“For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.” -Romans 14:9
It is to “this end,” the end that we all belong to the Lord and seek to honor the Lord, that Christ “died and lived again.” Why then should we wrongfully despise or judge our brothers and sisters in Christ about matters not clearly commanded in Scripture? Instead, we are to welcome one another with love and be patient and deferent in matters of personal conviction.
Note the construction of language Paul uses here, died and lived again; he does not say, lived and died. His point being, that by dying on the cross and rising to life again (where Christ now sits at the right hand of the Father), Jesus established his indisputable Lordship over both those who have died and those who still live.
Even now, he is making intercession for the believers as the author of Hebrews affirms: “Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.” -Hebrews 7:25
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