For none of us lives to himself, and none dies to himself.
Paul is writing to believers who disagree about food and holy days. He answers with a principle that reaches into every part of life: no one's living, and no one's dying, is a private matter. If both belong to the Lord, who has the right to judge a fellow servant? And what changes in daily life when self is no longer the centre?
The verse is not a general saying dropped into the chapter. It is Paul's reason for dropping the habit of judging other believers over disputed matters.
No one lives to himself, and no one dies to himself; we are the Lord's. The weak keep the special day for the Lord's sake; the others do not keep it, and that too is for the Lord. So this is the reason for not judging. He whom I judge is the Lord's.
To live "to" something is to make it the aim of your life. One writer asks how we judged everything before we came to God.
God has brought us to Himself. Before we were converted we did live to ourselves, and we could not have done anything else. Sin ruled us, so "self" was the great aim and object of our life. How did we judge everything back then? Like this: Does it please me? Does it suit my taste? Do I like that? Will it advance my interests even a little?
The old aim is not replaced by a rule but by a Person. The same writer says this is why Christ died for us.
Our Saviour died for us so that we might be turned right away from the old kind of life and find a life with a completely new Object and Aim. We no longer live to ourselves, but to Him who died and rose again... How wonderful to be set free from self and centred on Him!
Why can no one claim his life as his own? Because it was bought. One writer warns that Christian fellowship goes wrong wherever this is forgotten.
The seventh verse states in short the ruling principle and guiding rule of proper Christian life. Fellowship and life shared together can never truly come from the Spirit of God where this principle is forgotten or blurred... He lives because he is the Lord's, not his own. Living, therefore, or dying, he is the Lord's — His own, at the paid price of His most precious blood.
Both the one who keeps the day and the one who does not may be acting for the Lord. So who has the right to judge?
The truth is that we belong to Him, not to ourselves, either in life or in death. Living or dying, it is to Him. Either way we are His. This rests on His own dying and living again in resurrection — the great teaching of this letter and the foundation of Christianity. So He is Lord of all, dead and living. And so we must be careful about meddling with His rights.
The second half of the verse speaks to those who mourn. Death does not end the Lord's ownership of His people.
What comforting words these are for people who have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ and can say, "We are the Lord's." Death will not carry us beyond His reach. He will still be our Lord, for He is Lord of both the dead and the living. Here is comfort for those who mourn their dead. They have passed beyond your sight, but not beyond His. They are no longer in your care, but He keeps them safe.
If my life is not my own, it is not lived alone either. Every believer affects the rest, whether he means to or not.
There is no such thing as a person without influence. The simplest believer is either a link that helps bind the Body closer to its Head, or something that weakens that tie. As the word of God says, "None of us lives to himself." We are the Lord's, and in that sense we belong to His people too... every day and every hour we live is simply a chance to bind God's people closer to Him, or to push them further apart.
- Bought — the believer is not his own. He belongs to the Lord, bought at the price of His blood.
- Centred — self was once the aim of everything we did. Christ's death gives us a new Object to live for.
- Restrained — the believer I judge belongs to the same Lord. Judging him meddles with rights that are His.
- Held — this ownership reaches past the grave. Death cannot carry a believer beyond the Lord's keeping, and that comforts those who mourn.
- Connected — no Christian is without influence. Each hour either draws other believers closer to God or pushes them apart.
For both if we should live, [it is] to the Lord we live; and if we should die, [it is] to the Lord we die both if we should live then, and if we should die, we are the Lord's.
Believers were judging one another over their differences, and this verse answers them: a Christian belongs to the Lord in life and in death. That ownership does two things: it silences our judging, and it takes away the fear of death.
The dispute was real. This verse goes underneath it and names who both sides belong to.
The truth is that we belong to Him, not to ourselves, either in life or in death. Living or dying, it is to Him. Whether one or the other, we are His. This rests on His dying and living — that is, in resurrection — the great doctrine of this letter and the basis of Christianity. So He is Lord of all, dead and living. That is why we must beware of interfering with His rights. "Why do you judge your brother? or why do you despise your brother?" We are forgetting our place and His when we turn either to the right or to the left.
This judging is not just unkind. It is a trespass on rights that belong to another Master.
What cannot be justified is neither the apparent narrowness of the one nor the apparent looseness of the other. It is taking up the role of judge — and that role belongs to no one but the great Master of us all. To that Master we stand or fall, and indeed we may count on His support.
The words "we are the Lord's" state ownership. That ownership had a price.
The principle is a simple one. It has its root in the very ground-truth of Christian doctrine. In God's judgment the cross has ended the believer's mortal life. It now leaves him no other life but Christ Himself. To Him, then, he lives, for in Him he lives. He lives (verse 8) because he is the Lord's, not his own. Living, therefore, or dying, he is the Lord's — His own, at the paid price of His most precious blood.
Verse 8 does not stand alone; the next verse supplies the reason Christ can claim both states. Writers link the two closely.
He is absolutely supreme. In His supremacy He claims our submission, and He claims it because of His love. So He lays it on our heart to do everything as to Him. Doing this will not only draw us closer to Himself, but also closer to one another.
