A Life Or Death Situation
Often when folks speak of life or death circumstances, they consider if the situation will cost someone their physical lives. At times, due to medical issues, a person may be required to make a life or death decision. This may be whether or not to participate in a treatment or take certain medications. It is also possible that some ‘professionals’ offer an estimation on how long a person ‘might’ live with or without said care.
Of course, that is a wild guess at best. I have known those who have been diagnosed and were told: “Go home and get your affairs in order, you only have about a year or so to live” by those who were respected as being in the know. Strangely, on several occasions, the “condemned one” failed to expire until long after the prescribed period without the treatment.
It has long been known that people die. In Eccl. 3:19 this is confirmed by the Spirit through the pen of Solomon. He wrote: For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity. The ‘life force’ that is within all living beings is subject to being extinguished.
Eccl. 9:11-12 verifies this, and it applies to all. I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all. 12 For man also knoweth not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them. From a physical standpoint then, life itself is a death situation. This is why all need to understand that it is what we do with this physical life that is of most importance because it is in this life only when we prepare for eternity. Our time on this earth is truly when we determine our eternal destination – Life or Death.
This is confirmed in Eccl. 9:10 as all the things ‘of this life’ have ceased once we pass that threshold. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest. This means that even though everyone is going to die, time on this earth is precious and it needs to be used carefully. It is only in this live we can do for others. In Jas. 2:15-16 as faith is being discussed, the Spirit had James write: “If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food,16 And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?” The provisions for the body are important because according to Jas. 2:26, it houses the soul until the spirit of life departs the body. For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
In Matt. 6:25 Christ told those gathered to hear Him preach the Sermon on the Mount: Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Surely He wasn’t telling them life wasn’t important. Neither was this Christ’s message as He spoke to His apostles in Matt.10:28 saying - And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. One who can only ‘kill the body’ is very limited in that all they can do is ‘take a physical life’. The soul continues and this is the ‘life’ that matters.
A life or death situation is pointed out in Rom. 8:13 as the Spirit had Paul write to the church in Rome. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. Surely he wasn’t addressing physical life or death, as we are all going to die. From the context this is abundantly clear. Verse 12 acknowledges this. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. Then, verse 14 drives the point home. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
To be ‘led by the Spirit of God’ is to be directed by the Word of God. To reject or neglect God’s Word is to die spiritually. Gen. 2:17 provides this as God Commanded the man He placed in the Garden - But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. We know the body of Adam (or Eve) did not cease to function. Life or death was put before them and they chose death. We also know the ‘signs’ Jesus did was to draw folks to life. We read in John 20:31 that the signs were recorded that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name. Of course “believe” here carries with it the idea of obedience.
Rom. 1:17b & Heb. 10:38a both tell us how to live spiritually – the just shall live by faith. And Rom. 10:17 tells us faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Just as Moses of old in Deut. 30:19 set before Israel “life and death” and implored them to choose life, so must we. Our time on earth is truly a “Life or Death Situation” – eternal life which is only “in Christ” – or eternal separation from God, (spiritual death) in everlasting torment. Choose now while you can – Obey the gospel and become a child of God, and then live your life so that you need not eternally die, but live forever with God on high.
Dennis Strickland – Mooresville church of Christ
