See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you today, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God shall bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it.

Deuteronomy 30:15-16  (ESV)

God gave Israel simple instructions: Obey me and do everything I have commanded and in return, I will bless you. Love me and demonstrate your love through obedience and you will have life and will multiply. These instructions to God’s chosen people required them to make a choice. It was a choice between a positive outcome and a negative consequence. Life or death. Nothing for the Israelites to misinterpret or misunderstand.

God gave Israel a promise of blessing as well as a warning. We know from history, they failed to obey God. But God in his infinite wisdom knew what they would choose and provided a plan. That plan was salvation for not only Israel but for all the world. That plan is given to us in God’s Word. It is called the gospel. It is simple and easy to understand. 

All of us are unable to obey God’s commandments. The consequence is the same for us as it was when God first gave it to Israel. Death is what we deserve. But God has provided life for everyone who will by faith accept the gospel.  God sent His eternal Son Jesus to become a man born of a virgin without sin. Jesus came to earth to take the sin of all mankind upon Himself and the consequence of sin, death. Jesus died for all so that all can have eternal life. 

God gives everyone a choice. Believe by faith in Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection for the forgiveness of sin as the only way to God or choose another way.  We can demonstrate our love for God by obedience to His Word and receiving life. “Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life” 1 John 5:12.

This week, if you have never placed your faith in Christ, consider everything that he has done by sending his son to die for us.