SERMON.
Rom. xiv. 8.
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.
The text refers to the foregoing verse: “None of us liveth unto himself; and no man dieth to himself.” We are very apt to feel and act, as if we were independent creatures. Perhaps if examined, as to our particular creed, we should readily confess ourselves to be placed under the sovereignty of the Almighty; and to be accountable, as Christians, at the bar of Him, who will “judge both quick and dead.” But few are daily conscious, as they ought to be, either of their dependence or their responsibility. Their creed is not in their heart; they live chiefly and practically under a system of self-government; grievously forgetting the dominion of the Lord who created and redeemed them. A proud spirit is, as it has been from the beginning, the bane of man: he fell through impatience of his Maker’s mild yoke, and an intolerance of his Maker’s superiority: and the poison, thus whispered into his ear by the evil one, still lurks within him; corrupting his feeling and principle, and rendering him greatly insensible to the divine superintendence and blessing.
This pride and selfishness however the gospel is designed to humble and correct; and it does produce the mighty change in the heart of every sincere believer; of all who feel its vital power, “the power of God unto salvation.” Of all such it must be said, in the utmost latitude, in the most unqualified sense, “none of us liveth unto himself.” There is no true disciple of the Lord Jesus, who makes earthly interest, gain or pleasure, ambition or lust, his ruling and absorbing object. Such is the character of the degenerate and lost world: there is no fitter description of a worldly man than this, that he lives to gratify his own humour, and carry out the schemes of his own wilfulness, and promote his own prosperity during his little career: earth is his sphere of action, and all centres in self. But every follower of Christ is called out of the world, effectually called and chosen and delivered: he has another mind, another spirit, another view. He cannot live for himself: it is not merely against his conviction, his sense of propriety, his professed and deliberate principle, it is against his new nature: he is born of God, with new affections, new desires, new purposes, new prospects; the Spirit of the living God dwells within him; cleanses him from all fleshly corruption; and brings his will, brings all that he is, and all that he has, into subjection to the Godhead. This is the character, the certain and essential and distinguishing character of all who belong to Christ: they live not, in any regard or in any matter, for themselves.
Nor do they die unto themselves. They die not, either like the beasts that perish, or for their own disposal and glory; not to make bodily or earthly provisions; not to give orders for their funeral; not to hand down their name and style to posterity upon a blazoned escutcheon; not to bequeath their riches to others: “after all these things do the Gentiles seek.” But a grand and glorious change has been made by the gospel: the true nature of death stands now unfolded in all its awful and stupendous reality: it is a passage to another state of being: the disembodied soul flies and lives elsewhere: not, as on earth, for a few short years, but for eternity. And what may be thought or said of me, whether by the present or by future generations, whether by friends or foes; what may become of my property, baubles or possessions; what may be done with my corpse, whether meanly or superbly coffined, whether laid without winding-sheet or clothed with purple and fine linen,—all these are matters of minor note, of comparative indifference. I shall have been living and dying for another, an eternal world; and the great consideration is, where and what that world shall be.
We are thus led, as by the Apostle’s own hand, to enter more immediately on the text. “Whether we live, we live unto the Lord.” It is the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ, who hath done these marvellous things for us; He has removed from us the burden of the wrath of God; He has rescued us from the bondage of corruption, and changed the curse into a blessing; He has given unto us the Spirit of holiness, and thus re-created in our new-born soul the image of the righteous God. He moreover has dispelled the clouds that rested on the tomb, and has “brought life and immortality to light by the gospel.” And O remember the mighty cost, the precious sacrifice, by which He purchased us unto Himself. The eternal Son of God stooped down from heaven to earth; the Word, which was in the beginning with God and was God, was made flesh; “humbled Himself and became obedient unto death;” “bore our sins in His own body on the tree:” died and rose again, rose as the first fruits of a sleeping world. Thus have we “passed from death to life,” from nature to grace, from ruin to a state of salvation. And no believer can deny, that he is bound, “whatsoever he does in word or deed, to do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him.”
