Lord over life and death - All The Good Seed Daily Devotionals for 2024

For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body.
1 Corinthians 6:20

Lord over life and death
The spokesman for a pro-euthanasia organisation was asked, “Who owns your body?” He replied, “It is mine and mine alone. It belongs neither to the church nor to a political party nor to medicine. I have been a free citizen from birth and even more so since I came of age. I have no intention of changing this as long as I live, and I will not have anything imposed on me – neither by doctors, nor by my family, nor by my heirs.”

This statement is understandable: no one has a right to another’s life. But still, it ignores one fact: God gave us life, and therefore we are accountable to Him for what we do with our lives.

Thus, every human being may know that he was created by God, who knew him before his conception. And God is also the One who determines the day of his death: “The Lord kills and makes alive” (1 Samuel 2:6).

If I were asked as a Christian who my body belongs to, I might answer like this: My body belongs to my God, along with my soul and spirit. Through His sacrificial death on the cross, Jesus Christ paid for my guilt and bought me for God (see today’s verse). Therefore, others are not allowed to decide about my life any more than I am allowed to decide about myself. I leave the care and responsibility for my life and death to a God who is much wiser than I am and who loves me.

I have the assurance that my decaying body will one day be transformed into a glorious body. And in the meantime, I remember that I no longer belong to myself but to Christ; and I strive to honour Him in my words and actions.

Today’s reading: 1 Kings 13:20-34 · John 10:1-6