<p>14:9- see on Acts 17:31.</p><p><i>For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living</i><i>- </i>There are some passages which appear to teach misread that we go on living after death. It has been observed that Rom. 14:8,9 implies that Jesus is our Lord after death as well as in life: &ldquo;For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living&rdquo;. We are the Lord&rsquo;s after death, in the same way as Abraham lives unto Him (Lk. 20:38). We are still with Him. He doesn&rsquo;t forget us when we die, just as I will remember my mother till the day of my death, regardless of when she dies. But if the Lord doesn&rsquo;t come, I will die, and my memory, my love, my fondness, will perish (for a small moment). But God doesn&rsquo;t die, His memory doesn&rsquo;t fade and distort as ours does; images of us don&rsquo;t come in and out of His mind with greater intensity and insistence at some times than at others; He remembers us constantly and will remember us after our death, right up until when the Lord comes. Because of this, He is the God of Abraham; Abraham is alive in the mind of God, He remembers his faith and his offering of Isaac, just as much as He was aware of it in Abraham&rsquo;s lifetime. The works of the dead follow them, in the sense that once they finish their labours their works are still in the memory of the Father (Rev. 14:13); for what father would not remember his dead child&rsquo;s ways and deeds? This is why Rom. 14:8,9 says that Jesus is our Lord after death just as much as He was and is during our lifetimes. Why? Because we are &ldquo;the Lord&rsquo;s&rdquo;, because we were &ldquo;added to the Lord&rdquo; through baptism (Acts 2:41,47; 5:14; 11:24), because we are true brothers-in-Christ. From God&rsquo;s perspective, the dead believers are cheering us on as we run the race to the end; He remembers them as they were, and knows how they would behave if they were alive today, looking down upon us as we run the race (Heb. 12:1). Or in another figure, the blood of the dead believers cries out from under the altar, demanding vengeance on this world: on the Catholic, Protestant, Babylonian, Roman, Nazi, Soviet systems that slew them for their faith (Rev. 6:9). To God, their blood is a voice, just as real as the voice of Abel, which cried out (in a figure) for judgment against Cain (Gen. 4:10). After their death, those who had already died are spoken of as being given &ldquo;white robes&rdquo; and being told to rest a bit longer (Rev. 6:11).</p><p>The fact Jesus is Lord has vital practical import for us. In Rom. 14:7-9, Paul speaks of the need not to live unto ourselves, but to rather live in a way which is sensitive to the conscience and needs of others. Why? &ldquo;For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that He might be Lord both of the dead and living&quot;. Because He is our Lord we therefore don&rsquo;t live for ourselves, but for Christ our Lord and all those in Him. When Paul in 1 Tim. 6 exalts that Christ is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, dwelling in light which no man can approach unto, this isn&rsquo;t just some literary flourish. It is embedded within a context of telling the believers to quit materialism, indeed to flee from its snare.</p>