After a one-week interruption, I’m back to the topic I introduced a couple of articles ago. One of the most basic temptations in Satan’s arsenal is to lure us into thinking we can have the best of both worlds. We can strive to acquire and achieve and obtain what this world advertises as most important while, at the same time, thriving spiritually and treasuring what God says is most important. It’s the both/and approach to faith.

We can have both this and that. By far, though, the vast majority of decisions in the Bible and those placed before us in our faith walk are an either/or crossroads. Can’t have both. We must choose.

Boy, it would be nice if I could somehow manage to hang on to both, right? This was one of the human weaknesses Satan counted on when he pushed sin into the world. It wasn’t the only thing he appealed to, but it was there.

God revealed a trait of faith when He gave first instructions to Adam:

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:15-17)

Crystal clear. Definitely an either/or scenario: “Adam, you either follow My will and eat of what I’ve provided…or you ignore My words and eat what I’ve forbidden. The choice is yours. The outcome? Life or death.” We do not even get past two chapters in our Bibles before the reality of choice becomes a part of the narrative. And to be clear, the presence of human choice never goes away, right to the end.

Verse 15 of Revelation 22, the last chapter in the Bible, reminds the reader that people who have chosen to go the way of the world will not receive all those magnificent and stunning blessings described in the book of Revelation.

Everyone from murderers to idolaters to sorcerers and the sexually immoral are outside the eternal city. Those who speak untruth are outside the City’s walls. They cannot enter the city by its gates. (Revelation 22:14-15) They made their choice. They hoped to enter. But they also wouldn’t or couldn’t let go of the enticements and attractions of the world. The world offers what doesn’t last. If the only thing a person has on his or her personal resumé when seeking entrance into God’s City is a list of what can’t last, then they have laid bare their philosophy of faith. They hoped to cling to the world while reaching for heaven.

Now, back to Adam and Eve. God told Adam, in just about as clear a statement as we’ll find in the Bible (“Don’t do that or you will die!”), that he had to make a choice. One or the other. Either/Or. Not Both/And. But then along comes Satan and, with that slick talking serpent’s tongue, presents the falsehood that will trip up mankind for all history: “Oh, don’t listen to God. You won’t die. Instead, you’ll be like God!” (Genesis 3:1-5) He basically convinced them they could enjoy all the pleasures of the Garden of Eden AND still eat of that one forbidden fruit. When they chose to listen to him, they chose death.

From then on, the battle rages: God vs. Satan, Light vs. Dark, Good vs. Evil, Righteousness vs. Sin, Life vs. Death. Now, we know God will win this struggle. In fact, through Jesus, the victory is assured. But we must step into that victory on His terms, not ours. When we begin to rationalize a both/and type of faith, we, in essence, begin to negotiate with God. As we read in Malachi two weeks ago in the previous article, God challenged them to test Him and see what the possibilities were when they chose Him. But, in the same book He warned them not to test Him. That’s what we do when we think His righteousness is a bargaining chip that we can assign a specific value to.

There’s more to come.