DIVINE OWNERSHIP
‘Ye are not your own.’
As Christians we are no longer our own. Jesus has acquired by His blood all rights of ownership over us. This is the great truth I desire to press upon you most earnestly and most affectionately, until it lays hold of your whole natures and exerts its true influence in your daily lives.
I. Ownership demands submission.—If ownership confers any privilege upon a man, it is surely the right to command with the certainty of being obeyed. And if we as Christians are the absolute possession and property of Jesus Christ, bought with His own life’s blood, it is His lawful prerogative to command and control every act and thought of our entire lives. It is His to speak and ours to obey. It is His to rule and ours to submit.
II. Ownership is a pledge of protection.—We are ever ready to guard our own possessions. No man would refuse to draw the sword in defence of hearth and home. Our treasures are made as secure as lock and key can make them. The more we value them the more carefully we devise the means to ensure their perfect safety. And shall not Christ protect the Church which He has purchased with His own life’s blood? Think you that our safety is of no importance to Him? St. Paul at any rate thought otherwise: ‘I know Whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.’ Oh, if we could only leave everything in the hands of Jesus!
III. Ownership confers enjoyment.—The cottage may be small and the garden that surrounds it may be nothing more than a narrow strip of soil in which the homeliest of homely flowers grow. A few pounds would buy the freehold in the open market. But let it be the cottar’s own and he will love it as no stranger could ever love. We are the King’s own. Our hearts are the King’s dwelling-place. Our lives are the King’s garden. Does He find enjoyment there? Sweetly did the Bride in the Song of Solomon invite the Bridegroom to visit His garden: ‘Let my Beloved come into His garden, and eat His pleasant fruits.’ Oh that the Church of Christ could address such an invitation to her Lord! Oh that we could individually welcome Him in such terms as these! Can we do so?
—Rev. G. A. Sowter.