Christian Living

The New Year: A Time to Choose Between Life and Death

by J.W. Phillips
01/02/25
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The New Year: A Time to Choose Between Life and Death

For us, the old year has just passed. For Moses, his entire life had just passed.

But before going the way of all the earth, Moses gathered his people to share these farewell words, the conclusion of which will now claim our attention.

In Deuteronomy, chapter 30, Moses set life and death before his people and urges them to choose life.

Do not these words surprise you? Why would there be any need to persuade people to choose life? Wouldn’t that choice be obvious? Why conference? Why deliberate?

Moses had experienced a rich and varied life—from the bulrushes of the Nile, to the backside of a dessert, to the top of a mountain. On the worldly side, he knew the privileges of the palace; on the spiritual side, he knew the power of God’s presence and the wonder of his ways.

So these weighty words of a dying leader do commend our respect.

I wonder if you ever saw the television show “Let’s Make a Deal”? At the end of the show, winning contestants would stand before three doors. Behind one door would be a Cadillac, behind another a donkey, behind a third door, say, a washing machine. Without any clues, the contestants had to guess which door to open.

But what if you had to stand before two doors—and both doors were open! Would that choice leave you confused? It would not. The choice would be easy.

Well, then, isn’t the choice between life and death just as easy? Apparently not. There are many who choose death, and you may be among them.

But why would anybody do that? Do they realize they are doing that?

Often, they don’t.

Death doesn’t only come by a bullet, a pill, or a rope; sometimes it’s more gradual than that and therefore not easily discerned.

To make this life-and-death-decision clearer, sooner, let’s draw upon the knowledge many people already have. Have you ever observed an intensive care room occupied by one who is dying? Perhaps there are some parallels that can be made between physical dying and spiritual dying.

One contrasting criterion between death and life is between isolation and fellowship. The one lying in that bed in intensive care is alone. The circumstances may be so dire there can be no company. The laughing, the talking, the sharing has been reduced to hushed whispers, cheerless furniture, agenda-less time, visitors signing a card and soon departing.

When examining your life, is there loneliness there? Are you sharing your inner life in any meaningful way that gets beyond chit-chat and surface opinions? Do you come to church alone, and leave alone? Does anyone know you better this year than they did last year?

This could be an indication that you’re choosing death.

A second life and death contrast, easily distinguishable, is between existence and life.

If you peek into the room of a dying patient, you’ll see a man who is just occupying space, barely able to breathe or to do anything for himself. The nurse will wash him, shave him, medicate him, moisten his lips.

He receives, he doesn’t give.

There are people who live like that. They are more of a taker than a giver. They consume much and bless little. They seem not to have any new aspirations for life, any meaningful goals. The trajectory of their life is more toward hum-drum existence than toward vitalizing visions that add adventure to life.

A third contrast we notice about the one dying versus the one full of life is that the one dying is dependent upon substitutes. He’s hooked up to bottles. Synthetics sustain him. He isn’t able to enjoy a meal.

Those who choose the artificial and not that authentic are likewise turning toward death. There are many ways this can happen.

• One can be busy, busy, busy like Martha but have no time for Jesus.

● One can be a perfectionist like the Pharisees and have no need for Jesus.

• One can choose a path toward Sodom like Lot did and be vexed every day like Lot was.

• One can choose riches like the young ruler did and say farewell to Jesus like that young man did.

That which is artificial, that which masks, may even be respectable among church folks. For example:

• becoming proficient in studying the Word of God without really knowing the God of the Word;

• or getting juiced and jazzed seeking an emotional “high” in worship, and not seeking the Most High;

• or scurrying here and there in a “do-goodism” people admire but God doesn’t;

• or “hobbying” our days away fishing, crafting, golfing, gardening, touring, and traveling.

If what sustains us is more artificial than authentic, then we are among those who have chosen a path toward death.

A fourth sign that death, more than life, is at work can be seen with the loss of function. At the onset of a disease, one may function fairly well. But not too long afterwards, the skin yellows, the stomach bloats, there’s a loss of appetite, mobility, consciousness or perhaps sinking into a deep coma. In life, the comparable symptoms might be:

• You started to backslide.

• Worship became something you attended, not experienced.

• Eyes and ears became dim and dull to the things of God.

• Your concern for others shriveled and shrank.

• You no longer have a present-tense testimony.

If you’re chug-chug-chugging along on two cylinders instead of six, you may soon reach a dead end.

The opposite of this outcome is found in the Cana miracle where the wine at the end was deemed better that the wine in the beginning (John 2:10).

Paul speaks of our relationship with God going from “glory to glory” (II Corinthians 3:18). Is this your experience–your relationship with God is getting better and better?

A fifth distinction between the forces that generate death from the forces that generate life is one’s answer to this one question: “Is this where you want to be?”

The dying patient would say, “No, I want to get better, I want to go home, I want to be with my family and friends. I want to experience life like I once did.”

Instead of flatlining joy until every beep is silent, sag and sigh no more. Think! What is your current answer to this question?

Do you want to be isolated… merely existing… sustained by substitutes… your capacity for life lessening… your dissatisfaction with life growing?

The words of Moses don’t seem so silly now, do they? When considered more fully, its message takes on added meaning.

The decision to die doesn’t only mean a fast exit from life and then a funeral.

More often, this decision is more gradual than final, more ongoing than sudden, more incremental than impulsive.

Yet its effect is evident, not hidden; knowable, not a mystery; reversible, not unalterable, temporary, not permanent.

Life and death are before you. As you examine the trajectory of your life, what choice have you been making?

And do you want to keep making it?