicated for man's mind, but for our complex God who laid down our earth's foundation -it is not...God can create out of nothing, and Jesus was there with Him in the beginning, when He marked off the earth's dimensions as the morning stars sang together, and the angels all shouted for joy...
This offer that Moses writes about in Deuteronomy is the offer of life and God...If we love the LORD and walk in His ways, and keep His commands, decrees, and laws -then the LORD will bless us...Moses tells us that the rules of law are within our reach...But we are always struggling with sin, and our faith...The law laid out a foundation to show us how to live morally...The people under Moses Law showed we could not follow the Law of Moses and we sinned...We cannot quite seem to get our arms and head around how to be perfectly moral and to live a perfectly moral life...Jesus came and gave us a new light and new ideas, not only on the Law of Moses, and morality, but also of sin...He tells us He comes for sinners...No one except for Jesus could exactly follow the Law of Moses...He also teaches us the context of the Law of Moses in terms of our own morality...Jesus is also perfectly moral, and lives a perfect moral life on earth and in heaven...
When Moses told us that God offers us free choice of life or death or goodness or sinning, challenges us to a perfect standard of living...He knows we struggle with sin, in fact, one of our greatest saints, St. Paul, writes about his own daily struggles with his own sins (Romans 7:7-25)...As part of God's Plan, He sends His Son to teach us about morality and how we break the rules of morality, whether it be the Law of Moses, or today's morality in our own lives...Jesus shows who we are, all in the context of God and teachings on being perfectly moral...For example, how radical is it that we should and can love our enemies...God never gave us the Law of Moses to show us that we could be righteous or are righteous...He gave us the Law of Moses to show us our need for a Messiah...We cannot live perfectly moral, and love our enemy -and we are sinners, and we do (like St. Paul, struggle with sin each day)...We NEED Jesus...Jesus shows us the standard God expects from us and our potential...
This offer of God and life in Deuteronomy can only be reached one way...God gave us the Law of Moses to show us we sin, and He gave us and sent us Jesus to show us further about sin...We need a new heart, to be reborn, we need an indwelling of the Holy Spirit...This offer of Life and Goodness can be obtained only by the One who said, I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life...And one of the most interesting things about following Him, is that it is difficult, narrow, and there is suffering...The travels of life and goodness take us through troubles, hardships, sufferings, and sacrifice...
Without Him, there is no life...When we follow this Way, this Truth, this Way of Life gets us to heaven with Him and His Father...