The Lordship of Everything: The Christian's All-Encompassing Allegiance Text: Romans 14:5-9
Introduction: The Tyranny of the Trivial
We live in an age that has mastered the art of majoring in the minors. Our culture, and sadly, much of the church, is wracked with divisions over a host of issues that the Bible consigns to the realm of Christian liberty. We have turned our pet convictions, our dietary regimens, our calendar preferences, and our cultural sensibilities into new laws, binding the consciences of the saints and despising those who do not toe our particular line. We have become theological micro-managers, acting as though the Kingdom of God is advanced by the organic certification of our kale or the precise liturgical color of the paraments.
This is not to say that such things are unimportant. The Bible teaches that nothing is unimportant. But our problem is that we have assigned the wrong kind of importance to them. We have taken matters of legitimate Christian freedom, what the theologians call adiaphora, things indifferent, and have treated them as matters of first importance. In so doing, we not only fracture the unity of the church, but we also reveal a profound misunderstanding of what Christian liberty is for. Christian liberty is not a license to do whatever we want; it is the freedom to do everything for the Lord.
The apostle Paul, in this section of Romans, is not giving us a pass for lazy thinking or a justification for spiritual carelessness. He is not promoting a mushy relativism where your truth is your truth and my truth is mine. Far from it. He is calling us to a radical, all-encompassing, Christ-centered, God-ward orientation in every last detail of our lives. The central issue is not whether you eat meat or vegetables, or whether you observe a particular day or not. The central issue is this: to whom are you doing it? Is it for yourself, for your tribe, for your own sense of righteousness? Or is it for the Lord?
Paul’s argument here is a direct assault on the twin errors that constantly plague the church: legalism and license. The legalist adds to God’s law, creating new standards of righteousness. The libertine subtracts from God’s law, carving out autonomous zones where he imagines Christ is not Lord. Paul demolishes both by establishing the absolute and total Lordship of Jesus Christ over every square inch of our existence, from the dinner table to the deathbed.
The Text
One person judges one day above another, another regards every day alike. Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind. He who regards the day, regards it for the Lord, and he who eats, eats for the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who does not eat, for the Lord he does not eat and gives thanks to God. For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself; 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. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.
(Romans 14:5-9 LSB)
Convinced Before God (v. 5)
Paul moves from the issue of diets to the issue of days, applying the same central principle.
"One person judges one day above another, another regards every day alike. Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind." (Romans 14:5)
In the Roman church, you had Jewish believers who had been raised to honor the Sabbath and the various feast days of the Old Covenant. It was entirely natural for them to continue to see special significance in these days. On the other hand, you had Gentile believers who had no such background, and who understood, correctly, that the shadows of the old covenant had been fulfilled in Christ. One esteems a day; another esteems every day alike. What is Paul’s solution? Does he take a side? No. He tells each one to be "fully convinced in his own mind."
This is not a command to be pig-headed. It is not an endorsement of subjective whim. The conviction must be formed before God, on the basis of His Word. It means we are not to be wishy-washy in our Christian walk. We are to think through our positions. We are to study the Scriptures and seek to honor God in the conclusions we reach. If a man, after studying the issue, concludes that he ought to honor the Lord’s Day in a particular way, let him do it without judging the man who has a different practice. If another man concludes that every day is the Lord's Day and should be lived with equal sanctity, let him do so without despising the first man.
The key is that the conviction is "in his own mind." This is a matter of conscience, and as the Reformers rightly taught, God alone is Lord of the conscience. Your pastor cannot be Lord of your conscience. Your denomination cannot be Lord of your conscience. And your fussy Christian brother certainly cannot be Lord of your conscience. In these matters of liberty, you answer to God, and to God alone. This requires robust, thoughtful, biblically-informed Christians, not spiritual floaters who are tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine or cultural fad.
The Ultimate Orientation (v. 6)
Verse 6 provides the crucial diagnostic question for all our actions in this realm of freedom.
"He who regards the day, regards it for the Lord, and he who eats, eats for the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who does not eat, for the Lord he does not eat and gives thanks to God." (Romans 14:6 LSB)
Here is the acid test. The man who observes the day does so "for the Lord." The man who eats meat does so "for the Lord." The man who abstains from meat does so "for the Lord." The direction of the action is what sanctifies it. It is oriented vertically, toward God. It is not oriented horizontally, toward impressing others or placating a guilty conscience.
