What does it mean to choose life (Deuteronomy 30:19)?

Further, Moses declared that he called heaven and earth as witnesses that he had faithfully set before Israel these two choices, either life or death, blessing or cursing (v.19). He does not say, "Choose that you please," but rather, "Choose life." God did not want them to ruin themselves, but to have an existence of pure blessing. If they refused His overtures of kind concern for them, this was only their own folly.

Similarly, when believers preach the gospel to the unsaved, we must make it clear that in receiving the Lord Jesus as Savior, there is great blessing for them, and in refusing Him there is eternal remorse; but we are not wise to tell them to choose whichever they please. Rather, we should urge them affectionately to make a firm decision to receive the Lord Jesus and be saved.

The measure of God's revelation to them was clear and plain, brought down to their level. It was very near to them, in their mouth and in their heart. The word of God was so clear that their mouths should have clearly confessed it and their hearts should have fully embraced it, so that they might act upon it (v.14). This verse is quoted in Romans 10:8, but applying, not to law, but to the gospel of the grace of God, a far more complete revelation from God than Israel was given. In this case the mouth is brought to confess Jesus Christ as Lord, and the heart is affected to believe that God has raised Him from the dead (Rom.10:9). Thus, the present revelation of God in Christ is a wonderful advance upon the truth contained in the law, and has relevance to every area of our lives.

Moses, speaking for God, sets before Israel only two distinct alternatives, on the one hand "life and good," and on the other hand "death and evil" (v.15). This was clear and plain. There could be no other alternative. The fact is seen in verse 16: if Israel walked in God's ways to keep His commandments, statutes and judgments, they would live and multiply and be greatly blessed in the land.

They were to hearken and to do. Hearing and doing stand in the foreground of this section. The result of obedience is life and possession of the land. "That ye may live" does not mean the possession of eternal life, but a long earthly life in the promised land. See chapters 5:33; 6:2; 8:1; 11:21; 16:20; 25:15; 30:6, 16; 32:47. Nothing was to be added to the law and nothing to be taken from it. Alas! this warning has not been heeded. The elders with their traditions and commandments of men, added to the law and put the word of man above the Word of God, while later the Sadducees took away from the law and reduced the Word of God to the level of the word of man. The same is done today in ritualistic and rationalistic Christendom.

In a later day God gave His rebellious people the choice of "life and good, and death and evil" (Deut. 30:15). I do not suppose that their choice in any way affected their allotted span of years, but it did affect their position Godward.

182 But here the special point is, He is the end of law. It is done with for righteousness: Christ takes its place. The law knows nothing but the person who is under it fulfilling it. It says, he that doeth these things shall live in them; and this is most righteous. The righteousness which is by faith speaks wholly differently. It is, "If thou confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved"; for the real question is the salvation of the sinner, not the keeping of law to live. The allusion is to Deuteronomy 30, where the question of responsibility was closed as to keeping the law; and, the people being in captivity for their sins, the keeping of it to live was wholly over, they being cast out for not doing so.

Deut. 28 then gives, first, the blessings in every department of life for obedience (vers. 1-14, and at far greater length the dreadful curses which shall come upon disobedience (vers. 15-68).

The whole of this portion closes with a recapitulation in which again the dreadful curses are pronounced upon them, and yet provision is made for their restoration (Deut. 30). It is from this portion that the apostle adapts those words, so often referred to, in Rom. 10, "The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart." The commandment was near to Israel, but righteousness could never be by the law. Thank God, the gospel is nearer still, with its message of assured grace: "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thy heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." Thus, at the close of this reiteration of the law, blessings and curses are laid before the people, and they are exhorted to choose life and blessing rather than death and cursing.

It was to Israel that the words, so often quoted to prove that life or death is at our own choice, were spoken: "See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; in that I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, and His statutes, and His judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply," etc. Deut. 30:15-16). Again, "I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live" (v. 19).

