The apostle had been speaking in the fourteenth chapter of Romans of the privilege and responsibility of receiving those weak saints whose consciences did not allow them that latitude in which others felt more free to indulge. He says that neither eating nor abstinence from it commends us to God, and that it is utterly unbecoming to the Christian either to despise a weak brother or to judge a strong one. We are all the servants of Christ. To our own Master we stand or fall, and He alone is able to make us stand. If one is enjoying the sense of the Lord's presence and His authority, whether he eat or not, it is to the Lord; whether he regard the day or not, it is to the Lord. Thanksgiving and worship form the happy background of his life.
The apostle, passing from the special application of this principle to what is more general, then says:"For none of us liveth unto himself and no man dieth to himself; for whether we live, we live unto the Lord, or whether we die, we die unto the Lord, so that living or dying, we are the Lord's" (Rom. 14:7, 8). Here the great simplicity of the truth is emphasized that we are no longer our own. Life and death sum up, as we might say, the whole of human existence – life upon this earth, and death which removes us to another scene. All, then, that is included in the present life comes beneath the loving sway of our blessed Lord, and well may we thank God that tire portals into that world, which is to unbelief so dark and hopeless, will usher us into a scene where still the sway of our blessed Lord is undisputed and unhindered.
The apostle goes on to say that Christ has entered into all the circumstances of life and death in order that He might be Lord of all. Christ both died and rose, that He might be Lord both of the dead and living. How much indeed that means for us,-the death and resurrection of Christ, applying not only to the knowledge of all circumstances in which it is possible for us to be brought, but, as well, to a most perfect redemption effected through that death. He has taken away the sting of death which sin was; He has borne the curse of death, the judgment of God; He has made it so completely subservient to His own blessed will that the dread word is scarcely appropriate for the Christian now. It is rather "sleep." And truly we can say in a way that the disciples did not mean it:"Lord if he sleep, he shall do well." "Whether we die, we die unto the Lord." How sweet it is to think of this! Death is but the servant that will open the door that introduces us into the immediate presence of Him whom we have learned to love, though we have not seen Him. Will there be aught of shrinking? Can there be any terror? Will there not be full and perfect joy as we find ourselves present with the Lord, which is far better?
But our blessed Lord is risen as well. He is Lord of the dead and, as risen, of the living as well. The life which we now live in the flesh is by the faith of the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself for us. We have already in faith entered upon resurrection-ground and are alive to Him forevermore. How this simplifies the whole matter of our conduct in this world! We live, but it is no longer the earthly life which we should live, but that risen life in association with Him who has gone on high, as the apostle so beautifully puts it in the third of Colossians:" If ye be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above." Our members which are upon the earth are to be mortified. All the relationships of our earthly life are to be transfigured by the fact that as a heavenly people we are associated with One who is the Lord of the living-a risen Lord. Will this not give us a power in our daily walk that cannot be described? The Lordship of Christ will not be a yoke " which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear," but rather a power to make us strong for Him.
Let us seek to apply this in the simplest kind of way. Is Christ, Lord of the dead and of the living, the same Lord? What is the occupation, what are the thoughts of those who are resting with Him, their Lord, in glory? Oh, how completely He absorbs; how there is nothing but that which is of Christ in all! And is He not the same Lord of the living? Will not this control and actuate us in all our lives ? There are no details which are left to self-will, nothing that we cannot look into His face and ask His mind about. What a Master He is, how gentle, how considerate of His people's needs, how thoughtful of their welfare! What a delight it is to be under His sweet and happy sway! But, ah, should temptation come, should selfishness assert itself, how His Lordship over the whole life checks at once and leads the honest soul to judge and confess the least departure from the place of entire subjection to His holy and blessed will!
May it be ours, dear brethren, to learn more and more of this absolute Lordship of our blessed Saviour! He is Lord of all indeed. One day every knee shall bow to Him. It is our honor that we are privileged to do so now when He is still rejected by earth.