Romans 14:9-16

 

Rom 14:9 (KJV)
For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living.

Revived - Live again

The thought continues from verse 8. The Lord Jesus Christ died for our salvation and by His life He rules over us. His rule is both over those believers who are still alive on earth at any given time in history and He rules over those believers who have physically died and went to be with Him in glory. (2 Cor 5:8 KJV) We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. In the Old Testament there is a similar statement. (Gen 25:8 KJV) Then Abraham gave up the ghost, and died in a good old age, an old man, and full of years; and was gathered to his people. Abraham was gathered to his people who are the people of God in Glory.

Rom 14:10 (KJV)
But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.

Nought - Despise

Here once again we are asked why we should judge our brother or treat our brother as nothing, denoting that he is a worthless individual. Then we are told that we shall all stand before the Judgment seat of Christ. We see this come to pass in detail on the last day when every human being will stand before the Lord. (Mat 25:32-33 KJV) And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: {33} And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. The unbeliever stands before the throne of Christ without a Savior and therefore will be cast into eternal Hell. On the other hand, the believer stands there with the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior and they all stand on equal ground. This is why we are not to judge our brother since all believers stand on the same ground in salvation. There is no such thing as one being more redeemed than the other or one being more favored than another.

Rom 14:11 (KJV)
For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.

As we saw in Matthew 25:31-46, every human being who ever lived on earth is going to bow their knee to the Lord Jesus Christ. This includes all the enemies of Christ down through the ages which includes atheists, agnostics, religious people, evolutionists, etc. All the enemies of God who have denied Him and His existence, are going to verbally confess His existence and omnipotence. The word “confess” in this verse carries with it the meaning of “verbally expressing something.” Those who have repudiated Him will now acknowledge Him. Freedom of Belief does end on Judgment Day!

Rom 14:12 (KJV)
So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.

Each of us must keep our spiritual houses in order and we are not to judge another with a scathing judgment. This verse indicates that we shall give an account of the using of the gifts which God gave us and how we spent our time on earth. We must be accountable to God for the ministry of evangelizing the world and what our part was. We must also keep in mind that this is not a judgment because the believer was already judged in Christ and found not guilty because of the sacrifice of Christ. This is not a judgment for rewards either since there is no such judgment. This verse seems to be telling us that we will give an account unto God for the ministries entrusted to us. Many lazy Christians may be embarrassed at this accounting when their lives were taken up with concerns about their children’s soccer games instead of souls for Christ.

Rom 14:13 (KJV)
Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother's way.

Paul once again reverts to a past teaching. Here he is telling us that we should not judge those who are weaker in the faith and we must be careful that if we continue to judge or be critic of them, it might cause a stumblingblock to be placed in their way. They might become very despondent or discouraged if they are constantly being criticized, and that might cause them to throw their hands up and just give up and once again embrace the ways of the world. The strong in the church must nurture those who are weak in the faith. There is no need for consistent judgment but there needs to be more encouragement.

Rom 14:14 (KJV)
I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean.

If a person believes something is unclean, then no matter how much you judge them, they will continue to believe something is unclean. The Gospel frees us from the bondage of being under the Mosaic law but we must remember that there may be some weaker believers who still believe that they must adhere to certain things in that law. It does not mean they will lose their salvation or that they are working for their salvation, but it may be for other purposes such as we saw previously concerning food.

Rom 14:15 (KJV)
But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably. Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died.

If our actions, even if biblically permitted, causes another to stumble then we are not walking with love in our hearts. A mature Christian must realize where they have come from and how long it took them to get to that point and that is why there must be patience with younger believers. Christ died for the weaker believer just the same as for the stronger believer and that means we must never look down on them for any reason.

Rom 14:16 (KJV)
Let not then your good be evil spoken of:

We must be careful that we do not put any stumbling blocks before any weaker Christian because then the word will spread that there is no love in that in that individual or that the church has no love. Whenever there is some type of disagreement, the first thing to go is the testimony of the Gospel and people will point and say those Christians just have no love for each other. We must never give the enemy an opportunity to allow any negative remarks about the Gospel. We want people to look at Christ and not us but sometimes we get in the way of that view with petty squabbles.