“God did not make death, nor does God rejoice in the destruction of the living.” These words from the Book of Wisdom are important for us to hear and to appreciate.
There is a common caricature of the Old Testament God as a God of doom and death. In fact, the God of the Old Testament willed life for God’s people and went to amazing lengths to provide them that life. God liberated the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt, led them through the desert, giving them sustenance on their journey, and then gave them land that was to be theirs forever. When the people of God lived in a way that led them away from the life that was God’s desire for them, God sent prophets to call them back to the way that leads to life. The God of the Old Testament was a God who willed only life for God’s people, not death. If the people followed the way of God, they would experience the life that was God’s will for them.
It should not surprise us that the God of the Old Testament was a God who willed life for God’s people. As Christians, we believe that Jesus is the incarnation of this God. Jesus is the perfect expression of God’s desire for the people of God to know life not death. Jesus gave up his life for us so as to destroy the power of sin and death once for all so that all might live in the hope of eternal life. We can participate in the eternal life of God now through our faithfulness to the life and teaching of Jesus Christ. And if we persevere in this faithfulness to the life and teaching of Jesus Christ throughout our lives, then we will receive eternal life with God.
The choice is ours. We can choose the way that leads to life by following the teaching and example of Jesus Christ or we can choose the way that leads to eternal death by rejecting the teaching and example of Jesus Christ. It is our choice. God does not condemn any person. We condemn ourselves. With the grace of God, the love of Jesus Christ, and the inspiration of the Spirit, we can choose the path that leads to life. May all of us choose that way in the daily decisions of our lives so that we might enjoy God’s life now and forever.