Roger's Postings

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Romans 14:1-12. To whom do we belong??? 14/9/08

{1) Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters. {2} One man's faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. {3} The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him. {4}Who are you to judge someone else's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand. {5} One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. {6} He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. {7} For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. {8} If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. {9} For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living. {10} You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God's judgment seat. {11} It is written: "'As surely as I live,' says the Lord, 'every knee will bow before me; every tongue will confess to God.'" {12} So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.

Today we are strongly influenced by the attitude, that we are all individuals and that we belong to no one. We are the product of an evolutionary process and are no different than the animals; and so we can think and do as we please. Is it any wonder then, that we are more and more hearing of people acting like animals? Is it any wonder that we can be so uncaring and critical toward those around us? Individualism and the attitude that we can all make truth what we want it to be, has become the predominant view of life and it is wreaking havoc in our society.

This individualism has also crept right into the heart of the church; fostered along by that sinful nature that is in each one of us. This too is causing immense problems in churches and in people’s lives. The animal philosophy of everyone doing there own thing and imposing themselves and their judgements and truths on everyone else, is in our midst as well. We are not immune: sadly!

To each one of here, we need to listen to this message and heed what God is saying to us. No person is an island unto themselves. All of us have our failings and our shortcomings. Not one of us can stand up against a fellow-Christian and say that we are any better than they.
One man's faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him. Who are you to judge someone else's servant? Listen and reflect on what God is saying here. The person who does not think this applies to them, listen especially carefully.

To each one of us, both they and you personally, remember that each of us To his own master he stands or falls. Each of us has a master; each of us belongs to another. To whom do you belong?? As I said earlier, many seem to think that they are answerable to nobody; to many they have no qualms about hurting another; to many they think nothing of sinning against another, after all God has forgiven them. To many, they are an island unto themselves.

However, at the end of the day, remember that we have one of two masters: either God or Satan. Either, God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit is your Lord, or you belong to him whose eternal destiny is Hell. Who is your master? To whom do you belong?

Surely we here are the Lord’s people: we surely belong to God. God has made his claim on us: In the waters of baptism he joined us into his family: we are His. There we were joined to Jesus and his death on the cross and forgiveness of sins, life and salvation that he has won for us. He is our Lord and our master.

In this regard remember that we are not the Lord’s people because of our creation. We yes were created as his people, but because of our rebellion [ here I am talking about you and I]; because of our rebellion we had become alienated from our Lord: enemies of God. As a result we have no claim on God; we cannot stand before him in our own account.

It is only because we have been bought with a price that we are members of his family. Jesus paid the price in his death on the cross for our forgiveness. There in his awful death on the cross Jesus redeemed us from being enemies to now being his people. Because of him alone we are now able to be joined to him in our baptism and are assured that we are right with him. So each one of us is able to stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand: For no other reason than that. That equally applies to those who are weak in the faith as well as those who are strong.

Now that being the case none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. Because he died and rose again for us, he is Lord of us all. Those of us who are Christians will now look to him as our master. We belong to him, so now we will live for him; and for him alone.

That then means that what he says, will be important to us. How he tells us we need to live, is how we will seek to live. How he wants us to act toward our fellow Christian is what we will now seek to do. Not first and foremost, for us to tell others what to believe and do; but what will be important for us. And surely after what he has done for us and for our salvation we will seek diligently to be with him and listen to him so that we can more and more know what is pleasing to him.

Everything we do will be done by us as our way of giving thanks to God; both what we do do and what we abstain from, will be done to the Lord and gives thanks to God. He will be the focus of all that we do and how we do it, and not ourselves. He will be the one who determines what is truth for us, because we know that he is the way and the truth and the life. He will be the one that glory is to go to and not ourselves.

At the same time we will always seek to recognise that , each of us will give an account of himself to God. We might think we can get away with doing all kinds of things, and it doesn’t matter; however here again we are reminded that one day we will have to give account for our attitudes and actions. We surely will not think that we are forgiven, therefore it doesn’t matter what I do, or don’t do; or how I might offend a fellow believer. Let us remember that our Lord sees into our hearts and he knows what is motivating us, and who we see as our master. We can fool the people around us, but we will not be able to fool our Lord. At the same time we can leave the judgement of the other person to him also, for he knows that motivations of their hearts as well..

But why would we want to ignore God and his ways? Again, surely he has done so much for us that we cannot help but want to do what our Lord would want us to be doing. Surely our knee bows in humble adoration, thanks and obedience for his abundant grace that he has extended to us. Surely with our tongues and our lives we want to confess to God and others how great he truly is. Surely we belong to him and will live with and for him. He will be our life.

Out of gratitude then for all that our gracious God is and has done for us let us then heed what he has to say to us here.
You, then, why do you judge your brother or sister? Or why do you look down on them? For we will all stand before God's judgment seat. It is written: "'As surely as I live,' says the Lord, 'every knee will bow before me; every tongue will confess to God.'" Let us then live for him.
He is our Lord and our saviour; to him alone then, be all glory and honour, now and always. AMEN

Pastor Roger Atze
Redeemer Lutheran Church
Toowoomba

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