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                                                  LIFE OR DEATH  
                                                    It's Our Choice, Part Two

                                                                                 By Mae Shurow

In the beginning, in the garden, God set a choice before Adam and Eve.  They could obey God and eat from the Tree Of Life, or disobey Him and eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  The Lord warned them that if they ate of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, it would bring death.  Theirs was truly a LIFE or DEATH decision!  

When they chose disobedience and death, the whole earth was cursed.  God said that the earth would no longer be FRUITFUL, but would bring forth thorns and thistles. Mankind must work hard for his bread (Gen. 3:17-18), but no matter how hard he worked, all his labor would be to no avail, for man’s work cannot bring forth FRUIT! 

In His great mercy, the Lord began to teach His people about the blessedness of serving Him by establishing a Covenant with them.  If they would be obedient, keep God’s commandments, and serve the Lord rather than working for and serving themselves, their labor would no longer bring forth thorns and thistles.  Instead the Lord would reward them with FRUITFULNESS in their labor.  They would be BLESSED if obedient, and CURSED if disobedient (please read Deut. 28:1-48).  It was essentially the same choice that He gave Adam and Eve in the garden – LIFE or DEATH, BLESSING or CURSING.  

·    Deut. 7:12-13 Wherefore it shall come to pass, if ye hearken to these judgments, and keep, and do them, that the Lord thy God shall keep unto thee the covenant and the mercy which he sware unto thy fathers: 13And he will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee: he will also bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep, in the land which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee.

·    Deut. 30:15-19 See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; In that I command thee this day to love the LORD thy god, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the LORD thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it.   But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear; but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them; I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land...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 may live: 

However, the problem is that no matter how hard a person tries we cannot be obedient to God and serve Him – it’s just not in us.  The purpose of the Covenant (the Law) was to expose to mankind his bondage to sin and his utter inability to serve God in his flesh (in his own strength).  Romans chapter 7 is not about the struggle of two natures, as many commentators suppose, but verses 13-25 describe an unsaved man, in bondage and captivity to sin, who wants to do good but has no power to do so.  As Paul said:

His members – in other words, his flesh - is “bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members” (Romans 7: 23).  As a result of the Fall, all mankind is born in bondage and captivity to serve themselves – to serve sin.  There is NO CHOICE for the man who does not know Christ – he MUST serve his flesh, which is sin, for he is born into slavery to himself.

·    Romans 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.

·    Romans 5:19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners. 

      Romans 7:5 For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.

       Romans 8:7-8 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to
       the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot
       please God.


 JESUS CAME TO SET THE CAPTIVES FREE!

Jesus said in Luke 4:18, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hast sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind,  to set at liberty them that are bruised,

If we know Christ, we have been SET FREE from bondage to ourselves (flesh)!  THE POWER TO CHOOSE has been restored to us!!  We once again have the power to choose between flesh and Spirit, life and death, blessing and cursing, fruitfulness or fruitlessness, just as Adam and Eve had the power to choose in the Garden!  We are no longer powerless and must serve ourselves, for the old man is dead and we have been raised to new life and set free to serve God!  No longer, “how to perform that which is good I find not” for the resurrection power of Almighty God (we are raised to new life in Him!) is working in us!

Ø     The word “serve” is Strong’s # 1398, and means “be a slave to, be controlled by.”

Ø     The word “debtors” is Strong’s # 3781, and means “one who must,
   one obligated.

We have been freed from the power of sin and so can now choose to walk in the Spirit and not fulfill the lust of the flesh.   However, even though we have been set free from the power of sin, it is still possible for us to choose to be self-serving and fulfill the lust of the flesh.

Galatians  5:16-25 instructs us that if we do choose to work in the flesh (serve ourselves) it will bring forth curses and death, while walking after the Spirit will bring life, blessedness, and fruit. 

When we choose to walk in the Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit is evident in our lives:

But when we choose to walk in the flesh and serve ourselves, the results are evident that even though we have now been set free to serve God, we are not doing so. 

It must be mentioned that “serving God” is not synonymous with “religion” or “going to church,” as many suppose.  Paul equated “trusting in the flesh” with religious works, and counted them all as dung (Philippians 3:4-8).  Many times our church “services” are geared to gratify as many people as possible rather than to serve Almighty God.  Even Paul found few whom he could send that would serve God and not their own bellies, for he wrote to the believers in Philipi:

Much of the “work” done in our churches, purportedly for God, is in reality self-serving “works of the flesh.”  To give just one example, our methods of evangelism may seem to be proclaiming the gospel of Christ.  But when we utilize manmade programs to “bring more people in,” our efforts may well enlarge the numbers of church members (making “OUR church” look better) without increasing the number of those who truly follow Christ.  The fruit of these fleshly methods, implemented apart from the power of God, are self-evident.  Their new “converts” continue to exhibit the above mentioned works of the flesh (Galatians 5:19-21), but now they bring their contentions, hatred, strife, wrath, jealousies, etc. into the church (ever been to a church business meeting?).

The book of Galatians goes on to tell us that as people who have been set free to choose, we will reap the consequences of whatever we choose.  If we choose to continue to serve self (walk after the flesh) even though Christ has set us free, we will once again receive curses and death. But if we choose to serve God (walk after the Spirit), we will reap blessing and life.


CHOOSE WHOM YOU WILL SERVE 

So we see that the word of God tells us that for those of us who are in Christ, we have been set free from our bondage to the flesh.  The old man is dead and we have been resurrected to new life in Him.  THEREFORE we have the power to put to death our fleshly desires and to serve God.  AND THIS WE MUST DO, or the wrath of God will come on us as children of disobedience!

ARE ALL THINGS LAWFUL FOR THE CHRISTIAN? 

Recognition of the truth that Jesus sets us free to choose to serve God or to choose to serve the lusts of our flesh sheds light on two puzzling verses that have been much misinterpreted. 

Contrary to some opinions, Paul is not saying that we are free to do all things just as long as the thing we do does not control us.  Let’s look at the context:

Paul is naming the works of the flesh, and he goes on to tell us that we used to be workers of these unrighteous things before we came to know Christ.  Now that we have been cleansed by Christ, all things are “lawful.”  The word lawful is Strong’s # 1832 and means, “all things are possible – they can occur.”  “…denotes that an action is possible in the sense that there are no hindrances or that the opportunity for it occurs, i.e., “to have the possibility,” “to be able.”[1]  Paul is saying it is not impossible that I would do these sinful things again.  It is possible, it could occur, that I would yield myself again to unrighteousness – and God would allow that to happen if I so choose.  But, all these sinful things are not helpful or advantageous or profitable – and, Hallelujah! – I am not a slave to these things any longer!  I am free!  “I will not be brought under the power” of any of these things any more!  I am no longer a slave to sin, but I have been set free to choose to serve the living God!  And even though it would be possible for me to again choose the works of the flesh and death…I choose to serve God – I choose life!    

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*All emphasis  mine.
Written August 28, 2005

Copyright ©2005 by Mae Shurow 
Permission is granted for non-commercial (free) distribution 
provided proper citation of authorship is included.


[1]Theological dictionary of the New Testament. 1964-c1976. Vols. 5-9 Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.