“Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.” Tomorrow. Not today.

This siren song presumes that death can be put off another day. It presumes that we have at least enough control to presume that tomorrow will come for us. The rich man in Luke 12 shows such presumption: “Soul, You have many goods stored up for many years; relax, eat, drink, and enjoy yourself!”’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This night your soul is demanded of you…”

The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament defines the Greek word translated “empty presumption” (ἀλαζονεία) as “one who makes more of himself than the reality justifies, ascribing to himself either more and better things than he has, or even what he does not possess at all, who promises what he cannot perform.” Though we were made in the image of God, we are not God. We do not possess immortality on our own. We cannot extend our lives in this world for very long. And yet the very fact that we are, at this moment, alive leads our twisted hearts to think that we can keep our lives in this world without God and without death.

Mankind’s fall is deeply imprinted in our souls. Adam and Eve were emboldened to think that disobedience to God’s design for them would be all benefit for them and no consequence. Modern man shows the full fruit of this perversion. We are drunk on the delusion of “progress.” We are the masters of our own destinies and nothing is impossible for us. We have removed God from the world and replaced Him with modern technology and innovations. We are convinced that, given enough time and resources, we can solve every problem and avoid every hardship. Death can be put off at least one more day. Suffering can be mitigated.

Satan’s temptation for Jesus to throw Himself down from the temple’s pinnacle was aimed at finding such empty presumption in Christ. But Jesus already knew that there was no such thing as life apart from His Father and no such thing as death when in communion with His Father. He did not need to put His Father to test in order to answer the question “Is LORD really among us or not?” He did not see equality with God something to be taken by force, but instead willingly emptied Himself as a servant and became obedient to death. Jesus was already dead to the siren song of this world long before he offered up His life to His Father on the cross.

Self-submission to the Father’s governance is eternal life. Self-governance is eternal death. Self-submission to Christ our King and living our lives in His Kingdom is the  first resurrection for us. Avoiding His Law of Life as established in His Gospels is being dead already even while our bodies still breathe.

We are not called to die tomorrow, but today, this very moment. We are to “commend ourselves and one another and our whole life unto Christ our God.” Today is the day to hear His voice and not to harden our hearts against it. Today is the day to lose our life in this world and gain life in His Kingdom. The rich young man walked away from life because he would not lose his life in this world to follow Christ. He was at least honest. Today is the day to test not God, but ourselves as Paul encourages, to see if it is Christ who lives in us or the world.