We have a very different relationship to things we own than we do to things we do not. For example, if I throw some meat on the grill to cook for supper, that is not that unusual, that is, if it is my grill that sits behind our house. However, if I were to go into the backyard of my next-door neighbor and put a couple steaks on his grill without his permission, that would be something very different.
It is not only
the right or lack thereof to use things that differs between what belongs to us
and does not. We also tend to take better care of our belongings. I don’t mow
my neighbor’s yard or wash his truck. But I do those things with my yard and
truck. Why? Because they belong to me. I
am, therefore, committed to them and their maintenance.
Similarly, we need to see that Christians belong to God in two different ways and this means he is committed to us and we should be to him.
In Psalm 100:1-3 we read, “Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing! Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
Note in this short psalm that “all the earth” has an obligation to praise and serve the Lord since he created us. Elsewhere we see that God plainly reveals his “invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature” to the world (Rom. 1:19-20), that we might know him and he even works among us so we experience his “kindness [which] is meant to lead [us] to repentance” (Rom. 2:4). It is as if God had committed himself to those he created, to show he is “not far from each one of us” (Acts 17:27) and that we have all we need to come to know him.
We Belong To God Because He Saved Us
Those who have received and rested upon Jesus Christ alone for salvation belong to God in an additional and even more important way. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 of true followers of Christ: “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price.” Romans 14:7-8 puts it this way: “For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s."
God has made a solemn bond and agreement with his people, those who belong to him, that for all eternity he will be their God and they will be his people (Jeremiah 31:33; Rev. 21:3, 7). This means he will always be with them to care for them and “to show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness” (Eph. 2:7; 1 Peter 5:7). God only makes this promise to those “in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:7). It is this reality that leads to the eternal joy and blessedness Christians experience when they die (1 Peter 1:8-9; Rev. 14:13).
The fact that we belong to God leads to a commitment we are to make to him, namely, because we belong to him, we are to “glorify God in [our] body” (1 Cor. 6:20).
The fact that we belong to God also leads to the certain hope we have that God will bring us into our eternal glory and reward (Rom. 5:1-5; 8:28-30).
When we bring
all this together, we should find great joy and hope in the reality that we
belong to God, body and soul, both in this life and the coming life. This is
what the first question and answer of The New City
Catechism address:
“What is our only hope in life and death?”
Answer: “That we are not our own but belong, body and soul, both in life
and death, to God and to our Savior Jesus Christ.”
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