“…I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore, choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.” Deuteronomy 30:19
In the economy of God, there is nothing but perfection, because God is perfect. His kingdom, and everything that pertains to Him and that kingdom, is perfect. This is why the Lord Jesus never gives a command that is not perfect, calling even upon the sinner to be perfect, as His Heavenly Father is perfect. We see this perfection also revealed in a very distinct manner when the Lord speaks of choosing life or death. When Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden, this same choice was put before them. The choice remains the same throughout the history of the world to this day, and has never changed in its importance, nor in the consequences of the choice, whether of life and blessing, or death and the curse. That which is most assuring and encouraging is to realize that God has made every provision in Christ so that, not only can we choose the path of life, Christ’s life, that which is eternal, but also, we can turn aside from that which pertains to death and the curse. In Mrs. Cousin’s great hymn, “O Christ, What Burdens Bowed Thy Head,” she writes: “Death, and the curse were in our cup, O Christ, ’twas full for Thee! But Thou hast drained the last dark drop, ‘Tis empty now for me. That bitter cup, love drank it up: Now blessings’ draught for me.” What is she saying? God has provided the perfect sacrifice in the giving of His Son, that we might know the perfection of His blessed life, “…on earth as it is in heaven.” The Lord Jesus spoke again and again of the fact that He came to give LIFE, and that more abundantly. The message of the Gospel of Christ is one of Life, and deliverance from death. The Apostle Paul put it so clearly when he was writing to the Roman believers: “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (6:23) He goes on to write later in this letter, “He that spared not His own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall He not with Him freely give us all things?” (8:32) Throughout the epistles of Paul, we find him writing of Christ’s perfect work, and its application to the imperfect sinner. He also speaks of God’s way by which that perfection of Christ is given to the sinner, so that he will be accepted before the Holy God, and know the peace of God, where once the wrath of God was upon him. He writes of the believer being given the conviction of sin by the Spirit, the grace to repent and to believe, and the power to be born again of the Spirit, being placed into Jesus Christ. That moment from Jesus, a complete pardon was received. This Life of which Jesus spoke was that which God had willed and intended that all men know, freely given, to be received by faith. The new creation, or new creature, even the “new man” in Christ came about by the intervention of God, the believer being made complete in Christ, sealed eternally with and by the Spirit of God, hidden forever in the Divine Life, with the life and power of the Spirit within. Christ came to dwell in the heart by faith. Not only did heaven become the home of the believer, but Christ came to dwell in the heart of the believer on earth, in all His fulness and perfection. Thus, it is well said, that as the Spirit of Christ moves and works in the heart and mind of the believer, revealing the beauty of the Lord, and the righteousness of God, “Every virtue that I possess, and every victory won; every thought of holiness, is His (Christ’s), and His alone.” Nothing is impossible to Him, and nothing in the will of God is impossible to the believer.
Dear Father, Give us grace to see ourselves in Christ, deriving all from Him by the attitude of faith. In Jesus’ name, Amen.