The Two Highways and Their Destinations
Introduction: The Great Divide
The book of Proverbs is relentlessly practical. It does not deal in ethereal abstractions or float in the misty realms of speculative philosophy. It is a book about how the world actually works, because it is a book about how God made the world to work. And at the heart of this divine physics, this spiritual mechanics, is a fundamental, unalterable antithesis. There are two ways to live, and only two. There is the way of wisdom and the way of folly. The way of righteousness and the way of evil. The way of life and the way of death.
Our modern sensibilities chafe at such stark dichotomies. We are the generation of the gray, the nuanced, the blended, the "it's complicated." We want a third way, a middle path, a negotiated settlement between God and the devil. But the Word of God does not offer us that option. It presents us with a great chasm, a fundamental divide in the very nature of reality. You are on one side or the other. You are walking on one of two roads. And those two roads, though they may run parallel for a time, lead to entirely different, and entirely final, destinations.
This is not a popular message. It is offensive to the spirit of the age, which insists that every man can build his own road to his own truth. But the gospel has never been concerned with being popular; it is concerned with being true. And the truth is that God has built two highways through human history. One is a well-paved, steadfast road that leads to life. The other is a frantic, downhill scramble that ends in a fatal crash. Our text today is one of the clearest road signs in all of Scripture, pointing out the nature of these two roads and the absolute certainty of their respective ends.
The Text
"He who is steadfast in righteousness will attain to life, And he who pursues evil will bring about his own death."
(Proverbs 11:19 LSB)
The Highway of Holiness (v. 19a)
Let's look at the first half of this proverb:
"He who is steadfast in righteousness will attain to life..."
The first thing we must establish is what the Bible means by "righteousness." In our day, the word has been watered down to mean little more than being a generally nice person, or holding the correct political opinions. But biblical righteousness, tsedeqah, is a far more robust concept. It means conformity to a standard. It is the quality of being right, of being just. And who sets the standard? God does. Righteousness is conformity to the character and law of God. It is not just about avoiding certain sins; it is about the positive cultivation of a life that reflects the goodness and justice of our Creator.
But the proverb adds a crucial qualifier: "steadfast." The word here points to something established, firm, and fixed. This is not a description of someone who has a fleeting flirtation with morality, or who makes a few good New Year's resolutions. This is a man whose entire life is oriented, fixed, and set in the direction of righteousness. He is not righteous by fits and starts. He is not blown about by every wind of doctrine or temptation. His course is set. He is like a ship whose rudder is locked on a specific heading. Storms may come, waves may buffet him, but the direction is fixed. This is the biblical picture of a true believer. Not sinless perfection, but a settled direction. The Puritans used to talk about the "bend" of a man's life. Is the settled disposition of your heart, the overall trajectory of your choices, bent toward God and His law?
And what is the destination of this highway? The text says it is "life." This is more than just biological existence. The Bible speaks of life in the fullest sense: flourishing, blessing, communion with God. It is to experience the world as it was meant to be experienced. In the short term, a life of steadfast righteousness leads to stability, honor, and blessing. It builds strong families, just societies, and prosperous cultures. But the ultimate horizon of this promise is eternal life. It is the "crown of life" that God has promised to those who love Him (James 1:12). This is not to say that we earn our salvation by our steadfastness. Not at all. We are saved by grace through faith in the finished work of Christ. His perfect righteousness is imputed to us. But true, saving faith is never a dead faith. It is a living faith that inevitably, necessarily, produces the fruit of steadfast righteousness. The steadfastness is the evidence of the life within, not the cause of it. If you have been truly justified, you will be steadfastly sanctified.
The Mad Dash to Destruction (v. 19b)
Now consider the alternative path, the other highway.
"...And he who pursues evil will bring about his own death."
Notice the verb here: "pursues." This is not someone who accidentally stumbles into evil. This is an active, energetic chase. The man who pursues evil is not passive. He hunts it down. He gets up in the morning and schemes for it. He invests his time, his money, and his creativity in the acquisition of sin. He is like a hound on the scent, chasing after that which will destroy him.
This is the great insanity of sin. Men will expend enormous effort to secure their own ruin. They will work harder to get to hell than many Christians will work to get to heaven. They pursue adultery, they chase after dishonest gain, they hunt for opportunities for revenge. And they do this thinking they are pursuing life, pleasure, and freedom. But they are deceived. The bait of pleasure hides the hook of death.
The destination of this frantic pursuit is stated with stark finality: "his own death." The grammar is important here. He brings it about for himself. This is not some arbitrary penalty imposed by a cosmic killjoy. It is the natural, organic, inevitable consequence of the pursuit. It is the law of sowing and reaping woven into the fabric of the universe. If you sow to the flesh, you will of the flesh reap corruption (Galatians 6:8). If you plant poison, you will not harvest peaches. Death is the harvest of a life spent pursuing evil.
And again, this "death" is more than just the cessation of breathing. It is spiritual death, which is separation from God, the source of all life. It begins now, in this life. The pursuit of evil brings a kind of death to the conscience, to relationships, to peace, to joy. It hollows a man out from the inside. But it culminates in the second death, the final, eternal separation from God in hell. The man who spends his life running from God will, at the end, get exactly what he pursued: a universe without Him.
Conclusion: Choose Your Road
So we are left with these two highways. One is the path of steadfast, settled, determined righteousness. It is a walk. It is not always easy, but the direction is fixed, and the destination is life, flourishing, and communion with God. The other is a frantic, breathless pursuit of evil. It is a chase. It promises excitement and freedom, but its destination is death, decay, and damnation.
The fundamental choice of your life is which road you will be on. And you cannot stand in the median. Every day, every choice you make is a step down one of these two paths. You are either cultivating a steadfast walk with God, or you are pursuing sin.
The good news of the gospel is that Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He is the highway of holiness. He not only shows us the road, He is the road. When we, by faith, are united to Him, we are taken off the road to death and set firmly on the road to life. His Spirit gives us the power to be steadfast, to set our faces like flint toward the New Jerusalem. He turns our frantic pursuit of sin into a steady pilgrimage of righteousness.
Therefore, examine your life. What is its settled direction? What are you pursuing? Are you steadfast in righteousness, even when it is hard? Or are you chasing after the fleeting pleasures of evil? The destination is not a mystery. God has posted the signs clearly. Choose life.