“Q: What is your only comfort in life and in death?
A: That I am not my own but belong body and soul in life and in death to my faithful savior Jesus Christ”
“I don’t belong to anyone. I make my own choices.” “I don’t belong to anyone… but myself.” “I still don’t belong to anyone. I am mine.” That’s a smattering of pop culture quotes. The first is from a young adult fiction book. The second is from a Manga comic book series. The third is from a rock song from the nineties. These three diverse sources show us that this outlook is everywhere and has been for a while. “I don’t belong to anyone. I make my own choices.” “I don’t belong to anyone… but myself.” “I still don’t belong to anyone. I am mine.”
At first blush, those words might appeal to you. You want to make you own choices. You don’t want to be controlled by anyone else.
In our culture we put a high value on the right to rule ourselves. It is woven into our democracy. It is woven into our economy. We make our own choices. Apparently, each of us belongs to no one higher than ourselves. The men and women of our culture live by the following mantra, “Just a reminder. I belong to no one, I am owned by no one, I answer to no one.” Does that appeal to you?
Be wise in your response because you can’t belong without belonging. “I don’t belong to anyone… but myself,” might sound liberating. It is really just lonely.
The movie Breakfast at Tiffany’smakes that clear. At the end of the movie, Paul, played by George Peppard, finally confesses his love for Holly, played by Audrey Hepburn. In a taxi cab with rain pouring outside he says, “Holly, I am in love with you.” She says, “So what.” “So plenty!”, says Paul. “I love you. You belong to me.” She begins to cry and says, “No. People don’t belong to people.” “Of course they do,” says Paul. Holly is having none of it. “I’ll never let anybody put me in a cage.” Paul says, “I don’t want to put you in a cage. I want to love you.” Holly turns her head away and says, “It’s the same thing.” “I don’t want to put you in a cage. I want to love you.” “It’s the same thing.”
If you live by the words, “I don’t belong to anyone… but myself,” you will belong only to yourself. If you don’t want to belong to anyone, you shouldn’t be surprised that you don’t belong to anyone. You can’t belong to yourself and have anyone.
You can’t have yourself for yourself and have God. To have God is to belong to God. No lover of God can say, “I don’t belong to anyone. I make my own choices.” No lover of God can say, “I don’t belong to anyone… but myself.” No lover of God can say, “I still don’t belong to anyone. I am mine.”
Do you belong to yourself? If so, you don’t belong to God. Do you belong to God? If so, you can’t belong to yourself. That’s the claim of this sermon: Do you belong to yourself? If so, you don’t belong to God. Do you belong to God? If so, you can’t belong to yourself.
We will see this in two points. First: you are not your own. Second: belonging. First: you are not your own. Second: belonging.
First: you are not your own. Many people in our culture consider those the most frightening words imaginable—“you are not your own.” The Catechism considers them to be the only security in this sad world. “What is your only comfort in life and in death? That I am not my own but belong body and soul in life and in death to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.”
The man apart from God demands to be his own. Man is saved by no longer being his own but by belonging to Jesus.
Man’s desire to rule himself was apparent at the dawn of history. Satan appealed to Eve’s desire to rule herself. ‘Why should you submit to God? Why should you accept God’s judgment on good and evil? Rule yourself.’ “God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Eve didn’t want to submit to God. “I don’t belong to anyone. I make my own choices.”
The Old Testament shows Israel doing the same. Psalm 81, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of Egypt. Open wide your mouth and I will fill it. But my people would not listen to me; Israel would not submit to me. So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices.” “I don’t belong to anyone… but myself.” ‘Then I give you over to your stubborn heart to follow your own devices.’
If you belong to yourself, then God will treat you as He treated Israel. He will give you over to your stubborn heart. That is what God did to the nations that didn’t want to belong to Him. As Paul wrote to the Romans, “Although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.”
If you cringe at the idea of belonging to God, He will give you over to yourself. He will give you what you think you want. “I don’t belong to anyone. I make my own choices.”
Every man who says that thinks that his choices will be wise and noble. If that’s you, your choices will not be wise and noble. If God gives you over to your own heart, here is what will happen: “they were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice… foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.” That’s what happens when people stop belonging to God and start belonging to themselves.
Paul talks about such people by saying their god is their stomach, that is they serve their own appetites. They are ruled by themselves. “Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame.”
Man was not created to belong to himself. That way only leads to destruction. Think of the people you know who live for themselves. Think of the people you know who submit to nothing higher than their own wants. You can’t have harmony with those people. Neither will God.
Man was not created to belong to himself. He was created to belong to God. Psalm 100, “Know that the Lord, He is God! It is He who made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture.”
Modern man views that as an insult. ‘I’m no sheep!’ David didn’t think being called a sheep was an insult. This man in all his hulking masculinity thought it was security. “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.”
