A Simple Choice

Imagine I’m holding two briefcases, and I’ve told you that you must pick one— A or B. One contains a million dollars, while the other contains a bill for a million dollars. You have until the timer runs out to make a choice. If you choose the right case, you get to keep the money. If you fail to pick the right case, you are stuck with a bill for a million dollars, and if the timer runs out before you choose, then I’ll assume you chose the case with the bill to be paid. You cannot opt-out and must play the game. However, there is some good news. I’ve explicitly told you that the million dollars is inside case B.

The choice seems easy. You’re all set to open case B and take your million dollars, but suddenly, the crowd and your friends and family begin screaming, telling you I'm lying and to pick case A. I keep reassuring you that case B has the money, even begging you to pick it, but you can barely hear me over the screaming crowd in your ear. They insist that I’m lying and try to convince you that the game is rigged. After a long while, you finally pick case A, only to find that I was telling you the truth. Case B had the prize money. Unfortunately, now, it's too late. Now you must pay the price for your choice. There is no going back.

In some ways, this is how the Gospel and the world are. We have a choice, and the Bible tells us exactly which choice to make, but our friends and the world around us have other ideas. They tell us not to trust or believe the truth. They insist that the game isn’t fair and there isn’t a right choice. Often, they are so loud we can’t hear the person holding the cases, begging us to pick the right one. And so, it leads countless people to make the wrong choice or, worse yet, to wait until the timer runs out without choosing. When the timer runs out, the choice is made for us by default. The price is now ours to pay.

Before the game ever started, we already owed a million dollars. We already owed a debt. By choosing the right case, we are offered not only to have that debt forgiven but to be given a million dollars more than what we owed. The person offering us that choice is Jesus. The choice is salvation, and the reward is life. The right choice will give us a reward far greater than money, and the wrong choice costs far more than we can ever pay.

The screaming crowd is right about one thing, though. The game isn’t fair. The rules are built to our advantage. With the Gospel, we get an extra little cheat. We are allowed to pick the wrong case, and so long as the timer hasn’t run out, we can still exchange it for the right one. Until the day our hearts stop beating, there’s time to make the right choice. Jesus made us choose, but He’s telling us which choice to make.

The game is rigged, but it’s rigged in our favor. The game is so easy that we almost can’t lose, yet so many of us do. With the screaming cries of the crowd around us, how do we shout louder to help our friends and family make the right choice? Often, the actions we choose are louder than the words we speak. Perhaps one of the best ways to encourage those we love to choose the right case is by how we live. It's a difficult task, but it’s never impossible. We won’t be able to convince everyone, but we can convince some.

Our debt has been paid; we are alive in Jesus and free from the burden of sin. How, then, should we live?

We may go to church on Sunday, wear a cross around our neck, and read our Bible, but if our lives are indistinguishable from those who do not believe, then who are we really? We have been born again in the life of the Holy Spirit, so we are no longer who we were. Who we were is a distant memory, a shadow in the light of our new life. Everything is different for us and what we want and hope for is different. We read our Bibles, pray, and allow the Holy Spirit to guide us down the path of holiness. Our task is to change the world around us by being better people. By following the path of holiness, we increase the dividends our choice has awarded us.

Let’s live like people who have been saved.

There are countless self-help books and other spiritual guidance, but none offer what we gain through the salvation of Jesus Christ. They cannot teach us what we learn in our walk toward holiness, guided by the Holy Spirit. Once we accept salvation through Jesus, our trees are planted in the garden of life, in the orchard of salvation. The fruits a tree produces tell us what kind of tree it is. If love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, and self-control are not ever-growing in our lives then where has our tree been planted? By our fruits, we are known. If we are people who have been saved, then the fruits of the Holy Spirit should be what we produce.

Preach to them with your actions. Feed them with the fruits of the garden you’ve produced.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.- Galatians 5:22-25