Was it, then, that any were saved by thus choosing life that they might live? This would be to affirm that life could come by keeping the law; and Paul says plainly, "If there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law" (Gal. 3:21). But then he also says, "If righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain" (Gal. 2:21). This would indeed be a terrible conclusion to come to. And if you should enquire, as some did in the apostle's days, "Wherefore then the law?" let the apostle answer: "It was added, because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made" (Gal. 3:19). And if you should still say, Why added because of transgressions? take for answer the same apostle's words in another place, "For by law is the knowledge of sin" (Rom. 3:20). And again, "Moreover, the law entered that the offence might abound" (Rom. 5:20). And again, "I had not known sin, but by the law" (Rom. 7:7). And again, "But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful" (ver. 13). Yet once more, "The law works wrath" (Rom. 4:15). Now, it seems to me a serious thing, in the face of all these inspired declarations of what ends the law was designed to answer, to affirm that any were saved by "choosing life" according to the tenor of the words of Moses, which have been quoted. Life was then offered them on condition of obedience to the law; and the Holy Ghost solemnly assures us, that "By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified" (Rom. 3:20; Gal. 2:16, 21; Gal. 3:11); that is, in other words, they could not have life on the terms proposed by Moses.

But, again, some may feel disposed to say, "Can any unconverted person do good?" We reply, this question is not raised, in the scripture just quoted. Every one taught of God knows, and feels and owns, that not one atom of "good" has ever been done in this world but by the grace of God; that man left to himself will do evil only, evil continually. "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights." All this is most blessedly true, and thankfully owned by every pious soul; but it leaves wholly untouched the fact set forth in Deuteronomy 30 and confirmed by Romans 2 that life and good, death and evil are bound together by an inseparable link. May we never forget it! May it ever abide in the remembrance of the thoughts of our hearts!

"See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; in that I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgements, that thou mayest live and multiply; and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it. But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them; I denounce to you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it. I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live; that thou mayest love the Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave to Him;" — the all important, essential thing, for each, for all, the very spring and power of all true religion, in every age, in every place — "for he is thy life, and the length of thy days" — How close! How vital! How real! How very precious! — "that thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord sware to thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them." (Vers. 15-20.)

Can anything be more solemn or decisive than these last words? God declared to Moses, that instead of choosing life that they might live, the people would turn to other gods, provoke Him, and break His covenant; and He speaks of these future acts of evil, as only the display of what He knew to be at the then present time working in their hearts. "I know their imagination" etc. Hence, Moses said to them, "Take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God." Why? That they might choose life, and live by keeping it? Nay, but "That it may be there for a witness against thee." "For I know thy rebellion," he proceeds, "and thy stiff neck; behold, whilst I am yet alive with you this day, you have been rebellious against the Lord; and how much more after my death" (ver. 26, 27)? "For I know," says he again to them, "that after my death you will utterly corrupt yourselves, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you; and evil will befall you in the latter days; because you will do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger through the work of your hands" (ver. 29). Surely we need no further answer to those who use Moses' words to prove that salvation depends on human will. If it did, who could be saved?

Two passages would of themselves be sufficient to settle our souls as to the subject before us, if we really read them with unquestioning simplicity of faith — "Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (John 1:13); and "Of His own will begat He us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures" (James 1:18). In the former of these, the new birth is expressly declared to be, "not of blood," or natural descent; "not of the will of the flesh," or the natural will or choice of the person who is born again; "nor of the will of man," any agency which other men may choose, or will, or pretend to exercise upon him. In both passages, it is expressly declared to be "of the will of God." Here I might leave this subject; but, knowing how the thought haunts the minds of those who have had the kind of training both you and I had — "Well, but are not life and death set before us in Scripture? And are we not called on to choose life that we may live?" — I would not thus summarily dismiss the inquiry. There are passages such as these in the Old Testament; and there are some of a somewhat similar character in the New; and every word of God is sacred, and true acquaintance with its meaning important. But it does now appear to me, that they who use such passages as those just referred to, to show that the new birth is dependent upon an act of the human will, in the reception of Christ, or of the gospel that sets Him forth, have entirely mistaken the scope and meaning of those passages, and betray their ignorance of the scope and design of a great part of the Word of God.