And what is the unmistakable evidence of this God-ward orientation? Thanksgiving. Both the eater and the abstainer give thanks to God. Gratitude is the mortal enemy of both legalistic pride and licentious arrogance. The legalist cannot be truly thankful because he believes he has earned the blessing through his scrupulous observance. His prayer is, "I thank thee, God, that I am not like other men, who eat hot dogs." The libertine cannot be truly thankful because he takes God's gifts for granted, as though they were his by right. He does not thank the Giver; he simply consumes the gift.
But the man who is living in Christian liberty, whether he eats or abstains, does so with a heart full of gratitude to the God who provides all things and who has set him free in Christ. Thanksgiving is the atmosphere in which Christian liberty thrives. If you can do it, whatever "it" is, and genuinely give thanks to God through Christ while doing it, then you are on solid ground. If you cannot, then you are in danger of sinning against your conscience, which, as Paul will say later, is sin indeed.
No Autonomous Zones (v. 7-8)
Paul now broadens the principle to encompass the whole of our existence, from beginning to end.
"For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself; 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." (Romans 14:7-8 LSB)
This is one of the most radical statements in all of Scripture, and it is a direct declaration of war against the modern, Western idol of expressive individualism. The foundational assumption of our age is that "I am my own." My life is my own. My body is my own. My death is my own. Paul says, nonsense. "Not one of us lives for himself." The Christian is not an autonomous unit. We are not individuals in that sense; we are, as has been said, inter-dividuals. We belong to God, and we belong to one another in the body of Christ.
This principle of non-autonomy governs everything. "If we live, we live for the Lord." Our careers, our families, our hobbies, our finances, our waking and our sleeping, all of it is to be lived for the Lord. There are no neutral zones. There is no square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not cry, "Mine!"
And this extends even to our final moments. "If we die, we die for the Lord." Our death is not our own. We are not the masters of our exit. The modern push for "death with dignity" is a pagan rebellion against the sovereignty of God. We do not get to decide the time or the manner of our departure. We die for the Lord, as His servants, when He calls us home. Therefore, the conclusion is inescapable: "whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s." We are His property. We have been bought with a price. This is not a restriction of our freedom; it is the very foundation of it. To belong to Christ is to be free from the tyranny of sin, of self, and of Satan.
The Foundation of Lordship (v. 9)
In the final verse of our text, Paul provides the ultimate grounding, the bedrock foundation, for this total claim on our lives.
"For to this end Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living." (Romans 14:9 LSB)
Why are we the Lord’s? Why does He have this all-encompassing claim on us? Because He purchased it. The basis of His Lordship is His finished work of redemption. "To this end Christ died and lived again." His death was the payment for our sin, buying us out of the slave market of sin. His resurrection was His vindication and His coronation, the public declaration by the Father that this one, Jesus of Nazareth, is the rightful King of the cosmos.
His Lordship is therefore absolute and universal. He is Lord "both of the dead and of the living." This means there is no escape from His authority. Those who are alive on the earth are under His dominion, whether they acknowledge it or not. Every knee will bow. And those who have died are also under His authority. The saints who have gone before us are with the Lord, serving Him in glory. The unrepentant dead are held under His judgment, awaiting the final resurrection. No one slips through His fingers. His reign is total.
This is why our squabbles over food and days are so shortsighted. We are arguing about the furniture arrangement in a house that belongs entirely to another. The real question is not what my personal preference is, but what acknowledges the reality of His ownership most faithfully. The goal is to live as a loyal subject in the kingdom of the one who died and rose again to be Lord of all.
Conclusion: Living Under New Management
The implications of this passage are staggering. It means that the Christian life is not a set of religious duties tacked on to an otherwise secular life. It is a life that is lived, from top to bottom, in every detail, under new management. We are the Lord's.
This truth liberates us from the tyranny of other people's opinions. We are not trying to please the legalists or the libertines. We are living to please the Lord. This truth also liberates us from the tyranny of our own whims and sinful desires. We are not our own; we cannot simply do what we feel like doing. We must ask, "What does my Lord require?"
So, in all these matters of freedom, the path forward is clear. First, be fully convinced in your own mind, based on the Word of God. Do not be lazy. Think it through. Second, whatever you do, do it for the Lord. Orient your life vertically. Third, do it with thanksgiving. Let gratitude be the air you breathe. And finally, remember the price that was paid to give you this freedom. Christ died and rose again to be your Lord.
When we grasp this, our petty disputes are put in their proper perspective. We stop judging and despising our brothers over trivialities and we start encouraging one another to live more faithfully as the joyful, grateful, and obedient subjects of our great King. Whether we are eating a steak or a salad, whether we are celebrating on Saturday or Sunday, the ultimate purpose is the same: that in all things, Christ might be acknowledged as Lord, to the glory of God the Father.