Rom. 14:7-9 I’m Not Alone! Somebody Owns Me!

SPEAKER 01 : 0:05

So we continue in this section in which Paul is urging us not to despise someone who is weak in the faith. And remember what weak in the faith means. It doesn’t mean that you don’t have enough faith to overcome this problem or that. It means that you are still not believing that God accepts you and loves you with this problem or that. And if you’re not sure that I’m giving the right interpretation there, then what follows next shows it. He says, for instance, if somebody is afraid to eat meat offered to an idol and then sold in the marketplace, if someone is afraid of buying that meat, then he is believing that the atoning work of Christ isn’t strong enough for him and that Christ, God, has received him. And this is the whole point that Paul is making. He also makes the same point on the Sabbath day. He says, and this is all by review, of course, I’m reviewing it with you. One man, what does it say? One man, one person esteems one day above another, and another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. And so Paul is not laying down another commandment here. He is saying, let each be persuaded. Now this is an incredible liberty that Paul is expressing here, and it seems to go right against the Ten Commandments in which God calls us to remember the Sabbath day. So how could Paul possibly take such a liberty? This is the answer. For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and rose and lived again, that he might be Lord of both the living, the dead and the living. Now, this seems like a strange reason that Paul gives for the liberty that we have to decide whether we will keep a Sabbath or not. How come Paul uses this argument? Well, it’s all about ownership. God says in Ezekiel, all souls are mine. And the death of Jesus and the resurrection of Jesus on our behalf as a substitute for the human race is all about, well, I won’t say it’s all about it, but it’s very much about God regaining ownership of the planet. Through his Son, God has reclaimed us as his own. And this is why in Isaiah chapter 45, God promises that he has made an oath, he swears it by his own name, it will never be revoked, that before me every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess or acknowledge or agree or also take an oath that in God alone is there righteousness and strength. So you see, the whole point of the plan of salvation is to regain the human race. The whole point of the plan of salvation is for God to be honored as the owner of every soul. Now that is what is behind this liberty to decide whether we will keep a Sabbath or not and whether we will eat meat sold to an idol or not. You see, the rituals, the ceremonies or the laws in regard to a Sabbath or in regard to unclean or clean meats or meats offered to an idol, Very often those laws are kept with the mentality that we own God. You say, how do you mean? What does that mean? Well, if we do the right things, if we obey the rituals and the commandments perfectly, then God will save us. In other words, we will have a hold on God. It’s as if much of modern Christianity is about controlling God. we say the right things, we do the right things, we have the right doctrines, we have the right laws, we have the right rituals and ceremonies, then we can claim God. That’s not how the Scriptures present it. The Scriptures present it as God, through the victory of Christ and the atoning work of Christ, God claiming us. That is one of the reasons why it’s going to be so objectionable to the world in the judgment that God will finally reclaim the human race. People don’t want to be controlled, or rather they don’t want to be owned. They want to be free. At least, so much of the Western world thinks that way by projecting politics, democracy, upon the kingdom of God. But in the kingdom of God, all who have come to believe in him are delighted to be owned by God. You know that one of the great depressions of the world, of the age in which we live, is that we don’t know who we are. We seem to be adrift in the universe. We do not have anyone who owns us, and we don’t wake up in the morning with the pleasure of knowing that our Heavenly Father, the Creator and Redeemer of the universe, owns us. But that, as Christians, is one of our great delights, isn’t it, that we are owned? And the truth of the matter is that all creation is owned by God and is bought back, redeemed by God. So, when it comes to an issue of judging another human being or despising him because he doesn’t follow the rituals or rules that we do, We say to ourselves, but he is owned by the Lord, and the Lord will gradually reveal to him what he requires of him. This, the Lord requires him, that you love justice and do justice and love mercy and walk with your God. So, you see, we want to look upon human beings, other human beings, as redeemed and saved, though they do not yet know it. And the faith that we bring to them, or rather the message we bring to them about Jesus Christ, is to encourage them to have faith in the fact that God has redeemed them, reclaimed them as his own. So let’s look at these verses again for ourselves. For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. How about that? That you know that you live to the Lord, whether you’re just doing a menial job and you’re bored with it and wish you could find another job. You’re doing that job to the Lord. And when you’re in your family and the kids are getting out of control and you are overwhelmed by the financial responsibilities that you owe to your family, this is to the Lord you do it. And if you are in some meaningless occupation that seems to make no sense to you at all, you do it as unto the Lord. It is God who gives us meaning. That’s why we Christians can have joy in our hearts. We don’t always have joy, but we know that we are doing things and living and breathing as unto the Lord. And if there are some of you who are elderly and afraid of dying, remember, you die to the Lord. You don’t die alone. Nobody dies alone. People think they are alone, but we who believe know we are not alone. We die unto the Lord, and the first thing we know after we die is the Lord’s presence. That’s so beautiful, you see. If we live, verse 8 of chapter 14 of Romans, if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. One of the most comforting things you can experience in the middle of the night when you feel afraid or you have bad dreams is that you are the Lord’s. And he owns you. And he delights to own you. You are his special property. You are so precious you’ve been bought back. Do you know what the value of a soul is? The value of a soul is what it costs to buy it back. And what did it cost God to buy your soul back? To redeem it? The death of his son. You are therefore as valuable as the death of Jesus Christ. That is how precious you are to God. For to this end, verse 9, Christ died and rose and lived again, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living. Now look, have you ever thought of God as being the Lord of the dead? The dead, we think, are absent from us. The dead, we think, are lost to us. Let me tell you something. The dead have a Lord, and it is the Lord Jesus Christ, and He is alive, and they are alive to Him. That’s the beauty of knowing when our loved ones die, that they are alive to the Lord. He is the Lord of both the dead and the living. That’s verse 9 of chapter 14 of Romans. So then Paul comes back to the issue of judging. But why do you judge your brother? Why do you show contempt for your brother? You see, notice then two things. We either show contempt, despise them because they seem to be weak in faith, they’re not strong like us, or those who do feel weak in faith and don’t feel at liberty to allow themselves to do what we do, who are more free in our faith, they judge. and they tell us we’re wrong. Now, there is something very disturbing about legalistic people continually telling us we are wrong, judging you. Suppose, as I give an illustration, I’m not a drinker myself, but I just give it as an illustration. Suppose you drink wine. for with your with your dinner occasionally or when you go out to a restaurant and somebody who is a strict legalist before you discounts you entirely because you have drunk wine when he does not do it he is judging you he’s judging your whole faith because of your liberty what do you do Well, of course, you don’t hide from him. You don’t fake it. But you have to decide whether he is weak in the faith and whether, therefore, next time you go out to dinner together or with friends and he’s there, whether you will have wine or not, because you don’t want to offend him. So you decide that though you have liberty in yourself before the Lord, you make certain decisions in regard to others who are weak in the faith. But you have no intention of dividing the Christian body of Christ by the liberty that you have. So Paul says, And here is this remarkable verse taken from Isaiah 45, turning up again in the New Testament. Let’s remember next time what it says, because this is the verse that tells us that all the world is going to be redeemed. Thanks for joining me today. Colin Cook here, and how it happens, you can hear this broadcast any time of the day or night on your smartphone. Simply download a free app, soundcloud.com or podbean.com and key in how it happens with Colin Cook when you get there. I wonder if you would consider at the end of the month a donation. This is listener-supported radio. It would be so much appreciated. You can make your donation online at faithquestradio.com. Thanks so much. See you next time. Cheerio and God bless.