New City Catechism Question 1
Q: What is our only hope in life and death?
A: That we are not our own, but belong, body and soul, both
in life and death, to God and to our Savior Jesus Christ.
Romans 14:7-8
“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.”
I love that New City Catechism begins here with this
question. It is a question that assaults our fierce independence and reorients
us to view ourselves in light of a God who made us, loves us, and has bought us
with a price (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). It is a question that challenges our
fundamental presuppositions that we carry in this culture, mainly that we think
we belong to ourselves and that we are masters of ourselves, our decisions, and
our futures. And it is a question that truly does give us hope, when we realize
that on our own we have no hope in life and in death, it is only through belonging
to God through Jesus’ death on the cross for our sins that we can have a glorious
eternal life with our Heavenly Father. And because of that hope we should not
live for ourselves and make plans and decisions that promote our self-interest
and desires, but we should live fully and completely for God. Our hopes,
dreams, goals, and decisions should always be centered around God and a desire
to see him glorified.
Now it is not hard to affirm this truth that the bible states
so clearly. We are not our own, but we belong to God. What is far more
difficult is to actually live in light of this truth. For even though we may
believe that we are not our own, that we were bought with a price, and that we
belong to God, every single day we make countless decisions that are centered
around ourselves and our own self-interest. And many may not even be aware that
this is actually selfishness. We are ingrained in this culture to focus on what
brings us pleasure and fulfillment. We are encouraged to do that which leads to
our own self-improvement. And both religious and secular research has
demonstrated that even institutions like marriage, that have historically been
about serving others and the common good, are now viewed as vehicles for
self-enhancement.[i] Therefore
if we do not take time to think about our daily decisions, we will inevitably
fall into the pattern of our culture and automatically make decisions that are
centered around ourselves and our self-interest and pleasure.
How then can we start living in light of this glorious truth
that we are not our own but that we belong to God? How can we go through our
day so that our minute by minute decisions are geared towards God and his
glory, not our own? While there are many suggestions that can help us in this,
let me suggest that one key to living for God and not for ourselves on a daily
basis is an issue of thanksgiving. How thankful are we for what God has done
for us? How often do we reflect on the depth and depravity of our own sin, and
how hopelessly lost we were being separated from God? How often do we reflect
on the lavish grace of Jesus’ sacrifice for us on the cross? How often do we
reflect on how costly God’s love for us is in that he sent his one and only son
to die for our sin? Familiarity with Jesus dying on the cross for our sin can
sometimes lead us to gloss over the severity and costliness of God’s love for
us, and to take the radical self-sacrifice of God for granted. But if we can
recover some sense of how much God has given to save us and how much he has
given because he loves us, then the thanksgiving that accompanies such
reflections will begin to shape our thought processes and our decision making. The
more we are thankful for what God has done for us, the more we will think about
how we can respond to God out of that thanksgiving. And when we are overwhelmed
with thanksgiving towards God, then it will be far easier to give ourselves and
everything we are and have to a God who has given everything for us.
[i] Timothy
Keller, The Meaning of Marriage: Facing
the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God (New York: The
Penguin Group, 2011), Chapters 1&2.
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