ROMANS 14:8

“for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.”

Living and dying. That’s really what it boils down to, isn’t it? How we decide to live our lives here on planet earth may determine the quality of our life and could determine the way we die. I am not afraid of dying. In fact, I welcome it. Before you call the crisis help line, I mean I have chosen to embrace the certainty of death knowing where I will be the instant I take my last breath. I am the Lord’s.

Paul says as much in today’s verse. He says, “whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.” Paul wrote this letter to the Romans while he was in Corinth, almost a full decade before he was beheaded in Rome. Isn’t it ironic that he penned these words to the very city where he would die? Paul wasn’t afraid to die. He knew the Lord had him on a mission, and he was safe as long as he stayed in His will. God would take him home when He was ready for him and not a day sooner.

APPLICATION

In Philippians 1:21-22, Paul addresses this life or death question. “21 For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22 But if I am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which to choose.” Even though death may be a welcome thing for a follower of Christ, God can still use us here to spread the Gospel. We have work to be done, or as Paul says, “fruitful labor.”

Look again at what Paul says. If we live, we live for the Lord. We live to glorify the Master. We live to please Him and live according to His will. While we are here on this earth, as a follower of Christ, I belong to Him. Everything I am, everything I own belongs to Him. I am nothing compared to Jesus. To borrow the words of John the Baptist in John 3:30, “He must increase, but I must decrease.”

And then when we die, we also belong to Him. As a follower of Christ, I am guaranteed a front row seat with Jesus. How about that? Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:8 that we prefer to be absent from the body and present with the Lord. Wherever that may be, I am His. I will exist in eternity to glorify Him. Shouldn’t I be practicing that down here? I want to be well prepared to praise my Maker one day, don’t you?

Father God, I praise You that I am Yours whether I live or die.

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