This week we have seen played out a fifty-year controversy in the Supreme Court about choices. It brought me back to the words of Solomon in Ecclesiastes 1: 9-10 “What has been is what will be, and what has been done will be done again. There is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything about which is said, ‘Look! This is new!’ It was already here long ago, in the ages long before us.” The validity of these words proves true when we go back to the beginning about the choice that Adam and Eve were presented with by God. There was no room for debate as God said to Adam in Genesis 2: 16-17 “Then the LORD commanded the man saying ‘From all the trees of the garden you are most welcome to eat. But of the Tree of the Knowledge or Good and Evil you must not eat. For when you eat from it, you most assuredly will die!” It is God who created Adam and breathed into him the breathe of life and he became a living being (2: 7). God is the Creator and Giver of life. In Genesis 1: 26-27 we read that male and female were created in the image of God and were given responsibility over creation. God put them under obligation of being the image-bearer of God. In the first 2 chapters of Genesis we see the choice that Adam and Eve was given—choose life or death which is the opposite of life.
We all know that the serpent who lent itself to Satan appeared to Eve in Genesis 3: 1-6 and presented his three-fold assault on God’s creation. He first initiated doubt and denial of God’s Word—“Did God really say ‘You must not eat from all the trees of the garden?” He assured her that she would not die but acquire knowledge known only by God—pride of life—temptation #1. Eve looked at the fruit—lust of the eye—temptation #2; she ate of the fruit—lust of the flesh—temptation #3. Of course, we know that Satan would later confront Jesus with these same temptations as he never changes his strategy. (Matthew 4: 1-11) Eve, followed by Adam, made a choice to disobey God which introduced sin into the world with its penalty which is death or separation from God. The author of sin and death is the Devil. So it is that throughout time mankind is presented with two choices—life or death.
The word “death” occurs 150 times in the Old Testament and is the opposite of life. In Deut. 30:19 we read “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed (children) may live…” Proverbs 14: 12 says “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.” The great Deceiver is still using the same tactics that he used in the garden to deceive us today. Paul warns believers not to be like the unbelievers in 2 Corinthians 4: 4 and 6 “The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, so they might not see the light of the Good News of the glory of Messiah, who is the image of God…For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ is the One who has shone in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Messiah.”
We are in the midst of great darkness as the devil and his minions render assault after assault upon this world—seeking to destroy God’s creation and specifically humankind. Jesus described him in John 8:44 “…He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks lies he is just being himself—for he is a liar and the father of lies.” The devil is trying to instill fear to control and enslave us. It is time that we wake up and resist the devil so that he will flee from us! Until Christ’s coming, death seemed to rule humanity. In this sense, the devil held power over people with the fear of death. Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil. “He who does what is sinful is of the Devil, because the Devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the Devil’s work.” (1 John 3:8) Colossians 2 verses 11-15 declares the victory over sin Jesus accomplished on the cross for us as He cancelled the record of debts with the decrees against us, and disarmed the principalities and powers—making a public spectacle of them and triumphing over them in the cross. This would include the fear that has a hold on people. Those who believe in Christ belong to Him forever, and nothing, even death, can keep the believers and Him apart. Therefore, the ultimate power of death belongs to Jesus Christ, the one who conquered death and the grave. Jesus told John in Revelation 1: 18 “I was dead, and see, I am alive forever and ever; and I have the key of Death and of Hades.”
Of the thousands of decisions we constantly make, there is one conscious and determined choice we need to make every day—to choose life, to learn not to fear and obey God, through whom we can receive wisdom and understanding. God has chosen LIFE and so must we! Each day we must put on the whole armor of God according to Ephesians 6 so that we can stand against the wiles of the devil! Ephesians 5 gives us the recipe for walking in the light as imitators of God—as dearly loved children made possible through the blood of Christ. The warning in verses 11-14 is: take no part in the fruitless deeds of darkness but rather expose them—everything hidden is being made visible—Wake up, O sleeper! Rise from the dead, and Messiah will shine on you.” God is calling His born-again children to stand up and speak against evil—not about it! We must stay in the Word and pray. Isaiah encourages us with these words in 55: 11—“…My word will be that goes out from My mouth. It will not return to Me in vain, but will accomplish what I intend and will succeed in what I sent it for.” As the old hymn says we must “Stand On the Promises of God.”