I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.
Deuteronomy 30:19-20
The Law as given by God to Moses was a perfect and wonderful gift. Israel had clear direction from God for every detail of individual and social interaction with God and with one another. They had God's direct commands with which to shape their lives. God showed them how to worship, how to love their neighbors, how to be just, how to be holy, and promised them unending, overflowing blessing as they followed the Law and kept covenant with Him.
But there were also warnings. To choose to turn their backs on this much gracious revelation of God's will was to invite the curse of judgment upon them. It was a huge sin to disobey the Law. Just as unimagineable reward came with obedience, so tremendous loss and pain would attend rejection of God's Law. The choice was theirs to make. They had the free will to obey God and find blessing, or to reject His authority and wisdom, and find cursed lives. God pleaded for them to choose life with Him by commitment to obey His Law.
Jesus fulfilled the Law and its demands. He took our sins and the curses of God's wrath upon Himself. And now the Law has no more call upon humanity except as it is fulfilled in Christ. Now, I must choose life in Jesus so that I may be clothed in righteousness that He gives to me. I must obey the gospel and repent of sin and trust my Savior so that I might thus immersed in Him walk in the newness of life that He gives. I really live in Jesus' resurrection life. I choose life by dying to my old self in Him and being born again to new life through His resurrecting work. He is my blessing. He is my life. I choose Jesus.
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