Life or Death

Romans 6:14-20

(Use the link below to read the verses.)

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans%206%3A14-20&version=NIV;NLT

 

What would you do if you had only two choices with every decision? Can you imagine in this day and age what that would be like? How would you feel if when you went to the grocery store there was only two kinds of chips and not a whole isle? Or what would it be like to buy a car where your only choice was a stripped down version of a plain black car or a plain white one?

 

We like to have multiple choices because it makes us feel like we are in control. We can decide what flavor or brand or crinkle we want in our chip. We can decide what color or size engine or package of options we get with our car. We decide… therefore, we control.

 

Paul gives us a different perspective on decision making in Romans.

 

¹⁶ Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living.      NLT

 

Paul is so black and white about things. We like it better when our choices have some gray area to consider. Then we can be graded on a curve instead of exact percentages. We like essay answers where we can explain why we chose what we did, instead of true and false questions that leave no room for interpretation.

 

Then, just when we think we understand, Paul wrote this.

 

¹⁴ Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace.    NLT

 

He just got done saying that you are a “slave to whatever you choose to obey” and now he’s talking about living “under the freedom of God’s grace”. Confusing right?

 

Maybe the lesson for us to learn is the next time we are facing a decision, we need to look at it like Paul did. We have two choices. The one that leads to death; or the one that leads to life? Which one do you want to choose?

 

Well… when you put it that way, it doesn’t seem like much of a choice.

 

 

Turning Point

Genesis 3:1-13

  

Turning points, and the decisions that lead up to them, come in all sizes and shapes; some barely noticeable while others are life changing.

 

For instance, between my sophomore and junior year of college I had two summer opportunities to choose from. The most exciting was to go to California as a summer intern for Campus Crusade for Christ. The second was to go to East Lansing, Michigan, find a job and participate in a local church sponsored discipleship training program. I chose the latter.

 

As a result, I changed colleges, degrees and careers; met my wife, started our family and bought our first house. The impact of that small, barely noticeable decision to go to East Lansing for the summer, literally changed my life.

 

James wrote how decisions that starts small and seemingly insignificant, can have an adverse life changing effect. ^15 “Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.” This is the pattern of Adam and Eve. Unfortunately, it is our pattern too. It all started in the Garden of Eden.

 

The serpent was the craftiest of all the creatures the Lord God had made. So the serpent came to the woman. “Really?” he asked. “None of the fruit in the garden? God says you mustn’t eat any of it?”

^2-3 “Of course we may eat it,” the woman told him. “It’s only the fruit from the tree at the center of the garden that we are not to eat. God says we mustn’t eat it or even touch it, or we will die.”

⁴ “That’s a lie!” the serpent hissed. “You’ll not die! ⁵ God knows very well that the instant you eat it you will become like him, for your eyes will be opened—you will be able to distinguish good from evil!”     TLB

 

This conversation in the Garden was absolutely a turning point, not just for Adam and Eve, but also for you and me. As a result of their decision, our lives would never be perfect; our relationships would always have pain and suffering; our faith in God would always include failure...

 

Every day is another turning point in your life. What decisions will you make today? Will you choose life, or will you choose death?