"WE BELONG TO THE LORD" (An Article by Christian Henry) ~ 9/25/25

“For 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)

Nobody who is in Christ lives and dies to themself or goes on exclusively to serve their own agenda. Born-again Christians cannot claim the right to follow their own path anymore; instead, we must follow the Lord’s path and cling to Christ alone. We have been bought with a price that was paid by the Lord’s blood, and thus, whether living or dead, He owns us.

The fact that we live to the Lord means that our choices must be made for His honor and in service of His plans. This includes all the choices we make in this life; everything we do must be worthy of having God’s name attributed to it. As natural life is, so spiritual life must also be derived from the Lord, and believers are to live by faith upon and according to His will revealed in the Word. We are to act for His honor and glory, or, at the very least, we should desire to do so. No person on earth (save for the incarnate Christ) is fully able and willing to keep God’s commands. However, we must consciously intend to do so with every fiber of our being, because our lives are no longer our own.

We live to do His will, and thus we promote His glory. This is the grand purpose of the life of the Christian. Other people live to gratify themselves, but the Christian lives to do that which the Lord requires. It is the leading and grand purpose of the Christian to do honor to the Savior. It is this duty which constitutes the special character of a believer, and which distinguishes them from other people.

We are also to die to the Lord. This likely means not only that we die in God's perfect timing, but also that we will continue to belong to the Lord after we die and enter eternity. We will ever and always belong to the Lord. Understanding that should impact how we view every choice we make. All of those decisions need to be guided by submission to God. Our life is resigned up to Him, whenever it pleases Him to take it. We serve God completely, as by life, so by death. We die to be with our Lord, only to be raised again by His hand and ultimately live with Him forever. In the faith and hope of this, the believer lives and dies, glorifying Christ in both.

By the gift of the Father, we belong to the Lord. It was by His purchase and the power of His grace that we are made willing to give ourselves up to Him. Under a sense of this, we are His, and not our own. All we do must be in service of His glory, and whether we live or die, we must be sure it is for the Lord, the One we belong to.