Your vote counts

Sheila Relihan

What a politicised time the past year or so has been! Rallying to the catchcry of "a time for change," voters in Australia, the United States and New Zealand voted out their  long-standing party-led governments in favour of the respective oppositions. New brooms have been commissioned to sweep away the cobwebs of previous bureaucracies and overturn unpopular legislation.

Although it is not our intention to rake over the ashes of party politics, for good or ill, these events have absorbed our nations' attention for much of this period. It would even be fair to say that together with the worldwide financial situation, political elections-both in the South Pacific and abroad-successfully outstripped celebrity gossip and global warming as the hottest topics for comment in every branch of the media.

Each citizen was aware that the political future of our nations rested in the hands of those entering polling booths. But we should not forget that the right to vote is a privilege enjoyed only in those countries that operate according to democratic principles. With multiple parties to choose from, we are somewhat "spoiled for choice," whereas citizens living in totalitarian states or under other forms of despotism are afforded no such opportunity to express their preferences. Within this past year, many such people paid with their lives in pursuit of the right to do so.

However important it is for us to make informed decisions regarding which political party most deserves our vote-or even whether to vote at all-there is one election in which we are all required to "vote." It involves issues far more relevant, and more encompassing, than those in any local or foreign electoral process. It is, in fact, the greatest, most important election ever!

This election has to do with the decisions we make in the spiritual realm. Intriguingly, some aspects of the race for political power with which we have become familiar are, to some extent, paralleled in the spiritual arena.

Challenging God's authority

Most of us are familiar with the biblical record of Creation, the fall of humanity and the great controversy between Christ and Satan-at least, in broad outline. It is incomprehensible to the human mind that an angelic being so greatly blessed, so highly favoured as was Lucifer, could so intensely lust after power that he would seek to challenge the authority of omnipotent God. But the astonishing reality is that this is indeed what occurred-and sin had its origin in heaven, no less.

With an arrogance born of inordinate pride in the gifts with which God had so richly endowed him, Lucifer conducted a rebellious campaign for the hearts and minds of the angels-and successfully recruited one-third of them. On his expulsion from heaven, Lucifer-now known as Satan-set his sights on the Edenic pair on the newly created Planet Earth.

As the acme of God's creative activity, He made human beings, bestowing on them the supreme compliment of being formed in His own image, and accompanied this with a further gift: the power of choice. How it must have grieved the Creator's heart when, with the deception of Eve and complicity of Adam, Satan succeeded in introducing sin into this world-and with it, the prospect of eternal destruction, the price of their choice, for "the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23*).

Since then, every person born has been inextricably caught up in the resulting cosmic controversy. There are only two protagonists: Christ and Satan. And, one way or another, every individual is called upon to cast their "vote" in favour of one or the other.

And the issues at stake are what is right or wrong, truth or error, good versus evil, eternal life or eternal destruction. We have the opportunity-indeed, privilege-of choosing eternal life. It's all about making choices.

But God had a choice to make, too. He could have resolved the problem quickly by simply wiping out the rebels, whether angelic or human, or dealt with the problem of sin in some other peremptory manner. But such would not have been in harmony with God's character, for the basis of God's authority within the universe is love, as God Himself is love.

A God of love

At Sinai, God honoured His chosen people- the Israelites-by making a covenant with them, identifying Himself as "the Lord, your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the land of slavery . . . showing love to a thousand [generations] of those who love me and keep my commandments" (Exodus 20:2, 6), and revealed Himself to Moses as "the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin" (Exodus 34:6, 7).

In Isaiah 56, the Lord includes among those to whom He will reveal His righteousness those who hold fast to His covenant, keep the Sabbath without desecrating it, keep their hands from doing evil and choose what pleases Him.

Toward the end of his life, after leading his people into the Promised Land, Joshua presented them with this challenge: "Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord" (Joshua 24:15).

Over thousands of years, both before and after the Israelites entered the Promised Land, the battle has raged relentlessly between the forces of good and the forces of evil. All too often, accommodation to the lifestyles and practices of the surrounding idol-worshipping nations lured God's people into idolatry and lawlessness until no perceptible difference remained. This threat is very present in today's world as well-and we all need to be aware of this everpresent danger.

Time and again a loving, yearning God sent prophets to draw His people back to the right paths, to pure, unadulterated worship. On rare occasions, the people heeded their message. All too often, however, they did not, and persecuted or put to death those who bore the Lord's message. Hear the pathos as God pleads through the prophet Ezekiel: "As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, O house of Israel? . . . And if I say to the wicked man, ‘You will surely die,' but he then turns away from his sin and does what is just and right . . . he will surely live; he will not die" (Ezekiel 33:11-15).

By contrast, only a satanic spirit could generate the defiant response of apostate Israel to God's message through Jeremiah: "We will do whatever we want. We will burn incense and pour out liquid offerings to the Queen of Heaven just as much as we like" (Jeremiah 44:17, NLT).

God's great plan

But way back in the Garden of Eden, faced with our first parents' wrong choice, God produced a plan-the first and most important long-term plan on record-that Peter tells us was in place "before the creation of the world" (1 Peter 1:20) and in the first recorded promise, God assured the repentant couple that He Himself would "put enmity" between the serpent (Satan) and the woman, and between his offspring and hers (see Genesis 3:15).

Thus God accepted the challenge posed by Satan, turning an otherwise hopeless situation into one of hope for fallen humanity: "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16).

Furthermore, the next verse resoundingly tells us: "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him" (John 3:17). This concept is reinforced in John 5:24: "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him that sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life."

This plan reached fruition at the cross of Calvary where, in an unprecedented act of magnanimity, Jesus identified Himself with our lot to the fullest extent. By undertaking to pay the wages of sin for us, He Himself faced the spectre of eternal destruction in our stead. In fact, the prospect of eternal separation from His Father was so appalling to Him that, in the Garden of Gethsemane, He pleaded three times, "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me: yet not my will, but yours be done" (Luke 22:42).

During the wilderness temptation, Jesus was offered all the kingdoms of the world and everything His eyes beheld-if only He would fall down and worship Satan. His response was "Worship the Lord your God and serve him only" (Luke 4:8). For your sake and mine, Jesus chose to walk the path of ignominy and shame, rather than accept the "easy way" Satan offered Him. And as such, He is "the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God" (Hebrews 12:2).

By going through with that terrible humiliation and suffering-in dying our death-Jesus secured not only our eternal salvation but also our elevation to the closest kinship with God. Recognising this, we can say with John, "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called the children of God! And that is what we are!"
(1 John 3:1).

The cosmic voting

As a result of this, God placed His vote for Jesus. "Therefore," says Paul, "God exalted Him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Philippians 2:9-11).

And God invites us to "vote" in the same way. When we sing hymns like "I'd Rather Have Jesus than Silver or Gold" or "Take the World, but Give me Jesus," we effectively place a large voter's mark beside His name on the cosmic voting paper. Not without reason, the apostle Peter exhorts us to "be all the more eager to make our [own] calling and election sure" (2 Peter 1:10). Let us therefore confirm our "vote" for Jesus by making a joyous and willing commitment to serve Him to the end. As Peter continues, "if you do these things, you will never fall, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 1:10, 11).

*Unless otherwise indicated, all Bible quotations are from the New International Version.

This has been a feature from Record, January 24, 2009