Someone once asked, “How many times can you subtract 100 from 800?” Before you try an answer, let me warn you that the question was asked in a book of riddles. Makes all the difference, doesn’t it? You see, 100 can be subtracted from 800 only once. For as soon as you subtract 100 from 800, 800 ceases to be 800. Riddles are fun and at times very eye opening. Riddles usually catch us in our normal pattern of thinking which generally does not entail thinking things through. For instance, what is always coming but never arrives? –Tomorrow! I’m not very good with riddles. I guess I think too much “within the box.” But, since I’ve become a Christian, I try to think things through a little more often. One such thought is the choice that Moses put to the children of Israel:
“This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to His voice, and hold fast to Him. For the Lord is your life…” Deut. 32:19,20
Don’t you think it is a little odd that Moses said that he was giving them the choice of life and death on that very day? Certainly he wasn’t implying that he was going to put all those who would not choose life to the sword. And who in their right mind wouldn’t choose life over death? Either Moses was being awful silly or he meant something more than any superficial reading could discover. First, I would like to share what the Apostle John had to say about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He believed that Jesus came to give us understanding, so that we may know God –who is true. And we who are believers are in Him who is true –even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and Eternal Life. John tells us in another place that whoever has the Son has life, and again, that Jesus Christ came to give us life and that, to the full. And finally, he said that in Jesus was life and that life was the light of men. Now if I’m hearing this correctly, I do believe that God is trying to tell the world that if you are here without God in your life, then you are not really living at all. Sure, you see yourself walking around breathing and talking and doing all those things we associate with living, but if God is not in you –you’re dead. In keeping with our first riddle: if you take God out of your life you are not living, because when you subtract God from life, life ceases to be life. There is no neutral ground here on earth, either we are dead or alive. This is why we should be the most thankful people here on earth. For God, who is rich in mercy, has made us alive in Christ when we were dead in our sins. You see, some folks think that just going to church, or being nice, or things like that will constitute a good life. But the Bible says that if Jesus isn’t living in your heart, then you don’t have life.
“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.” John 3:36