Praise the Lord! As the followers of Jesus Christ, our testimony every morning and evening is this: The Lord has been good to us! The Lord has been faithful to us! We hear it from almost every devout and faithful follower of the Lord Jesus Christ on a regular basis. Yes, it is absolutely true that the Lord has been good to us not just for a day or two but for all the days of our life so far. We never finished a day without Him being good and faithful to us for He is our creator and sustainer. The Lord God Almighty is trustworthy and reliable and we can approach to the Throne of Grace at any moment of the time. In response to God’s faithfulness to us, we also need to be faithful to Him in our day-to-day walk with Him. In any case, if we have failed Him, He has given us opportunities to correct ourselves and reconcile with Him because we need to be right with Him to earn His favor in our lives (Jeremiah 7:5; 21:12). The greatest achievement one can earn on earth is to find favor with God – nothing more and nothing less. The reality is that God being holy and righteous, it is not so easy to win God’s favor in one’s life (even for faithful Christians), but if we are able to win God’s favor in our lives, it means everything to us as faithful followers of Jesus Christ. Apostle Paul wrote: If God is for us who can be against us (Romans 8:31). This means, if God is for us:

• • We will be able to draw more and more closer to the throne of grace
  • Our spiritual fellowship and walk with God will be strengthened
  • Our prayers will be presented according to God’s will
  • Our prayers will be heard and answered by God the Father
  • All our spiritual and material needs (including protection and provisions in our life) will be taken care of
  • We will be able to receive the gift of God, which is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord

The key to an all-sufficient and fruitful Christian life is, first of all, seek His kingdom and His righteousness and win God’s favor through our righteous word and deeds. Jesus said to His disciples: Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well (Matthew 6:33). Let us try to understand the message the Lord God Almighty gave through His servant Moses to the children of Israel:

14 The word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it. 15 See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. 16 For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. 17 But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, 18 I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. 19 This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live 20 and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Deuteronomy 30:14-20)

As the Lord God Almighty set His Word before the children of Israel (Deuteronomy 30:14-17), He set Jesus Christ before us (the same Word He spoke that became flesh) who dwelt among us in order that we may inherit life everlasting (John 1:1-5, 14; 3:16; Hebrews 1:1-4; 1 John 1:1-3). The passage we have chosen for this week’s Scripture for the Week meditation is: For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23). This passage has two different subject matters that contrast to one another and they are, life and death: (i) the wages of sin is death, and (ii) the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. There is life available to those who desire it and there is death awaiting to those who ignored choosing life. Romans 3:23 says that For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Therefore, the options are set before you and I and before everyone else (before all of humanity): the option of choosing life or the option of choosing death. Everyone who is alive must make their choice before it is too late since no one can ignore it nor avoid it but everyone must choose one or the other. The reality is that the people who love the Lord God Almighty, walk in obedience to Him, and keep His commands, decrees and laws, will live; and those who do not love the Lord their God, walk in obedience to Him or and keep His commands, decrees and laws, will die (Deuteronomy 30:16, 18a). If we put it in a classroom (academic) context, it means that the students who submit their homework/assignment by the deadline the professor has set forth in the beginning of the term, will get a passing grade, which is the reward/life; and those who do not submit their homework/assignment on time will get a failing grade, which is kind of punishment/death.  What we need to understand here is that there is no ‘None Of The Above’ (NOTA) option in this case just like the options given to voters of many countries, it is the one or the other.

