Choices Have Consequences is a plain way of saying what Scripture says about sowing and reaping.
God sets life and death before a people and tells them to choose.
Grace does not make choices weightless. It makes new choices possible.
A man reaps what he sows, and Christ still receives the sinner who turns.
Everything you do
and everything you don't do
has consequences!
From Eden forward, a command meets a will.
- The man and the woman eat,
- and the ground is cursed, pain enters, and the way to the tree is guarded.
- Cain is told that sin is crouching at the door; he must rule over it.
- Moses sets blessing and curse, life and death, and cries, choose life.
- Joshua says choose this day whom you will serve.
- The wisdom books warn that the simple pass on and are punished, and that whatever a person sows, that he will also reap.
- Israel’s kings illustrate the rule in public: walk with the Lord and the land has rest; walk after idols and exile comes.
- The gospel does not cancel the harvest principle.
- It announces a different root.
- Those who sow to the flesh reap corruption. Those who sow to the Spirit reap eternal life.
- The thief on the cross chose to look at Jesus in his last hour and lived.
- Judas chose silver and died.
- Both were near the same Lord.
The difference was the choice that faith makes. Consequences remain.
Mercy meets the chooser who still has breath.
- God treats people as responsible, not as machines.
- Grace is not the claim that nothing follows from what we do.
- Sowing is often quiet. Reaping is often public.
- Some consequences are built into creation; some are covenant sanctions; some are the harvest of the Spirit or the flesh.
- You cannot choose the seed and then refuse the field.
- The most important choice is what you do with the Son.
- Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart.
¶ Key Aspects of Choices and Consequences
- Two Ways – Life and death, blessing and curse, narrow and wide.
- Sow and Reap – The harvest matches the seed, in due season.
- Not Instant – Delay is not cancellation. The farmer waits.
- Corporate and Personal – Houses, nations, and souls all bear fruit from paths taken.
- Repentance – A new choice can cut a path that was heading toward death.
- The Cross – Christ bears the curse our choices earned, and then calls us to walk.
- Final Harvest – The last judgment is the last consequence.
- Deuteronomy 30:19-20 – “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days…”
- Galatians 6:7-9 – “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”
- Joshua 24:15 – “And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve… But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
- Genesis 4:7 – “If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”
- Proverbs 14:12 – “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.”
- Proverbs 1:31-32 – “Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way, and have their fill of their own devices. For the simple are killed by their turning away, and the complacency of fools destroys them.”
- Proverbs 22:8 – “Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity, and the rod of his fury will fail.”
- Hosea 8:7 – “For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.”
- Hosea 10:12 – “Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the Lord, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you.”
- Job 4:8 – “As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same.”
- Ezekiel 18:30-32 – “Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, declares the Lord God. Repent and turn from all your transgressions… For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord God; so turn, and live.”
- Matthew 7:13-14, 24-27 – The wide gate and the narrow; the house on rock and the house on sand.
- Luke 16:25 – “But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish.’”
- Romans 6:21-23 – “But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death… For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
- Romans 2:6-8 – He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek glory, eternal life; to those who are self-seeking, wrath.
- Hebrews 3:7-8, 15 – “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”
- Hebrews 11:24-26 – Moses chose to be mistreated with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.
- John 3:18-19 – Whoever believes is not condemned; whoever does not believe is condemned already.
- Revelation 22:11-12 – “Let the evildoer still do evil… and the righteous still do right… Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done.”
- 2 Corinthians 5:10 – “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.”
Choose this day whom you will serve.
God is not mocked. Whatever one sows, that will he also reap.
There is a way that seems right, and its end is death.
Grace does not erase the harvest. Grace changes the seed and gives time to sow righteousness.
Turn and live. The Lord has no pleasure in the death of anyone.
The wages of sin is death. The free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Do not grow weary. In due season you will reap, if you do not give up. Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart.
Entry compiled for the JESUSaves.com Bible Glossary. Optimized for wiki.js Visual Editor.