God Offers a Better Deal

by Robert Flores

Have you ever heard people speak of making a “deal with the devil”? People willingly sell their soul to the devil for whatever they desire most in life—whatever their god is. But the devil’s deal is the worst one on the market. God has a much better deal for you.

The devil offers riches, fame, power, women, etc. for a little while. But what he doesn’t tell you is that those things will never satisfy you. You become a slave of Satan, doing his bidding until the day you die. Satan is willing to give you what you want, but not what you need. He redefines “provision” as “wealth”, “love” as “pride” and “companionship” as “sex”, etc. He knows that the things you want will never satisfy you, or make you feel loved, or cure the sin in your life. There is only one future for a pawn of Satan, and that is to die miserable, unfulfilled and unloved.

God, on the other hand, offers to take your sins away, and exchange your eternal death for eternal life. God knows everything about you. He sees what you want and what you need. He will give you what you want occasionally, but He’s actually more concerned about giving you what you need. He knows that your needs are deeper than what you are actually asking for. God wants to satisfy you, love you and cure your sin problem.

Anyone who has ever signed a contract knows that before you sign that contract it has to offer you the most benefits that you can possibly receive. Now, consider that God and Satan are offering you two competing contracts. Which one will you choose? The contract of righteousness or the contract of sin? The contract of eternal satisfaction or the contract of fleeting pleasures? The contract of life or the contract of death? Moses said in Deuteronomy 30:19, “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live. . .” Moses understood that there were two contracts that Israel could choose: one of life and one of death.

Those are the only two choices. And, lest you think that you can “just put off” signing one of the two contracts, know that is the same as signing Satan’s contract. Jesus said, “He that is not with me is against me. . .” (Luke 11:23a) Satan is quite content if you don’t believe in him just as long as you don’t sign God’s contract.

In the corporate world, whenever contracts are going to be signed, lawyers are hired on both sides to review the final contract. Millions of dollars are spent on making sure that the contract provides protection and benefits for both sides. If corporations are willing to spend millions of dollars on measly business contracts, then doesn’t it make sense to have a lawyer look at the contract for your soul?

But, in fact, we do have a Lawyer for our soul. In 1 John 2:1, Jesus is called our Advocate (Gr. parakletos), meaning “one who pleads another’s case”. Jesus, our Lawyer, is looking at our current contract with the devil and is saying that it is worthless and will eventually lead to your destruction. He has already secured a deal with the Judge. Now He is pleading with you, His client, to sign a better contract: His.

In contrast to our Advocate Jesus, Scripture calls Satan the Adversary (1 Peter 5:8). The Greek word for “adversary” is antidikos, meaning, “an opponent, an opponent in a suit of law or an adversary/enemy”. In fact, the very name Satan (gr. satan or satanas) means “adversary”. Those definitions beg the question, “Is Satan the kind of person someone would like to sign a contract with?”

Jesus said this of Satan, “He [the devil] was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” (John 8:44b). Why would anyone sign a contract with a world-renown liar? Contracts should be signed with trustworthy parties; not people who are going to take everything from you and leave you for dead.

Unlike Satan the Liar, God is absolutely trustworthy. Psalm 100:5 says this about God: “For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.” God offers a way better deal than Satan and will always keep His end of the bargain. It is impossible for God to lie (Titus 1:2), so any contract that God offers you is unconditionally true and He will not back away from fulfilling it. So what is this contract that God is offering you? He says it in Isaiah 1:18:

“Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”

And in John 3:14-18:

“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

It is obvious which deal offers more bang for your buck! Satan’s contract offers you nothing and, in fact, will take everything from you. God’s contract, on the other hand, will offer you everything if you just believe Him. It’s your choice. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather keep my deal with God.

The following are examples from the Bible of contracts that God made with individuals and Israel for the benefit of the recipient:

Noah’s Contract

And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you; And with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth. And I will establish my covenant with you, neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth. And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth. — Genesis 9:9-17

Abraham’s Contract

Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. —Genesis 12:1-4

Abraham’s Contract 2

And he said unto him, Take me an heifer of three years old, and a she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon. And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another: but the birds divided he not. And when the fowls came down upon the carcases, Abram drove them away. And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him. And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not their’s, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance. And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces. In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates. . . —Genesis 15:9-18

Israel’s Contract

And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath driven thee, And shalt return unto the LORD thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul; That then the LORD thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath scattered thee. If any of thine be driven out unto the outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the LORD thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee: And the LORD thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers. And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live. And the LORD thy God will put all these curses upon thine enemies, and on them that hate thee, which persecuted thee. And thou shalt return and obey the voice of the LORD, and do all his commandments which I command thee this day. And the LORD thy God will make thee plenteous in every work of thine hand, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy land, for good: for the LORD will again rejoice over thee for good, as he rejoiced over thy fathers: If thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which are written in this book of the law, and if thou turn unto the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul. —Deuteronomy 30:1-10

David’s Contract

And it came to pass that night, that the word of the LORD came unto Nathan, saying, Go and tell my servant David, Thus saith the LORD, Shalt thou build me an house for me to dwell in? Whereas I have not dwelt in any house since the time that I brought up the children of Israel out of Egypt, even to this day, but have walked in a tent and in a tabernacle. In all the places wherein I have walked with all the children of Israel spake I a word with any of the tribes of Israel, whom I commanded to feed my people Israel, saying, Why build ye not me an house of cedar? Now therefore so shalt thou say unto my servant David, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I took thee from the sheepcote, from following the sheep, to be ruler over my people, over Israel: And I was with thee whithersoever thou wentest, and have cut off all thine enemies out of thy sight, and have made thee a great name, like unto the name of the great men that are in the earth. Moreover I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own, and move no more; neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them any more, as beforetime, And as since the time that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel, and have caused thee to rest from all thine enemies. Also the LORD telleth thee that he will make thee an house.—2 Samuel 7:4-11

Israel’s Contract

Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name: If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever. Thus saith the LORD; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the LORD. —Jeremiah 31:31-37