Do This and Live

See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you today, by loving the LORD your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. Deuteronomy 30:15-16

As I’ve previously mentioned, I grew up in an evangelical tradition of Christianity, which appropriately places a high emphasis on salvation – The most important decision one makes in life is to place one’s faith in Jesus Christ. It was common in my upbringing to hear people tell before and after stories. I was a sinner, but then I came to faith in Christ. One of the unintended consequences of this was that I saw faith as a once-for-all decision. I knew that I’d always believed in God and that I’d prayed the sinner’s prayer as a child, so I was good. I knew that I was destined for heaven and that I’d live a good life, never struggling with things like drugs or alcohol. Then, however, I struggled greatly with drugs and alcohol.

In recovery for ten years, I now see faith as much more of an ongoing, daily process. Yes, it was of great importance that I initially came to faith in a moment of salvation, but faith isn’t something I do once and then I’m done. Faith, if it is real, is something I must practice daily. I wasn’t made perfect when I came to faith and I still possess the freedom to choose evil today, inviting pain and misery into my life. Daily then, I must make a purposeful effort to point my life at God, abandoning my self-destructive nature.

This is the message of today’s passage, and perhaps of the entire Bible. In it, God spoke through Moses, telling his people that today, and every day, they had a decision to make. That decision was one of profound importance, between good and evil, between life and death. If they followed God, they’d find life. If they followed themselves, they’d find death.

The apostle Paul later echoed the same principle. Whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life (Galatians 6:7-8). This doesn’t mean that we’ll experience material success if we obey God or that we’ll immediately die if we sin. It means that if we desire to know the new life God intends for us, then we must daily follow him into that new life. Daily, we must all make a choice. We can follow ourselves or we can follow God, and the sum of our daily decisions determines the course of our lives.