Godlythinking         

   Life And Death Choices

 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

What is life when it has the potential to exist continually? Is it not the essence of being aware of who and where you are? The bible tells us that the body without the spirit is dead and in like manner the body without breath or animation cannot exist.  Ultimately Man must come to realize that man’s life exists until such time as the body is spent or as long as the Lord permits.  

Man has studied the human anatomy and other living organisms and has educated his fellow man to become doctors of medicine. In the overall picture the need for a doctor seems like wasted time when human beings may prolong life but cannot escape the sting of death. The answers to life are not found with revelations of the latest science, but in places that the majority of scientists refuse to look. The cure for death is not found in how the body functions, but in finding God’s gift of life.

Where do we go to find out what life is all about? What do you call a person who has no beginning or end to life, who can calls things as they are, but he whose name is, I am that I am.  The bible tells us that God is the beginning and the end but the reality of human life is found between the beginning and the end of God’s plan.  In the same regard God is life, the one who was, who is and is to come, he is the origin of life itself. In the beginning God created all life on Earth and on the last (judgment day) God will bring life on earth to an end and a new age begins. God made man to be an eternal being on the same way that as he is eternal. The bible also tells us that it is appointed for man to die once and then the judgment.  We need to consider the outcome of our life and live responsibly because our life is subject to God beckoning call.  

From God’s perspective, the moment Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit they not only disobeyed God, but they made themselves subject to the penalty of death.  They had access to the tree of life until God drove them from the Garden.

And the Lord God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever." Genesis 3:22

God said, man must not be allowed to eat from the tree of life and live forever.  However, access to the tree of life is not a requirement in the formula of life, although man must understand that God has the patent and monopoly on life. In other words you must go to God to know and see the pattern of life. That pattern of life is confirmed in Jesus Christ.

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. John 14:6

We are asked to look at the life of Christ for the answers to life. However in this context we have to look at what Jesus did over his lifetime. His earthly beginning was described as born of a virgin and his end came with sacrificing his life for the sins of mankind on the cross. He spent his entire life meeting the needs of others and God was with him accrediting him with signs and wonders.

How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him. Acts 10:38

Jesus said several things about himself and how life was related to him.  

"I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; John 11:25

 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

 I am the bread of life. Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die.  I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." John 6:48-51

Jesus also said,

 The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. John 6:63

Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. John 17:3

"I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.  For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself. John 5:24-26

God has given his creation the choice of life and death.

 This day I call heaven and 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 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 30:19-20

God has given everyone the choice of life by listening to his voice and holding fast to him. At the same time God has left man a choice between life and death. Man is living in an environment where sin prevails and appears to be the normal way to live. Sin is destroying the world and although the world knows right from wrong they continue to sin and approve of those who regularly sin to get ahead in life. Sin has corrupted mankind, but it is a choice to participate in the Divine Nature to escape the corruption of the world caused by its sinful desires.

God designed man to exist forever, but the kind of death God is speaking about is a place of separation from life in Jesus Christ.  Hell is the place where you are in pain and suffering without end, ever dying without hope, ever suffering without compassion, ever regretful without forgiveness for sin. The choice for life is never easy in the midst of overwhelming and prevailing evil, but it is a choice you can make and achieve with God’s help. h_