Life and Death Offer

Life and Death Offer

To assure clarity of the covenantal relationship, Moses summoned the Israelites twice, once in Horeb and again in Moab, teaching them the terms of the covenant. The Lord God Himself appealed to the Israelites:

See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. 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. (Deuteronomy 30:11-19)

The blessings and the curses are embedded in the Law. It is a life or death offer and there is no middle ground. Acceptance or disobedience sets into motion forces that the Word of the Almighty God preordained and thus is irrevocable. Redemption and restoration from disobedience are also feasible provisions of the same Law.  

When you and your children return to the Lord your God and obey him with all your heart and with all your soul… then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you. (Deuteronomy 30:2-3)

Our God is a Holy God! When the practice of sin defiles a person, God withdraws His presence and has nothing to do with the calamities that follow. The realm without God is under the authority of Satan (Luke 4:6). This is what God says to such people: 

Then I will go back to my place until they admit their guilt. And they will seek my face; in their misery, they will earnestly seek me. (Hosea 5:15)

How many times have we sighed in distress, blaming God for the evil He supposedly had allowed in our lives? According to the Scripture, it is not God but our own doing that evokes the curses of the Law? Are we, as Christians, whom Christ redeemed from the curse of the Law by becoming a curse for us (Galatians 3:13), exempt from triggering the curses when we sin? The Apostle Paul is clear, ”Absolutely not!”(Romans 6:1, 15). The Law doesn’t oppose the promises of God (Galatians 3:21). Jesus consistently thought in the same manner: Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them (Matthew 5:17).

The curses and the blessings are part of God’s covenant. They were, are, and will continue to be in power, accomplishing their purposes as surely as God lives. We, like the Israelites, are not exempt from death due to rebellion. The New Testament is consistent with the Old Testament in giving a warning to anyone who turns away from God. The  Apostle Paul’s warning is specific. 

If you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. (Romans 8:13) 

Also,

For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23)

These words of warning, the Apostle Paul wrote to those who have already been saved, believing in Jesus and accepting Him as Lord and Savior. Yes, even those who have been justified continue to live under the constant threat of the deadly power of sin. The  Apostle Peter writes about those who have fallen away from the truth. 

It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. (2 Peter 2:21)

The offer of life or death is in effect for us as well. Repentance changes one’s position from being under a curse to being under a blessing. Widespread is the belief that being a victim of violence, betrayal or deceipt can justify vengeance, anger, or hatred towards the perpetrator. Such responses are “natural” but sinful. They are fruit of the old flesh. They are a trap of the enemy to ensnare the believer. Sin is sin under any circumstances, and righteousness is righteousness under all conditions. The practice of one or the other brings death or life respectively. Like the Israelites, we must choose life over death. 

How do we, then, overcome the traps of the enemy? The Holy Church has issued an eternal edict: Confess, repent, forgive, crucify the sinful practices of the flesh, wash in the blood of Jesus spilled on the cross, and fill up with the Holy Spirit. These are part of the holy sacraments of the Church. For the victim, the act of forgiveness might seem impossible, but from Heven’s perspective, nothing is impossible for God (Luke 1:37). Faith in Jesus the Messiah is the answer. He gives us the capacity to meet the righteous requirements of the Law through the Spirit of the Living God who dwells in us. The Law cannot impart life, and righteousness does not come through the Law; rather, the Law sets the criteria for determining righteous or sinful living. Just as the curses and the blessings are embedded in the Law, so is the promise of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the heart of the believer. For the Spirit-filled Christian, the born-from-above individual, the promise of the Lord is fulfilled: I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. (Jeremiah 31:33) 

We have been given a new nature through which, sin shall not be our master, because we are not under law, but under grace (Romans 6:14). But consider an even greater advantage: You have been given fullness in Christ (Colossians 2:10), which is His righteousness and holiness. The recapitulation is straightforward: On the divine judgment scales of life and death, our ability to keep the Law weighs heavily on God’s side. It is God who imparts in us His righteousness. Only through Him can we acquire the ability to fulfill the righteous requirements of His Law and live under blessing, not curse. We cannot do this on our own. The Apostle Paul writes about his experience with both conditions, operating under the Law and under God's grace. Being a Pharisee, a highly educated teacher of the Law, the Apostle Paul admits: I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. (Romans 7:10) 

The Apostle Paul concluded that no human effort to comply with the Law could genuinely satisfy the requirements of the Law. Humans would always fall short when striving to achieve righteousness on their own. God sees our self-righteous acts as “filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6). But in Jesus, our position is changed. Through Him, the power of God enables us to live according to the righteous requirements of the Law. Through Christ Jesus, the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8:2) 

     If you are saved, born again by the Spirit of God, you have already satisfied all conditions for complete healing from any traumatic experience. You possess the divine tool for healing from pain—His righteousness imparted in you. Commit daily to the spiritual disciplines of prayer, confession, repentance, forgiveness, eucharist, death, and resurrection in Christ Jesus for sanctification and transformation into the image of Christ. These are the holy sacraments of the Church.