Choices, Choices, Choices

This Sunday’s lessons present us three great teachers in the wild: Moses, St. Paul, and our Lord Jesus. And each of them is speaking to their people - and us - about choices, consequences, and righteousness.

In Deuteronomy Moses offers the simplicity of the choice before Israel as they prepare to enter the land God swore to give to Abraham’s descendants - the promised land. If they obey God in the land, they will be blessed; and yet if they disobey God and follow after gods they will be cursed. The choice is simple, Moses says, life or death, blessing or cursing. 

St. Paul, similarly, speaks about choices to a young, gifted, and conflicted church in Corinth. He says that they’re in Christ and thus spiritual, and yet they are making choices that show a loyalty to their flesh. These flesh choices are exhibited by their divisiveness around who their leader is - Paul or Apollos. Paul is quick to point out that he and Apollos are nothing but “only God who gives the growth.”

The last and greatest teacher, Jesus, has something to say about choices and the flesh as well. In his series of sayings that are marked by the formula “you have heard it said / but I say to you,” Jesus illustrates how to have a righteousness that exceeds that of the Pharisees. Dallas Willard, our friendly guide through the Sermon on the Mount, notes that Jesus is explaining what the law really means for human life under God and exactly how his hearers are to respect the law and move beyond the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees (See Divine Conspiracy, 127). 

We’ll unpack these words of life together Sunday! See you then -

Jay+ 

As we behold the face of God in the face of Christ, we are transformed into his image. This is what it means to be fully human—to become like Jesus, the truly human one, and to grow more and more in the freedom of the children of God.