Many people get bent out of shape when confronted with a binary choice.  Surely there must be more than just two options; surely we can find a whole spectrum of possibilities to consider!

Well, it depends.  Baskin-Robbins offers 31 flavors of ice cream (imagine if they only had two!), and our digital age provides seemingly endless options of sources and voices to choose from.  But still, there are certain kinds of decisions, including ultimate concerns, that do boil down to two possibilities.

I appreciate the gospel summary from Matthais Media entitled, “Two Ways to Live” (twowaystolive.com).  Even if it appears that people the world over live a thousand different ways, when it comes to the most important issues there really are just two ways.

In the process of spelling out those two ways, six key points are made about:  1) God, the good Ruler and Creator; 2) our rebellion against God; 3) God’s justice; 4) God sent Jesus to die for us; 5) Jesus, the risen Ruler and Savior; 6) two ways to live—namely, our way or the Lord’s new way; or to put it differently, continuing in rebellion against God, or turning to God for forgiveness by trusting in Jesus.  (Take some time and visit twowaystolive.com.)

Listen to binary Jesus in Matthew 7:13-14:  “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.  For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”  Two gates—not three, or 3,000, just two.

The current sermon series on salvation also confronts us with this same polarity:  we are born again in Christ, or we are not; we have been justified by faith in Christ, or we have not; etc.  I don’t mean to minimize the process of deciding for or against Jesus; many people deliberate at length between a life of faith in Jesus or a life in which we are in charge.  But at the end of the day, we have to turn one way or the other.  

So which path are you taking?