You don’t get green pastures, still waters, a restored soul, safe paths, comfort in the darkest valleys, and freedom from want if you belong to yourself. The good shepherd only gives that to his sheep. If you are your own, you don’t belong to the shepherd. You are like the crowd Jesus saw in Matthew 9, “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”
Matthew recognized that we humans are sheep whether we know it or not. The difference is between sheep who belong to the good shepherd and sheep without a shepherd, sheep in the clutches of Satan.
There are not three classes of people in this world—those who belong to Jesus, those who belong to Satan, and those who belong to themselves. Unless you belong to Jesus, you are a captive of Satan. That’s 2 Corinthians 4, “the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.” That’s Ephesians 1, “you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.” That’s the message of Revelation 13:8; everyone who doesn’t belong to Jesus has given allegiance to the beast; “authority was given [the beast] over every tribe and people and language and nation, and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.”
If your name is not written in the Lamb’s book of life, if you do not belong to Jesus, in other words if you think you are your own, your allegiance is already with the beast. You are already blinded to the good news of who Jesus is and what he has done. You are already following the way of the god of this world. You are a sheep whether you know it or not. You are just a sheep without a shepherd.
Do you want to be your own? “I don’t belong to anyone. I make my own choices.” “I don’t belong to anyone… but myself.” “I still don’t belong to anyone. I am mine.” Do you want that? If so, why? Is it because you don’t know what it means to belong? Listen to what it means to belong to Jesus. That is our second point: belonging.
I can see why some people might be uneasy about belonging. Some people grew up in authoritarian homes. Some people were or are married to an abusive spouse. Some people have been burned by following a destructive leader. Belonging can be particularly frightening for many people. Yet belonging to Jesus is the only comfort possible in this sad world. “What is your only comfort in life and in death?” “That I am not my own but belong body and soul, in life and in death to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.”
If you are nervous about belonging to Jesus, please consider him. You aren’t just called to belong. You are called to belong to Jesus.
Consider him. He isn’t severe. He is gentle. “A bruised reed he will not break,and a smoldering wick he will not quench,” as Matthew 12:20 puts it. He is, “gentle and humble in heart,” as Matthew 11:29 puts it.
He isn’t manipulative. Read through the gospels. Watch how he deals with people.
He isn’t controlling. You might scoff at that. You might say, ‘well, what about all those commandments?’ Controlling people make rules for their own benefit. Jesus’ commandments are for your benefit. Moses made that clear, “now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to Him, to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?”
Jesus wants your good. He calls you to forgive for your good. He calls you to repentance for your good. He calls you to listen to God for your good.
Do you think that God knows better than you? Let’s put this in terms of parents and teenagers. You might think your parents’ rule about wanting to meet a boy before you start dating him to be extreme. It is for your good. You might find your parents’ rules about how many extracurricular events you can be involved in restrictive. It is for your good. They know what is in your best interest.
God knows what’s best for you. He knows you better than your parents, who probably know you better than you want to admit. He knows you better than you know yourself. He gives commands for your good.
Tell me which of His commands are controlling? What is so restrictive about treating others as if they were created in the image of God? What is so crushing about resting, worshipping, and celebrating for one day a week? What is so constricting about giving as you’ve received? Others might have tried to impose their will on you for their good. Jesus isn’t like that. He has your best interests in mind. Belonging to him is not a risk.
Consider what he has done to make it possible for you to belong to him. Listen to Peter, “You know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.”
Do you think that the Son of God would shed his blood for your sins in order to start manipulating you? Do you think that Jesus of Nazareth would go to Calvary just for the chance to control you? Do you think he did it with himself in mind? “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Belonging to a manipulative, controlling, self-serving person is like slavery. If you are afraid that belonging to Jesus will be like that, consider how the Bible talks about belonging to God. It talks about it in terms of adoption. You are adopted into God’s family. As Paul told the Romans, ‘The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption as sons. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”’
Belonging to God doesn’t lead to fear. It begins to eliminate fear. You now belong to someone who has your best interest at heart. You now belong to someone is able to do more than you can ask or imagine.
Many people mock Christianity saying that they could never blindly follow such a God. In reality, many of these people just think it is too good to be true. The thought that someone would love them enough to suffer for them seems too good to be true. The thought that someone as powerful of God would choose them as a child seems too good to be true. The thought that they could belong to someone like Jesus seems too good to be true. If these people read the gospels, they don’t find Jesus unbelievable. They won’t bring themselves to believe. They won’t bring themselves to belong.
Do you recognize what a splendid thing it is to belong to Jesus? Do you recognize what a splendid thing it is to have God as your Father? Belonging to Jesus isn’t a reason for fear. It is a reason for security. It is a reason for comfort.
