Life unto the Lord.
This is language which is doubtless deemed by some the language of extravagance and enthusiasm. But, in fact, it is sober enough. Nothing inferior to the law and principle here enounced can be accepted by the Lord Christ as the law and principle of his people's life. And that the standard is one which may be attained is undeniable; St. Paul himself was a living exemplification of its practicability. What he taught that others should be, he was himself.
I. THE PRINCIPLE OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. We "live unto the Lord." This personal relation between the Saviour and those who are saved by him is a distinctive feature of the new and Christian life. When we consider this expression, what do we find it to involve?
1. We live as in the Lord's sight, with his wise, observant, just, and yet friendly eye upon us.
2. We live under the motive and inspiration of the Lord's love and sacrifice. He has lived and died for us; we live and die unto him.
3. We live in obedience to his will; as the scholar lives to his master, the soldier to his general, the statesman to his country or his king.
4. We live with the help of his Spirit.
5. We live to our Lord's glory; losing sight of all that concerns ourselves, and become absorbed in and devoted to the extension of Christ's kingdom, and the honour of Christ's name. Even thus we do not exhaust the fulness of this noble utterance, "We live unto the Lord."
II. THE RANGE OF THE CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLE.
1. Life, in all its varied experiences, in all its successive stages, is to the Christian life unto the Lord. No aspect, no period, no interest, is exempt; it is the joy of Christ's servant to devote all energies, and to consecrate all influence, that life confers, unto him who redeemed life and made it a new and blessed thing.
2. Death is embraced within the wide range of this principle. An uninspired writer would not have ventured upon so sublime a representation as this. But Paul, who said, "To me to live is Christ," was constrained to add, "To die is gain." So here he says, "We die unto the Lord." This was obviously and beautifully true of those who perished in the discharge of offices suggested by Christian benevolence, and of those who "resisted unto blood, striving against sin," who died as martyrs, as witnesses to the truth. Yet none of any age or condition of life, who died in the discharge of duty however ordinary, were exempt from this privilege of dying unto Christ. It was doubtless often asked concerning a departed brother, "By what death did he glorify God?"
III. THE DIVINE POWER UNDERLYING THIS PRINCIPLE. A principle so contrary to selfish human nature can only be accounted for by a Divine interposition and provision. The apostle traces this:
1. In Christ's death, and:
2. In his resurrection, in virtue of which he has become to man not only the universal Saviour, but the universal Lord.