Yet, brethren, it is not merely what we are bound to do or to be, as baptized into Christ and believing in His name; it is what we are, actually are, as partakers of His gospel, and cleansed by His blood. St. Paul says, “we live unto the Lord;” we do so live as a matter of course and necessity: our life is altogether devoted to Him: such is the very meaning and essence of our Christian fellowship. Being His real property, “not our own, but bought with a price,” we place ourselves at His disposal: “our meat is to do the will of Him that sent us.” This is our decided character, by which we desire to be known; known of God and known of all men. “The life which we now live in the flesh we live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved us, and gave Himself for us.” It must unquestionably and inevitably be so, for “our life is hid with Christ in God;” this, if we are Christians, is the well-spring of our thoughts and desires and feelings and principles and habits; and though they contract a taste and taint of evil in their passage through the corrupt channel of nature, still do they always retain the proof and prevalence and ascendancy of their heaven-born character; and do clearly mark us, in the eyes of every spiritual and right-judging person, as members of Christ and children of God.
Such are all the sincere followers of the Lamb, the faithful and elect of God: all in their various spheres of life, high and low, rich and poor; living in the same Spirit and by the same gospel, unto the same redeeming Lord; and travelling together in one way to the same everlasting kingdom. They are all brethren; all of equal privileges in the sight of their God and Saviour; all, however wide their worldly differences, however diversified their appearances or acquirements, distinguished by the same holy signs—by the sign of the cross in their forehead; by the image of the cross in their heart; by the bearing of the cross in their lives, and treading in the footsteps of their divine Master. “To me to live is Christ:” this is the common language, this the good confession, this the joyful, thankful assurance of each and every one: this their watchword, this their safeguard and defence, this their abounding consolation, one with another, amid all the dangers of an ensnaring and harassing world. The rich man has no other protection, and no other does the poor man need; Christ is “all in all,” and “none can pluck them out of His hand;” dwelling together, as in a strong tower; “kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.” Each of them still, while in the body, attentive to the duties of his own calling: no earthly business or occupation, belonging to their respective conditions, despised or neglected; but all “done heartily as unto the Lord, and not as unto men:” all earthly desires so regulated, all earthly plans so formed, all earthly objects so pursued, as not to interrupt, much less to stifle, the life of God in the soul.
Having lived unto the Lord, we shall die unto the Lord: having continued His property through life, He will claim us as His own in death. The tyrant of the grave shall have no power, no dominion over us; his spear is broken; the battle fought, the victory won: Christ has conquered, and we are “more than conquerors through Him that loved us.” Christ is Lord of the immortal spirit: “He is able to keep that which is committed to Him against that day;” and when the soul escapes from its prison-house, He sends a guardian angel to take the charge, and conduct it safely to Abraham’s bosom, to the rest that remaineth for His people. Brethren, we have the Lord’s own word and authority, for the establishment of our faith and the comforting of our souls. He said to the penitent thief, “To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise.” He admonished those who believed not, that Jehovah was declared to be “the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob” long after their bodies were laid in the grave: and “God is not the God of the dead but of the living, for all live unto Him.” In this entire confidence and security, His pious disciples in every age have welcomed their latter end, and fallen asleep sweetly. The first martyr Stephen, full of the Holy Ghost, worshipped and prayed to Jesus in his dying moments, saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit;” at once a plain indisputable testimony, that Christ is an object of divine worship, and that He does receive the souls of the faithful, when delivered from their earthly tabernacle. And the Apostle, who said, “To me to live is Christ,” said also, in the same breath, “to die is gain:” death could not be gain to him with any thing less than Christ: it is evident, that St. Paul was rapt in the contemplation of the immediate presence of his Lord: whilst living, he was with Christ; when dead, he would be with Him more blessedly still.
In truth, the proper representation of the matter is this; “the Lord’s kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,” that which He has won by His victory over sin and death and the grave, that which He has opened to all believers, that of which every abiding believer is an actual and irremovable member. It is a kingdom never ceasing or suspended; reaching onward without a broken link, from time to eternity. The present state of being should be regarded as the threshold of this boundless kingdom; as but the foreground of trial, in which the Lord’s servants are exercised and matured and made meet for their full and final inheritance. Death is called the gate of life, that life for which the present is but a prelude and preparation. Earthly graces will be perfected in heaven. The Lord’s dominion over us is whole and uninterrupted: He calls us from one division of His kingdom to another, from one state to another, at His own time and in His own way: “He has the keys of death and hell,” of death and the unseen world. “He openeth and no man shutteth, and shutteth and no man openeth.” “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.” He keeps them by His almighty power, keeps them in His wisdom and mercy, till they are ripe for glory. None can delay and none can hasten his work. And what faithful soul would desire it? Nay, Lord, come and call when Thou wilt; but make Thy servant ready.