I have referred to the word “revived” in Romans 14:9 before, that it is a case of equivalent intention and use of the word “refreshed” in Exodus 31:17.
Now I have been ridiculed for seeing and pointing out what no one else has noticed, but what has been there since Paul had written his Letter.
I have tried so far, to show Paul was actually quoting from Exodus 31 – a ‘Sabbath-passage’ from Holy Writ. I shall proceed to further support this finding with regard to another clause from Romans 14:9, Paul’s words namely, “that He might be Lord both of the dead and living”.
The following is read in verse 13 on, of Exodus chapter 31,
“And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the LORD that doth sanctify you. Ye shall keep the Sabbath therefore. . . . In the Seventh is the Sabbath of Rest, Holy to the LORD . . . . wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and (but), on the Seventh, He rested, and was refreshed (revived).”
Undeniably Paul had this word from God’s Word in the back of his mind when he wrote Romans 14:9! Romans 14:9 therefore contains – or rather as a whole is – a direct allusion to the Sabbath Day. And what is important for us, as believers of the Sabbath of the LORD your God, is, that Paul’s argumentation here implies Apostolic regard for and sanction of the Sabbath Day, and that he justifies this implication, through respect for and with regard unto, the Word of God, even the Old Testament.
Wherefore – as far as we, are concerned – the Sabbath, throughout all generations, shall be “a perpetual covenant” “between me and the children of Israel for ever”. This lasting quality of the Sabbath Day as sign between the LORD and Israel, depends on two things: That “the children of Israel” are “God’s People”, which ‘People’ it will stay for as long as the Elect of God had been elected. And two, the lasting quality of the Sabbath Day as sign between the LORD and Israel, depends on God being the LORD of His People. In the last analysis, the Sabbath is not the People’s even, but God’s. The Sabbath belongs to God; he possesses it – none other; no man, no Church, no authority. As Christ was “being raised” and was being “exalted”, “far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named not only in this world but also in that which is to come”, so He by and in His “obtained”, “finished”, Lordship, lifted up and out of reach of all these powers, the Day of His ‘triumphant’ ‘entry into his own rest as God’. No matter what “the dead” –‘Israel to the flesh’– might have done with or to the Sabbath; no matter what “the living” –‘Spiritual Israel’– might have attempted, the Sabbath belongs to the LORD in His overcoming and vanquishing of sin, death and hell. Glory to His Name!
Paul phrases this divine fact, “between me and the children of Israel for ever”, in the words, “that He might be Lord both of the dead and living”. With, “the children of Israel for ever”, Paul means nothing less than Spiritual Israel, all believers – of the New Testament era –“the living”– as well as all believers of the Old Testament era –“the dead”.
Paul’s reference to “both the dead and the living” must be understood further as an indirect allusion to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He was Lord “to us-ward” both in dying and in being raised from the dead. “To us-ward” Christ died and rose. He both died and was “raised in the glory of the Father” – which established Christ’s glory of Lordship. (Christ’s Lordship is built on both truths of His resurrection and death, and without the one or the other, is no lordship, and a lordship over no people.) For the justification and righteousness of His people’s sake, Christ “triumphed”. Christ sealed the Covenant with His having ‘entered into His own rest as God’ and through ‘having given them’ –‘both the dead and the living’– “rest”. Wherefore the Sabbath is regarded as Covenant Seal – Seal of the Covenant of Grace!
(The Sabbath tells what a man believes: that he lives by faith in the grace of God; or it –the Sabbath Day– becomes an abomination in the sight of God. The Prophets also teach us that.)
Paul, I am convinced, thought the same way while he wrote Romans 14:9, virtually quoting from Exodus 31, “For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that He might be LORD, both of the dead and of the living”. The context of both Scriptures shows it.
A lot more might still be said –and better– we hope to see in future. Now what, but empty denial, can be brought in against such an understanding of Romans 14:9? Come what may, thus I believe. Grant us an untroubled conscience, so help us God.
