Avoiding Irreversible Regrets

Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? Mark 8:37 NKJV)

There are two sides to a bad decision.  There is the front end where we are making the choice to do something that is not going to have good results.  And there is the back end of the decision where we must live with the consequences of that choice.  This verse deals with that back end.  That’s why it does not say “what will a man TAKE in exchange for his soul?” which would be the front end.

This verse addresses the enemy that haunts my heart – irreversible regret.  I find myself many times immobilized with a fear of doing something that I will regret for the rest of my life and be unable to take back.  I look on at the life of Judas in horror, as I consider the ramification of that one bad decision.  How many men and women have wasted their entire existence because of one decision that cost them their destiny?  Whether it was Esau selling his birth right or Moses striking the rock the second time, it is clear to see that there is a price tag on our choices.

Free will is one of the most pronounced ways in which we are created in the image of God.  Nothing else in creation functions with free will.  Animals, vegetation, galaxies, and even the angels themselves are subject to instincts and governing principles that determine their destiny.  Only man has the ability to choose his own future. And with this incredible privilege comes a high responsibility because once the choice is made, there is no turning back.  That’s why Jesus asks the rhetorical question – “What will a man give in exchange for his soul?”  We cannot buy back our own soul from its predetermined course to hell.  Yet, we can make a decision to trust in Christ’s finished work on the cross to save us from that fatal end.  And because we are not just saved from hell, but from the independence from God called sin that sends us there, that one choice can also be made daily to keep us from irreversible regrets.

When faced with decisions, I need to stop and pray so that I will choose daily to allow Christ to save my soul from the wrong decisions I will surely make without His intervention.  Only as I put my free will back into His hands can I be sure not to make a decision that might cost me my soul and cause me to live in the shadow of what might have been my legacy.