My dear readers,

Are You After Life or Death?

Proverbs 11:19: “As righteousness tendeth to life: so he that pursueth evil pursueth it to his own death.”

When there is life, there is death. Man dies because of sin. If there is no sin, there will be no death. If we get rid of sin, we get rid of death. But there is sin, thus death is the inevitable outcome. Hebrews 9:27: “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.” No man can escape this divine law of God. God enforced this law on our first parent, Adam, in the Garden of Eden, soon after God created him in His own image on Day Six of creation. Genesis 2:15-17: “¹⁵And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. ¹⁶And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: ¹⁷But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Adam ate the forbidden fruit and immediately he died spiritually, and nine hundred and thirty years later he died physically. From henceforth, all babies born of a human father and mother are conceived and born in sin. There is no exception. Therefore, all will surely die. 

Thank God that He did not leave sinful man in this state of hopeless condemnation, which is to live and then die! He promised to send the Lord Jesus Christ to live, suffer and die for the sins of the world and to destroy the devil, the old serpent. Before Christ’s first coming at His incarnation, God granted man His grace and mercy by way of animal sacrifices as sinful man’s sacrifice. All in the Old Testament who believed and offered the animal sacrifices according to the Holy Scriptures by faith in Christ would be saved. All their sins would be forgiven by God, for Christ’s sake. They looked forward by faith to Christ’s first coming and to what Christ would do on the cross of Calvary in the future, whereas saints in the New Testament look back by faith to what Christ did on the cross of Calvary. All must exercise faith to be saved, for without faith it is impossible to please God. The moment salvation is experienced in the believer’s life, he will be imputed with the righteousness of God in Christ. Romans 4:22-25: “²²And therefore it was imputed to him [Abraham] for righteousness. ²³Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; ²⁴But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; ²⁵Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.”

Sinful man need not remain in this state of sin. He can be righteous by believing in Christ. In this age of easy-Believism, all must make sure of their salvation with fear and trembling, for to think one is saved and to find out at death that he is not and has to spend eternity in hell to be tormented and suffer unending pain is too high a price to pay.

Are we righteous or not?

The literal translation of Proverbs 11:19 is, “As righteousness is to life, so is the one who runs after evil to his own death.”

• The way of life – The righteous will always walk the way that leads to eternal life. He does so because he is righteous within. His thinking is right according to the Bible because he is righteous in Christ. God has blessed him with the mind of Christ, enabling him to think and behave like Christ. To behave like Christ is to walk according to Holy Scripture because the Holy Scripture is the Word of God. Behaviour that is according to Holy Scripture is right in God's eyes. Obedience to the Bible is the way of life. All his relationships will be characterised and evaluated based on this newfound God-given righteousness. He cannot help himself, as this is the powerful working of the Holy Spirit who dwells within him forever. He will now desire to be righteous in everything he does. The only source that teaches him this God-given righteousness is the Bible.

The first thing he does to accomplish this is to study the Bible. The Bible takes on new meaning in his life. It has literally become the milk and meat to his thirsty and hungry soul. He drinks and eats it daily. If he ever stops, he knows he is spiritually unwell. His spiritual soul needs constant nourishment so that he might have the strength to keep doing what is right in God's eyes, even when he may have to suffer for his obedience. He knows this reality but will not shun it. The convicting power of the Holy Spirit compels him to willingly, and even count it a privilege to, suffer for Christ’s sake as he shines His light to a world dying in sin. 

The second thing is to be with righteous people, i.e. fellow believers with the same heart, mind and spirit that He has. This is not a man-pleasing phenomenon. To do what is right before man means that he must always do what is right before God. There will be times when doing right before God will offend sinful man, which will help them in their need for the Saviour. They will only know it after salvation. Obeying the Bible is paramount in his new life in Christ. Anything short of this obedience is sin. When this happens, he will repent and ask God for forgiveness with a broken and contrite heart and spirit. He knows that this life of Biblical righteousness will ultimately lead to the everlasting, glorious life even as he is already experiencing the new life in Christ.

• The way of death – The Bible describes the way of death in Proverbs 11:19 as a person who pursues evil. All will sin, including believers who may sometimes do evil things like adultery and even murder, e.g. King David who committed both of these sins. But the evil described in Proverbs 11:19 is not these kinds of evil. When believers commit evil, they will sincerely repent before God in Christ. Whereas for “he that pursueth evil” it will lead to physical and eternal death. He does not just do evil; he runs after it; he catches it and grips it tightly in his hand. In other words, evil characterises his heart, mind and deeds. He begins by desiring evil in his heart. His mind then begins to design and create evil. Once his plan is completed and tested to ensure success, he executes it. The ones he targets will taste the destructive nature of his evil deeds, resulting in lives ruined and relationships destroyed. Ministries will be fractured. Unity will be replaced by disunity. Carnality will grip the hearts of all involved. Worship and prayers will not be heard and will not be pleasing to God. On the surface, everything may appear normal. But all with discernment will know and see the tragic result of the capricious nature of pursuing evil and its impact on those touched by it.

People may not die in the literal sense in today’s context. But in the context of the national witness, people actually died because of the evil done by powerful people like the kings in the days of the monarchy. Those who pursued evil were not limited to kings but to all people. For example, Doeg, an Edomite, reported to King Saul and lied about what the high priest had done to David, whom King Saul wanted dead. Eighty-five priests died at the command of King Saul because of the evil committed by Doeg (cf. 1 Sam 22:1-23). In the context of the church, innumerable relationships between Christian brothers and sisters in Christ have been ruined forever, and some destroyed, because of the evil words and deeds of those who pursue evil. The death of relationships and fellowship hinders God's work and ruins lives, especially when those who are hurt by evil leave the church for unsound, ecumenical churches that will surely destroy their fellowship with God. Those who believe in the gospel shared, which God will not bless, in these ecumenical churches will think they are going to heaven but sadly will remain condemned to hell.

Biblically centred relationships and ministries are critical to every believer’s spiritual health. Can you imagine attending a church fraught with evil people and deeds? The evil they do is targeted toward God, God's Word, the Person of Christ and the holy Name of Christ. These are the evils that are deadly to the spiritual health and soul of people. Believing in the wrong doctrine will harm the believer’s relationship with God. Believing in the wrong Christ will lead a poor sinner into a false salvation till the day he dies and discovers the sad truth that he had been lied to. God will still cast him into hell.

Only unbelievers pursue evil in order to do evil. They will surely die the second death, which is to be cast into the Lake of Fire to be tormented forever for all the evil they have done.

Are you after life or death?