The Life You Call Mine
Romans 14:7 - None of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself.
“My body, my choice” may be the most recognizable ownership claim in modern culture. It appears in arguments about abortion, sexuality, gender, medicine, and personal freedom. But the philosophy travels much farther than the slogan. We repeat quieter versions of it every day: My time. My money. My future. My truth. My life. There’s something important to understand here. Other people don’t own you. A government, employer, parent, pastor, or spouse has no absolute claim over your body or conscience. Human authority is always limited and accountable to God. But refusing human ownership doesn’t make us self-owned. The Christian claim is more radical: you belong to the Lord.
Think of a tenant holding the keys to an apartment. The keys provide real freedom within the home. The tenant can arrange the furniture, cook dinner, invite friends over, and live an actual life there. Yet possessing the keys isn’t the same as possessing the title. The tenant can’t tear out a load-bearing wall and answer every objection with, “My apartment, my choice.” The building belongs to someone else. We hold many keys. We make meaningful decisions, bear real responsibility, and possess genuine human agency. Scripture never reduces us to puppets. But agency is not the same as ownership. You didn’t call yourself into existence. You don’t keep your heart beating by an act of will. And you can’t finally prevent death from taking the keys from your hand.
Paul writes Romans 14 to Christians arguing over food and sacred days. His answer isn’t that everyone should declare personal sovereignty and do whatever feels right. He reminds them that each believer answers to the same Lord. “None of us lives to himself.” Your choices are personal, but they’re never just private. They’re made inside a life that belongs to Jesus. That truth can sound threatening until you remember what kind of Lord owns you. Christ didn’t seize you through violence. He gave Himself for you. The hands that hold the title are scarred hands. His authority is the authority of the One who entered death to rescue rebels and rose to bring them home!
This means Jesus has rights over more than the religious corner of your life. Your calendar, body, sexuality, spending, ambitions, grudges, retirement, and hidden habits all fall beneath His loving rule. Yet His claim doesn’t shrink your humanity. Sin does that. Christ’s lordship restores you to the life for which you were made. So the question isn’t whether you have choices. You do. The question is whether those choices are acts of self-coronation or grateful stewardship. Freedom begins when the keys in your hand are held with open fingers before the rightful Owner. In life and death, you belong to the Lord who gave Himself for you.
Head: I am not self-owned; I belong to the Lord who created me, redeemed me, and holds my life with scarred hands.
Heart: Where does “This is my life” rise inside me when Jesus presses His claim upon a choice I want to control?
Hands: Finish this sentence in writing: “Jesus, You have authority over my _____.” Name one decision in that area and ask what faithful stewardship requires today.
Prayer: “Lord Jesus, I confess that I often hold Your gifts as though they were my possessions. Thank You for claiming me through love rather than crushing me through power. Expose the places where I resist Your rightful authority. Teach me to place every key back into Your hands with trust. Amen.”
-PK