77. Lord of dead and living
Romans 14:9 For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living.
Jesus is Lord of all; Jesus is Lord of both the dead and the living; Jesus died, rose and still lives in order that He might be Lord. The promise for me is that Jesus is my Lord, both of my dead life (my life without Christ) and my living life (my life with Christ). Jesus is Lord of all of me; Jesus is Lord of me all of time and eternity.
Jesus is Lord of the dead in that He has overcome death by His bodily resurrection from the dead. He is Lord of Death because that Enemy is defeated, and He is Lord of the dead because He gives life to the dead. When He is our Lord we are no longer dead but living, even though while we live on earth we are under the cloud and shadow of death. Our Lord makes the dead to live and keeps the living from dying.
To promise that He is Lord of the dead and living is the same as promising that Jesus is the Lord of Life: He gives life, He raises the dead to life, and He keeps alive the living. Therefore, if Jesus is our Lord it is guaranteed to us that we shall live and not die. And that promise is eternal.
Whether we live or whether we die we are the Lord’s. We belong to Him in life and in death. He is in charge of us. Dead or alive, we are His responsibility; He is responsible for our life and our living well and our living eternally. This promise means that we have no fear of death and we have no fear of living. Either way, or both ways, Jesus is Lord. And if so, everything is OK.
Jesus earned the right to Lordship over all by His death and resurrection. He earned the right to be our Lord because He died for us and He rose to give us life. We have the right to reject His Lordship. But why would we? For then we die. Why die when we have a promise?