From the beginning of human history, God, being the creator and sustainer, urges the humanity to obey His commandments. God wants them to listen and obey His commandments and live a life of abundance (Proverbs 7:2; 19:16; John 10:10b), which leads to everlasting life (John 10:28). Romans 6:23a states that For the wages of sin is death. Not obeying God’s commandments means disobeying His commandments, which is sin in the sight of the Lord and ultimately the person who disobeys His commandments will die (Ezekiel 18:4, 20a; Romans 6:23a). In contrast to that, Romans 6:23b states: the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Obeying God’s commandments means keeping His commandments, and those who keep His commandments will ultimately inherit life. Jesus said, I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full (John 10:10b). In the context of ‘all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God’ (Romans 3:23), God sent His only begotten son to die on the cross as a ransom death (Mark 10:45; John 3:16), so that the souls of those who sinned will be ransomed for their sinful actions. Apostle Paul stated that God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). This reveals the fact that God’s gift-option for us is eternal life, which is through Jesus Christ. This is possible only if we love the Lord our God, walk in obedience to Him, and keep His commands, decrees and laws (Deuteronomy 30:16). Obeying God’s commandments means keeping His commandments and doing/practicing what it says (putting it into action), which is righteousness in the sight of the Lord and ultimately the person who does this will live. Jesus continued saying: I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand (John 10:28). Jesus is the giver and source of eternal life and without Jesus people perish, as Jesus reminded us: I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am he, you will indeed die in your sins (John 8:24). Jesus said to His disciples and the crowds who followed Him that I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6), and I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die (John 11:25-26). Let us not fall into the trap of the evil one and sin against the Lord, rather let us receive the gift of abundant life (eternal life) by loving the Lord our God, by walking in obedience to Him, and by keeping His righteous laws, decrees, and commands.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in the light of our meditation, let us reassert strongly and publicly our commitment and devotion to the Lord God Almighty and live a life that is worthy of our calling. Let us try our best to love the Lord God Almighty, walk in obedience to Him, and fulfill the will of God in our life as king David served God’s purpose in his own generation (Deuteronomy 30:16; Acts 13:36). As a faithful follower of Jesus Christ, it is important for us to recall the counsel Apostle Paul gave to the believers in Rome and practice it daily in our walk with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ: Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will (Romans 12:2). We do not want to be like a spiritually lukewarm person (Revelation 3:14-16), or like people who claim to be true to their calling but they do not really live like it (1 John 2:3-4). Such people either do not preach what they believe as true, or they do not practice what they preach is true. Many of these people have their own man-made-up stories to share to their followers, which are not true at all (2 Corinthians 11:4; 2 Timothy 4:3-4). Apostle Paul warned the believers in Colossae against any such man-made stories of their messages: See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ. For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority (Colossians 2:8-10). Jesus also warned His disciples and the crowds who followed Him against the hypocrisy of Jewish religious leaders: Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: 2 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. 3 So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach (Matthew 23:2-3). Prophet Isaiah stated: The Lord says: These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught (Isaiah 29:13; also refer to: Matthew 15:7-9). Also, prophet Ezekiel noted what the God of Israel said about His people Israel: My people come to you [prophet Ezekiel], as they usually do, and sit before you to hear your words, but they do not put them into practice. Their mouths speak of love, but their hearts are greedy for unjust gain (Ezekiel 33:31). Psalm 53:2-3 states that God looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. Everyone has turned away, all have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one. In fact, the attitude of godlessness is ever increasing in these last days, as Apostle Paul stated to young Timothy:

1 There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people … 7 They are always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth (2 Timothy 3:1-7)

Despite our inclination to do evil and their rebelliousness against God, He still invites us to repent and return to Him (Hosea 6:1; Joel 2:12-13; Zechariah 1:3; Mark 1:15; Acts 3:19-20). Therefore, it is our call to return to the Lord and love the Lord God Almighty with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind and with all our strength and love our neighbor as ourselves, as it is mentioned in the Scripture: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these (Mark 12:30-31; also refs to: Deuteronomy 6:5; 30:16; Matthew 22:37-39; Luke 10:27). Apostle Paul stated some of the life-values to be observed and practiced by a Christian believer:

9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13 Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality. 14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. 18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone (Romans 12:9-18)

Always keep it in mind and remember that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23). Therefore, let us try to be true to our calling, love the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind and with all our strength and love our neighbor as ourselves, walk in obedience to Him, and to keep His commands, decrees and laws, and live a life that glorify the Lord God Almighty through Jesus Christ. May the Lord God Almighty bless us all! Amen!