Romans 14:8

LIFE AND DEATH UNTO THE LORD

‘Whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s.’

Romans 14:8

You see the immediate and all-momentous point of the text.

I. We Christians are the vassals of a Lord.—We belong. Never for one moment, never, in any relation of life, or of death, are we out of that connection. Redeemed, saved, we are by that very fact annexed. Believer, thou art, thou must be—it cannot be otherwise—thy Redeemer’s property. Joined to Him for safety, thou art joined to Him also, and of course, for service. Believing, thou belongest. Whether thou livest, thou livest in relation to the Lord. Whether thou diest, thou diest in relation to the Lord. He died, and rose, and revived, precisely for this end, ‘that He might be Lord of thee, dead and living.’

II. Is it bondage?—No, it is perfect freedom. For, rightly seen, it is perfect adjustment. It is the liberty of the living limb, indissolubly, vitally, articulated to the vitalizing Head. This is the one true ideal of human life—to be the Lord’s.

III. And this, as it is the ideal of life, is also—and necessarily—life’s, and death’s, one sure secret of a never-disappointed peace.—We stand in spirit beside an open grave, and ah, what thoughts as of disappointment, as of frustration, are ready to arise! ‘He came up and was cut down like a flower; he fled as a shadow.’ Yes, as to what we see. But no, as to the plan and purpose of Him to Whom the departed belonged, and belongs for ever. Trust the possession to be handled aright by the all-wise Possessor. He has not broken it. He has not thrown it away. No, He has done exactly the opposite; He has put it by. It is His still, and for eternity; His there, as much as here. Not by accident, but on purpose. He has abruptly transferred His servant; keeping him all the while fast in His hand. For not only whether we live, but whether we die, we do it ‘to the Lord’; He died, and rose, that He might still be ‘Lord of us, dead as well as living.’

Bishop H. C. G. Moule.