“For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's.”
This is the theme of this, the final passage from Romans in the lectionary series for this year. Along the way we have covered a number of topics and themes about what it looks like to be a Christian. Finally, we cover the question of what it looks like to live as a free person in Christ, and what it means to live in that freedom in the local congregation.
The apostle Paul introduces this topic with a case study, of sorts. In the Roman era, there were three basic ways of getting meat; killing it for yourself, dressing, roasting, and eating it, buying prepared meat from general butchers, and buying prepared meat from the pagan temple precincts. In Rome, with so many pagan temples, the primary method was the last one. There weren’t any wild animals in downtown Rome for believers to humanely kill for themselves, and with meat so readily available at the temples, there wasn’t much of a market for other butchers. If they wanted to avoid eating meat which had been sacrificed to idols, then they had to go without, for the most part. This would especially be the case for the Jewish believers in Jesus, for whom even the slightest hint of idolatry was utterly scandalous. Although Peter had been told that what God had made clean, no-one should count as unclean, although Gentile believers were being accepted into the Church throughout the Mediterranean world, without being forced to be Jews, old habits died hard among the Jewish believers in Jesus.
On the other side were some Gentile believers in Jesus, who had come to know that the old gods were powerless and worthless, and that, as such, any meat sacrificed to these old gods was essentially harmless, if you prayed for the blessing of the true God upon it. They were not afraid of being polluted by this meat, for there was nothing to pollute them. Undoubtably among the congregation members were also some Gentiles who had not completely freed themselves of the old ways, for whom eating such meat could lead to some confusion, and doubt. Certainly in Corinth this problem was also current, as Paul himself says that if his meat-eating would cause others to sin, he’d never eat meat again. It appears that a schism, a deep division, was starting to emerge in the Roman church, that the Jews and Gentiles, or at least such of their number as firmly held to these opinions, were deeply divided on the question of what a Christian could, in good conscience, eat. The second part of the question, also along Jewish vs Gentile lines, was on the question of whether certain days were holier than others. The Jewish Christians had their old liturgical calendar, which the Gentile Christians simply didn’t know. This question of days is one which lives on to this very day in the question of whether Sunday is somehow a holier day than any other.
Paul’s solution to this question of the proper exercise of Christian freedom is straightforward. He doesn’t divide the congregation into the St. David Meat-Eating Church of Rome and the St. Daniel Vegetarian Church of Rome. This is the way most people today would settle this, with an amicable parting of ways; agreeing to disagree. Think of the huge proliferation of denominations and church bodies in Canada, due as much to human disagreement at times as to disagreement on what God’s Word teaches. Instead, St. Paul points both parties to who their Lord is and demands of them to hold themselves accountable to Christ, who is the Lord of both the meat-eaters and the veggie-only party. Sadly, it is all too true of the church in general that we insist on our own ways and opinions instead of subjecting ourselves to the Word of God and to our fellow believers within our fellowship.
And really, when we consider questions that come up within a congregation, questions which the Scriptures are silent on, we too need to consider this as the basic principle to follow. How does what you choose to do show respect for Christ and for your fellow congregation members? This implies that there are times to speak out about things. It is not a matter of Christian freedom for someone who claims to be part of the church to never bother attending the services of the Lord’s house. This breaks one of the commandments. It is not a matter of Christian freedom for a member of the congregation to be living in a way which is openly and deliberately counter to the second table—whether in habitual disrespect of authority, adultery, hatred or committing violence against others, theft, slander, lying, gossiping, jealousy, or coveting. These are matters which, left unrepented, can and do kill the faith of those who turn from God to follow down these other roads. It is the responsibility of the Christian to hold themselves accountable for their own sin, and, where situation warrants, to warn their brother or sister away from sin—so long as it is done in a spirit of humility and fear of God, not one of spiritual pride.
But when it comes to some of these open questions, such as what to wear to church, then this principle comes into play. We have a cultural tradition, and it is a good one, of wearing our best to church. We do this out of respect for Christ, for going to church is going to the Lord’s own house to meet with Him as He gives us His Word to hear and His own body and blood to feed upon. However, we should not hold someone else under judgment if what they wear doesn’t live up to our own ideas of what is appropriate to church. For each person has to answer to God for themselves, as the epistle also notes. Whatever you wear to church, do so recognizing that you wear what you wear in honour of the Lord.
Another example would be Bible Study. It is a good and a beneficial thing to attend Bible Study. It would be good for all of us here to attend at least one regular study offered by our congregations faithfully. But you are not permitted to think of yourself as a better Christian because you attend a study, nor to judge someone else because they are not attending. If you are not attending, you need to consider well your own reasons why you are not attending; if it is out of laziness or a lack of desire to grow in Christ, then this is an attitude needing to be repented. In either case, it is the Lord to whom you must answer, to whom you have to give an account of your life. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess; and it will either be a confession made grudgingly, a confession made which leads to eternal judgment, or it will be a confession made willingly, a confession which leads to eternal life. And in a culture which crams our hearts and minds full of anything and everything but Christ so much of the time, a culture which does not have Christ as its centre, we ought to be thankful for any and every opportunity we have to hear of God’s Word beyond the essential gathering on the Lord’s Day.
It really goes back to who we belong to. We belong to God. By virtue of His call placed on you in Baptism, He desires to be Lord of your whole life, the first consideration in every decision you make. He desires you to return to Him daily in contrition and repentance, breaking from the self-centred thoughts, words, and deeds of the sinful flesh and being made to stand as His servant under His forgiveness and grace. After all, Jesus Christ, your Lord, has purchased and won you from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil, not with gold or silver but with His holy, precious blood and His innocent suffering and death on the cross, in order that you might be His own and live under Him in His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.
You belong to the Lord. You have been bought at a price. Whether you live or die, you belong to Him. You can’t presume anyone else’s motives, and need always to consider your own motives in all you think, say, and do. The judgment is real, and is coming soon. But for those who are in Christ, who live in the salvation they have been given, receiving His grace daily which covers over all sin, there is no condemnation.
The forgiveness of sins is not a license to persist in judgmental attitudes, nor indeed in any other sin. Eternity hangs in the balance! As Jesus points out in our Gospel for today, the attitude of a follower of Christ should be one of forgiving freely from the heart, because the debt we owe to God is much greater than any debt a brother or sister might owe us. And yet it is also true that there is no debt owed, for you, when you by His all-sufficient death on the cross. Trust in Jesus alone, for He is the only hope for us sinners who do judge others based on what they eat or wear or what days they celebrate. For the judge of all things is also the one who has erased your sin from you. This is the key to true transformation of life, the key to living in humble joy—knowing that “chief of sinners though I be, Jesus gave His life for me.” While on this earth we will continue to struggle and fall, needing to repent and receive God’s grace. While on this earth we continue to need to remember that God is the master and all of us are merely servants of each other. None has the right to judge by appearances, to judge others’ motives, for only the Lord knows the heart. But soon will come the day when our Lord Jesus will return and give to us a seat at His eternal banquet table, a position in His eternal feast. “For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's.”
May God keep us strong in faith and hope in our Lord Jesus until that day when He comes to take each of us unto Himself! Amen
Last updated September 2008 by the webmaster.