LIFE SCRIPTS

During his heydays, the Colombian criminal and leader of the dreaded Medellin drug cartel, Pablo Escobar, was known to approach his opponents with a simple phrase: Silver or Lead. In Spanish it translated to Plato o Plomo. This phrase had a deep meaning. It communicated no neutrality. If approached, one would either have to accept a cash gift and be silent to the crimes he committed (silver). But if the person seemed uncooperative, then only other option was lead, the bullet. Escobar’s message sent chills through the spines of many law enforcement officers, judges and people of virtue. Any encounter with him had a string attached. Today, he is no more and even though he was killed in 1993, this same phrase he coined is still so real in our age.

In our time, we are not only enticed to do wrong but if we do not accept to do wrong or be accomplices of wrongs committed around us, we stand to lose and lose big. On the other hand if we cooperate, we stand to gain. But this is not a new strategy. The wicked one has used it before.

At the start of His ministry on earth, our Lord, Jesus Christ underwent temptation in the wilderness as recorded in Luke 4:1-13. During His most vulnerable moments, when He was in need of food and was weak in His human body, the adversary, the Devil, attempted to twist ‘His arms’ by tempting Him. The unique thing with each and every dart the Devil threw was that it had a string attached. At first in verse 3, he asked Christ to turn stones into bread if He really claimed to be the Son of God. In verse 6 and 7, he asked Him to worship him and in return would give Him all the kingdoms of the world. Finally in verses 9 and 10, he asked Him to throw Himself from a high point so that the angels of God would protect Him if truly He was the Son of God. But Christ responded to him using the phrase, ‘it is written’. Christ turned to scripture to make it clear where His allegiance was even though the wicked one promised false gain. But as Christ repelled the Devil and his schemes, he still had a plan up his sleeve. His last card was infiltrating the hearts of men to condemn Christ to death on the cross. So in the gospels, we see Christ being condemned to death by men. But this wasn’t just an after-thought. It was a well-planned and calculated move by him to defeat Christ ultimately as prophesied by Prophet Isaiah. Fortunately, he was oblivious that the One he was dealing with had power over life and death. He had such infinite power and authority that He took what the he meant for His destruction and used it to redeem mankind from sin. This is the authority Christ spoke of in Matthew 28: 18- 20. Authority over sin. Authority over death. Authority to make disciples. Authority that cannot be intimidated by repercussions that come with choosing to obey God.

Doing right is always the right thing to do. It is the easiest thing to do when others approve of it. But tables turn when the pressure is upon us to do the wrong thing yet we know the right we should do. Worse still, many times the pressure to conform has a benefit attached to it and doing otherwise attracts dire consequences. Paul sums this up in Romans 7 by the phrase, ‘…what I want to do, I do not do…but what i do, I desire not to do’ He continues to paint a picture of the hopelessness that existed in his life and how he was by his own human nature powerless towards sin. As people of faith, many at times, we put up a façade of completeness and purity. We want to be seen as the ones who do right in the midst of pressure to do wrong all around us. However, the Apostle opens up about his own struggles with sin but delivers a remedy in verse 25… Christ Jesus. Jesus Christ defeated the wicked one. Now He is alive in us. He will lead us to defeat sin in our lives and live right before Him. When all indicators point us towards a life of failure in sin, Christ, who lives in us has already defeated the author of sin. Sin can no longer hold us hostage because we are free in Christ. Free not to live in sin but free to serve Him in righteousness. Free to know that when sin and the sinful state attempts to hold us at ransom, we can find freedom in Christ our Savior.