Proverbs 12:28 Life, indomitable life!
In the way of righteousness is life, and in its pathway there is no death. Proverbs 12:28 NASB
Life is powerful. Indomitable. It is creative, full, and expressive. Life is not simply the absence of death, rather, living the intent and purpose for which I exist. Being fully alive. A light that is never extinguished. Our adversary strives to sabotage my expression and establish a kingdom of death on the earth and in me. From the ridicule he dishes to the resulting introspection and isolation I apply — I often will feel safe shutting down and hunkering within my own self. Yet when the power of the Holy Spirit infuses my person and I’m fully alive, I’m looking at and reflecting the life of my God. What laughter! Glorious beauty! He becomes a fountain flowing out of me. The protective lid I put on the well flies off.
Death has no part in this pathway. It has no real threat against the child of God. I love the nuggets of truth and life Solomon plants throughout his proverbs. Righteousness equals life. As well-behaved, good intentioned, and well-bred I may be it will never be enough to buy life, eternal life. The way of righteousness travels through Jesus. He has become the righteousness of God and the one door through which I must pass to receive the life of which Solomon speaks. Jesus invites us to share in his righteousness in a very simple way: by believing in him and his incredible declarations.
Paul wrote that when Abraham believed God he received the righteousness of which Solomon speaks:
Yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform. Therefore IT WAS ALSO CREDITED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS. Now not for his sake only was it written that it was credited to him, but for our sake also, to whom it will be credited, as those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, He who was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification.
Romans 4:20-25 NASB
The righteousness with which God clothes me in Christ is the platform from which I live and plan my life. It is a starting point. The life God gives me is full and free.
He came to give us life, and life abundantly.
John 10:10
Solomon says: “there is no death.” Rotherham translates this, “And in the path thereof, immortality.” “No death” is the literal Hebrew, and conjures the picture of being on a trail and not tripping over a boulder in the path, or being stopped by a mountain in my way. My path is defined and on it nothing can impede. Yet Immortality is an incredible term — and it was our birthright. In the present experience on earth, we still face death. Our bodies have an expiration date. One day this will not be the case. In the future, one may read these words and say, “Oh yeah, there was a time when all flesh died…” Even Jesus recognized the short term nod we must give to the Angel of death and proclaimed in John 6, “I will raise him up on the last day.” The ultimate outcome is still life. Life wins. There is a resurrection.
I am the way, the truth, and the life.
John 14:6
Jesus said to her [Martha], “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?
John 11:25-26 NASB