Life and Death

Reading Deuteronomy 30

The Offer of Life or Death

¹¹ Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. ¹² It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, "Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?" ¹³ Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, "Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?" ¹⁴ No, 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.

Gospel Luke 9

Jesus Predicts His Death

²⁰ "But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"
Peter answered, "God's Messiah."

²¹ Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone. ²² And he said, "The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life."

²³ Then he said to them all: "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. ²⁴ For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. ²⁵ What good is it for you to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit your very self? ²⁶ If any of you are ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of you when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.

²⁷ "Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God."

Sermon

Deut is book of Law. Full of rules and regs how to act. How to treat runaway slave. Boundaries, debts and worship. Dietary laws. Family. Waging war. Murder and crimes.

Towards the end, in c28 – consequences of obedience and disobedience through Blessings and Cursings.

In our law, consequences of breaking law are manmade sanctions. Fines. Imprisonment. Community service. Training. But law of Moses was Covenant. Obedience to law brings God’s blessing. Good harvest. Many children. Victory over enemies. Disobedience brings a curse. On the city, on the field, on livestock. The Lord will send disaster, panic and frustration in everything you seek to do.

So if you make money and are successful, you must be a good and just person. But if you are cursed, you must have sinned. Like Job.

The offer of life and death in c30 is not personal choice between eternal life and perdition. Land has been devastated by curse – but c30 turns towards images of salvation. If Israel will return to God and be obedient, God will show mercy.

Moses has delivered God’s law. It is accessible. Not far away. In your heart. On your mouth. So choose life, says Moses.

Jesus exercises choice between life and death in different way. He predicts his own death. Son of Man must suffer. It’s a reverse of Deut – who ever chooses life will lose it; whoever chooses death will be saved.

This is New Covenant as Paul explains in Rom. 7. We are no longer subject to Law. Because Jesus chose death, we also have died to the Law through body of Christ. We now belong to another, in order to bear fruit for God. We are no longer slaves to rules and regs. No longer subject to Law but freed from it. Freed from old written code in new life of Spirit.

So our salvation is not measured by material success like Law of Moses but by life in the Spirit through which we can call God our Father. Even if we suffer in this world, we can look forward to future glory, as creation awaits the revelation of the children of God.

Compare the two. Read Deut. 30 and then Romans 7 and 8. Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Asks Paul? Nothing – is the answer. Amen