But does this ownership only cover people who believe?
For in living or in dying, man is no independent creature, answerable only to himself. This principle applies most of all to the believer. He is the one who acknowledges the Lordship of Christ… Yet this Lordship is not only over believers. He is Lord of all.
The same ownership covers dying. So the verse speaks to grief as much as to disputes.
What comforting words these are for those whom the precious blood of Christ has redeemed! They can cry, "We are the Lord's." Death will not carry us beyond His reach. He will be our Lord still, for He is the Lord of both the dead and the living. And here is comfort for those who mourn their dead. They have passed beyond your sight, but not beyond His. They are no longer in your care, but He has them in His safe keeping… Death cannot rob Him of us. It cannot separate us from Him, or from the love of God that is in Him.
But holding this truth is not the same as living it.
It is a blessing to have right motives, and a right understanding of what conduct suits us. It is far more blessed to have carried out in practice what we see suits us as disciples… Does this not present a certainty of conduct, a steadiness of purpose, and a fulfilled desire, very unlike the Christianity common in our own day? … practical obedience is what the Lord looks for. Right motives and a right understanding of what to do have no value except as means to an end.
- Bought — The believer is the Lord's "at the paid price of His most precious blood." Ownership, not preference, grounds everything here.
- Both states — The claim covers living and dying alike. Christ died and rose to be Lord of the dead and the living.
- Hands off — A fellow believer belongs to Christ. To judge him is to interfere with rights that are not ours.
- Safe — Death does not carry the believer beyond His reach. Those who have died are still in His keeping.
- Obeyed — The truth is for practice. Right understanding counts only when it turns into obedience.
For to this [end] Christ has died and lived [again], that he might rule over both dead and living.
Paul has just said that believers belong to the Lord, living or dying. This verse gives the reason. Everything rests on two events: a death and a return to life. Together they won Christ a title — authority over both sides of the grave.
The phrase "to this end" points forward. It names an aim Christ set out to reach by dying. One writer notes that this aim goes well past the saving of His own people.
Here we are told of a purpose in the death of Christ. That purpose includes the special truth of the Church's redemption, but it goes far beyond it. Christ died to establish His dominion over the dead. The cross transferred the keys of death and Hades to the hands of Jesus. Through death He destroyed the one who had the power of death, that is, the devil. The final resurrection will prove it. Those who had no part in the first resurrection will come out at the voice of the Son of Man. They will bear unwilling witness to the glory of His power as Lord of the dead (Revelation 20:12).
How did He gain this right over the dead?
So far He alone has truly tasted death in its full reality, as the penalty of human sin. By the grace of God, He has tasted death. He died, and now the furthest chambers of the grave are under His hand. He will unlock them in due time by the word of His power. Christ died, then, to establish His right of dominion over the dead. By dying, He has made death His own for ever.
The lordship named here is not limited to those who accept it. One writer ties it to the place God has given Jesus since the cross. (An older translation reads "Christ both died, and rose, and revived." The title it gives Him is the same.)
He now holds the place of universal authority. The risen, ascended, glorified Man Christ Jesus is the Head of all rule and power. He has absolute lordship over every human being, living or dead. He died for all. He sent the gospel to all. He was patient with all. Now He is at God's right hand as "Lord of all." God set Him there, and set Him there justly.
For anyone grieving, His lordship over the dead stops being a doctrine and becomes comfort. Death changes who can see them, not who holds them.
Death will not carry us beyond His reach. He will be our Lord still, for He is the Lord of both the dead and the living. And here is comfort for those who mourn for their dead. They have passed beyond your sight, but not beyond His. They are no longer in your care, but He keeps them safe. They are still in His kingdom and under His Lordship, just as you are.
The argument between believers ends when you ask who owns whom. The answer is not the one doing the judging.
The truth is that we belong to Him, not to ourselves, either in life or in death. Living or dying, it is to Him. Either way, we are His. This rests on His dying and living again in resurrection — the great doctrine of this letter and the basis of Christianity. So He is Lord of all, dead and living. This is why one must beware of meddling with His rights.
That ownership has a daily effect. It decides whose opinion binds a believer's conscience.
In matters of personal behaviour and conscientious service to the Lord, Christ frees us from the lordship of our fellow believers by placing us under His own higher lordship. We may be right or wrong in our judgment. What matters most is that each of us, looking only to our Master, does what we believe pleases Him.
That authority is not cold. One writer notes that Christ claims this place because of His love. Doing everything to Him draws believers closer to Him and closer to one another (The Christian's Friend).
- Cause. Christ's death and return to life did more than rescue us. They won Him a title — rule over the dead and the living.
- Conquest. By dying He took death as His own possession, and the keys of death passed into His hands.
- Reach. That lordship covers every person, believer or not, since God set the risen Man at His right hand as Lord of all.
- Comfort. Death cannot move anyone out of His kingdom; those who have died are still under His Lordship and in His keeping.
- Result. We are His, not each other's. So we stop judging and despising one another. One Master rules each conscience, and He rules in love.