Lord signifies master, ruler, governor. Lordship signifies dominion, power, authority...."For to this end Christ both died and rose and revived, that he might be Lord, both of the dead and living." Rom. 14:7-9.
1. The fact is stated "Christ is Lord of both living and dead."
2. How he became Lord: By death and resurrection.
3. Our responsibility: Being his we ought to obey him.
The reference in this text is to Christians, Christ DIED FOR ALL, and therefore has a claim upon the obedience of all. A Christian is one that recognizes the claims, and yields obedience....His power over mankind is secured by the Ransom. Definition:—
Ransom (verb), to recover by paying the price.
Ransom (noun), the price paid for recovery.
The ransom has relation to the thing bought as its equivalent. Note the value of Christ's death. "There is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the MAN Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time." 1 Tim. 2:5,6. Human for human is the legal ransom. He became a man that he might "give his life (Gr., psuchee—the natural life), a ransom for many." Matt. 20:28. It was the human life. "We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death;... that he by the grace of God might taste death for every man. Heb. 2:9.
"He took not the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham." Ver. 16.
This enabled him both to sympathize with and to redeem. "Forasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself took part of the same (not that he might die for himself, as one of us, but) that through death he might destroy...the devil and deliver" from death those who, while they lived, were afraid to die. (See verses 14,15.) It was not the pre-existent life; but, "A body hast thou prepared me....Lo, I come to do thy will, O God....By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Heb. 10:5-10. "Since by man (Adam) came death, by man (Christ) came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made "alive." 1 Cor. 15:21,22. The making "alive" of the 22d is clearly the raising "of the dead" of the 21st....He hath "abolished death (by the ransom) and brought LIFE AND IMMORTALITY to light." 2 Tim. 1:10. He gives life to all, "And became the author of ETERNAL salvation unto all them that obey him." Heb. 5:9.
Truly, Christ is Lord of all—angels, men, conditions and things. God in Christ is our Redeemer and Saviour. Our dependence is well established by the Word.
He has the highest claims on our hearts and lives, on account of the RANSOM PAID and the glorious expression of his love in this and all else he does for US.
May a "patient continuance in well-doing" secure for US the "glory and honor and immortality" which he has promised. Rom. 2:7.
[The above is a reprint from our issue of December, 1879. It gives evidence that the teaching of the TOWER on this fundamental doctrine of the Ransom is now the same that it was then. It should be remembered also, while contrasting the statement above with some quoted in our last from "An Inconsistent Contemporary," that the definitions given above, once true, cannot change with the changing theories of men. We hope the above extract will have a second careful reading, as it treats an important subject truthfully and forcibly.—EDITOR.]