Deuteronomy 30:19 (NLT) 19 “Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live!
I have quoted this scripture a number of times over the last two weeks, but I am having a hard time getting by its significance. I can hear the heart cry of the Father in this verse. Please choose life! That is the will of the Lord for each of us. That is what our Father invested the blood of his only begotten son Jesus to buy. He gave us the right and privilege to choose life.
Heaven is waiting to see what our choice will be. Once we have made our choice, all of the power of heaven is ready to back our decision. Earth also waits to see what you will choose today. Both Jesus and Paul called Satan the God of this world. He is watching to see what choice we make. If we choose death, he will enforce that choice in our lives. God will not go against our choice. If we choose life, Satan will use all of his powers of deception to convince us to renege on our decision so he will once again have access to us and destroy us.
We spent some time last week pointing out the role choice played in salvation. God made choices and man made choices. Finally, Jesus made a choice as the son of man. He chose to identify with our sin. After a great battle in the realm of the spirit, Jesus, the son of God, rose from the dead. In that moment, he made a powerful declaration.
Matthew 28:18-19 (NKJV) 18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
Jesus the Son of God has won the authority with which Satan held man captive. He has stripped the devil of his power to keep man separated from God. The only thing left for any person to obtain eternal life is the same thing that Jesus did to win man’s right to freedom. Man must choose.
Think about the significance of this truth. Your eternal destiny is determined by what you choose. No one can choose for you. God will not force you to choose life, but the devil cannot stop you from choosing it. Once you make the choice there is nothing that can keep you from heaven. The choice is available right up to the moment of death. Should real revelation come to a person just before they slip into eternity and they activate their will to choose life, they will live forever in heaven. Personally, I would not take the chance of waiting that long, but it is possible.
Once a human being crosses the threshold of death without choosing life, they are considered to have chosen death and will spend eternity in torment and separation from the Lord. It is completely up to you and me. It is a matter of choice.
What is the choice we must make in order to receive eternal life? I believe this is something that seems to be a bit lost in our current presentation of the Gospel. We sometimes make it seem that the choice is for a better, more pleasant lifestyle. We may emphasize that the philosophy that Jesus preached is superior to any other teacher. We may even think in terms of religious requirements and choosing to be a better person. None of these things represents the basic choice we make to receive eternal life. Paul stated it very simply and directly.
Romans 10:8-10 (NKJV) 8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): 9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Our choice is twofold. First, we must choose to accept that the sacrifice of Jesus Christ in his death burial and resurrection, is the only payment for our sin. The term sin implies both our sin nature and the sinful acts we have committed. In the great Messianic prophecy of Isaiah 53, we see this twofold aspect of sin.
Isaiah 53:5 (NKJV) 5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.
Jesus paid for every action you have ever taken that was against the law of God. He paid for every sinful thought and word. He also paid the price for Adam’s nature that came upon mankind because of his fall. The acts, thoughts and words are our transgression. The nature that caused us to commit these things is our iniquity. Jesus paid for both with his sacrifice.
It is almost too hard to believe that eternity could hinge on such a simple thing. Jesus paid the price to open the way for you. The only question is will you choose to accept that payment for your iniquity and your transgressions. If you say yes to that choice, Romans 10 tells us that you have believed unto righteousness or right standing with God.
There is a second part to the choice we must make. We believe in his sacrifice and that makes us right with God, but for full salvation to be realized there is something else we must choose. We must confess with our mouths that Jesus is now the Lord of our lives. He is the absolute ruler of my past, present and future. My life no longer belongs to me. When I accepted Jesus’ death as the payment for my sin, I died to my own life and agreed to live for him.
Galatians 2:20 (NKJV) 20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
That choice releases the New Birth into the heart of a person. Anything less is simple religion. While religion is useful to a degree, it will never result in the change of nature that God requires in order to enter heaven and eternal life.
If you have made that choice, you have life. You will spend eternity in heaven with the Lord. Nothing can stop that from happening. Your physical body will die, but you will not. If you have not made that choice, you cannot enter the kingdom of Heaven. That is what Jesus told Nicodemas in John 3. This is not a choice to be made lightly. We must consider that we are giving up our life for his life. It is a very good trade for which you will be eternally grateful.
Once you have made this initial, must important decision to choose eternal life, there are choices you must make every day to walk in the benefits of the life Jesus has provided for you. This decision is not just about where you spend eternity. That is the most important part of it and it must be understood. However, there is much more that the choice for life makes available. Each one will require you to choose just as salvation requires a choice.
We will look at what this life really is and what choices you must make to walk in it, but for today remember this. You can choose. You not only have the ability but also the right to choose. Do not let today go by without examining the choices before you. As today’s verse exhorts us, “Choose life!”
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