There are benefits to belonging. If you belong to God, you will not be forgotten. Isn’t that what many of us fear, to be forgotten?
Some people have tattoos on their shoulders of loved ones who have died. They want everyone to know that their loved one has not been forgotten. God does more than that. He engraves you on His hands. “Can a mother forget the baby at her breastand have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget,I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.” Don’t you want to belong to Someone like that?
If you belong to Jesus, not even death will separate you from him. “This is the will of him who sent me,” said Jesus, “that I shall lose none of all those he has given me but raise them up at the last day.”
If you belong to Jesus, he will escort you through death. He won’t lose you. If you don’t belong to him, then you belong to yourself in death and you will acquire for yourself in death what you can acquire, which is nothing. Marilynne Robinson is right, “If you want to inform yourselves as to the nature of hell, don’t hold your hand in a candle flame, just ponder the meanest, most desolate place in your soul.” The only way to escape that, the only way to escape belonging to yourself for eternity, is by belonging to Jesus.
This language of belonging arose, in part, because the first readers of this Catechism were told they didn’t belong to the church and therefore they didn’t belong to Jesus. The Roman Catholic Church excommunicated the protestors, the Protestants. They were cut off from the Mass and they were told that, that meant they were cut off from salvation.
The Catechism begins by saying, ‘no, no, no… if you have faith in Jesus, you belong. You don’t need the Roman magisterium to claim you. You don’t need to belong to them. You need to belong to Jesus. The only comfort in life and in death isn’t the absolution of the mass. The only comfort in life and in death is found in belonging to Jesus.’
Do you belong to Jesus? Is this real security for you like it was for those original readers or is this just something to which you feel entitled? Is your only comfort in life and in death found in the fact that you try to be a good person? The fact of the matter is that you are not good enough. The Bible’s benchmark of good enough is Jesus of Nazareth. Anything else falls short. If you don’t think that you fall short of that mark, I’m not really sure why you are here. You are too busy worshipping yourself to worship God, but I am glad you are here because God might open your ears to something you need to hear. Belonging to Jesus will change you, and you need to be changed.
That might scare you. That might scare you if you have been a Christian for years. Ironically to know the deep comfort of belonging to Jesus, you need to be ready to be uncomfortable because at times change is uncomfortable. Belonging to Jesus not uncomfortable because he’s unloving. It’s uncomfortable because what’s unlovely about you is being trimmed off.
Belonging to Jesus will change you. You won’t be the same. At times you might wonder who you are becoming. That happens when you don’t belong to yourself. Paul experienced that, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Paul’s identity changed. He became more like Jesus.
Is that what you want? Do you want to be more like Jesus? Do you want to love the way he loves? Do you want to know truth the way he knows truth? Do you want to know the Father like he knows the Father?
As you become more like him, you might become a bit of a mystery to yourself. That’s to be expected. Your own plans for yourself fall far short of Jesus’ plans for you. You don’t get to determine who you are anymore, but you do know one thing. You know that you belong to him.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote a poem about them from his prison cell before being executed by the Nazis. He wrote, “Who am I? They often tell me I stepped from my cell’s confinement calmly, cheerfully, firmly, like a squire from his country house. Who am I? They often tell me I used to speak to my warders freely and friendly and clearly, as though it were mine to command. Who am I? They also tell me I bore the days of misfortune equably, smilingly, proudly, like one accustomed to win.
Am I then really that which other men tell of? Or am I only what I myself know of myself? Restless and longing and sick, like a bird in a cage, struggling for breath, as though hands were compressing my throat, yearning for colors, for flowers, for the voices of birds, thirsting for words of kindness, for neighborliness, tossing in expectations of great events, powerlessly trembling for friends at an infinite distance, weary and empty at praying, at thinking, at making, faint, and ready to say farewell to it all.
Who am I? This or the other? Am I one person today and tomorrow another? Am I both at once? A hypocrite before others, and before myself a contemptible woebegone weakling? Or is something within me still like a beaten army fleeing in disorder from victory already achieved?
Who am I? They mock me, these lonely questions of mine. Whoever I am, You know, O God, I am Thine!”
That’s as deep as the Christian can delve into his identity. ‘Who are you? I belong to Jesus.’ You are no longer identified by your personality, or your occupation, or your hobbies. You are identified by belonging. You belong to Jesus.
Do you belong to anyone? “I don’t belong to anyone. I make my own choices.” “I don’t belong to anyone… but myself.” “I still don’t belong to anyone. I am mine.” Is that what you would say? “I am not my own but belong body and soul in life and in death to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.”
Do you belong to yourself? If so, you don’t belong to Jesus. Do you belong to Jesus? If so, you don’t want to belong to yourself. You’ve found something far better. Amen.