As a family, whenever we visit a Chinese restaurant, we always read the fortune cookies after our meal. Sometimes, the fortune cookies are poignant, but often, they are so vague that they lack any significance or meaning.
For example, my fortune cookie from a January meal told me, “You will soon be receiving some wonderful news.” That’s nice, but it is so subjective that it is meaningless. However, my son’s fortune read, “An airplane ride is soon in your future, sending you to fun!” This is not only very specific but amazingly accurate. Last week, my son flew to Honolulu for a job!
Does this mean that fortune cookies are things we should consider when making decisions like some do with horoscopes? No. As entertaining as horoscopes and fortune cookies may be, it would be unwise to make any decisions based on them.
But, if we are not to live our lives based on fortune cookies and horoscopes, what are we to base them on? Or, as the prophet Ezekiel asks, “How then shall we live?” How we answer this question will not only impact today’s decisions but our eternal life as well.
The Lord instructed Ezekiel, saying, “Son of man, say to the house of Israel, ‘This is what you are saying: “Our offenses and sins weigh us down, and we are wasting away because of them. How then can we live?” ’’ (Ezekiel 33:10) In the verses that follow, the Lord tells his people that he finds no pleasure in judging the wicked but hopes for them to “turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, O house of Israel?” (Ezekiel 33:11b)
We live our lives one decision at a time. Even when we make a series of bad, awful decisions, there is still hope, a pathway to life. A pathway marked by forgiveness. Ezekiel says, “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— if he gives back what he took in pledge for a loan, returns what he has stolen, follows the decrees that give life, and does no evil, he will surely live; he will not die. None of the sins he has committed will be remembered against him. He has done what is just and right; he will surely live.” (Ezekiel 33:14–16)
These words point us to the gospel that saves, the good news that Christ brings. In Psalm 103, David speaks of our hope, saying, “He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west.” (103:12) The question, “How then shall we live?” recognizes that without the Lord’s intervention, we will remain hopeless and lost; being incapable of removing our sins we stand in judgment.
Any fortune cookie or horoscope we turn to will not give us the answers we need. Neither will any failed system of “Do and try harder.” For, no matter how much we do or how hard we try, we’re left feeling empty and hopeless, knowing that our best is not good enough. True hope can only be found by trusting in what Christ did for helpless sinners.
Some still protest, saying, “I’m not a hopeless sinner. I’m a pretty good person, at least compared to most!” But with our disclaimer, we know that we are not as good as we want to be, nor as good as God requires. Our wishful thinking will not close the gap between what is and what we want to be.
James, aware of our dilemma, tells us, “For the person who keeps all of the laws except one is as guilty as a person who has broken all of God’s laws.” (James 2:10) We may want to resist thinking that surely some of my good must count for something, but we would be wrong. For as Jesus told his followers, “But I warn you—unless your righteousness is better than the righteousness of the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven!” (Matthew 5:20)
How then shall we live? Trusting in empty promises of fortune cookies? Had my son done this, he would have had no answer when he showed up to his new job and found out they had hired someone else without telling him. However, by trusting in the Lord, he can find a better promise to rest in, “We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps.” (Proverbs 16:9)
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