God Owns Us /
TWELVE God Owns Us Foundation Text— Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who isin you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price.
Therefore honor God with your body. —1 Cor 6:19-20 "Do you not know? Alas! how few ofus really know that we are not our own, and that we do actually and truly belong to God!
We have heard it and read of it often enough, and have perhaps thought we believed it; but as to really knowing it, this is a different matter. And yet it is essential to our peace and well being that we should know it. Any doubt as to our real place and position toward God is a grievous hindrance to our spiritual prosperity and development.
Hear, O heavens! Listen, O earth! / Forthe Lord has spoken: / "I reared children and brought them up, / but they have rebelled against me. / The ox knows his master, / the donkey his owner's manager, / but Israel does not know, / my people do not understand."—Is 1:2-3 My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. / "Because you have rejected knowledge, / I also reject you as my priests; / because you have ignored the law of your God, / I also will ignore your children.—Hos 4:6
It is therefore of vital importance that we should know how matters stand between ourselves and the Lord. There is a great
148 / The Open Secret deal of hope and a great deal of desire, but knowledge after all is the only stable thing. Our first step therefore in this matter of God's ownership must be to find out the facts of the case, as to whom we really do belong, whether to ourselves or to God.
Let us see what the testimony of scripture is on this.
For every living soul belongs to me, the father as well as the son—both alike belong to me.—Ez 18:4
For the Lord's portion is his people, / Jacob his allotted inheritance.—Dt 32:9
If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.—Rom 14:8
We belong to God by creation; and we belong to him also in a still deeper sense by redemption.
Yet, O Lord, you are our Father. / We are the clay, you are the potter; / we are all the work of your hand.
—Is 64:8 (Ps 95:6-7; 100:3) Anything a man makes is surely his own, without a possibility of question. Therefore the blessed fact that God is our Maker, involves in the very nature of things, the still more blessed fact that he is therefore our Owner also.
But now, this is what the Lord says— / he who created you, O Jacob, / he who formed you, O Israel: / "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; / I have called you by name; you are mine.—Is 43:1
In a still deeper sense is God our owner, because he has redeemed us. All the world over, the rights of a man's possession, in anything he has bought and paid for, are recognized without a question; and if we apply this rule to the fact that we have been purchased by the "precious blood of Christ," we shall get a little idea of how utterly and incontrovertibly we belong to him.
For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed
God Owns Us / 149 down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.—1 Pt 1:18-19
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.—Eph 5:25 (Acts 20:28)
He "gave himself for us." Could he have paid a greater price than this?
Love divine! of such great loving, Only mothers know the cost; Cost of love, that, all love passing, Gave itself to save the lost.
Just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep.—Jn 10:15
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this:
While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.—Rom 5:6-8 But just here we must avoid the mistake of thinking that redemption was a price paid to God, as to an angry creditor. It was a price paid for sin, the price that love always must pay for the sin of those whom it loves. We are "bought with a price," and, because of this, we belong body, soul, and spirit to the One who has bought us.
The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden ina field. Whena man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.—Mt 13:44-46
Christ sold "all he had" to purchase the "field," which is the world, for the sake of the "treasure" that is hidden there, which is humanity. (This is not the usual interpretation of the
150 / The Open Secret passage, but by comparing Christ's own words, "the field is the world," in Matthew 13:38, I think we will find it admissible. ) And again, the pearl of great price may also be considered to be the human race whom Christ purchased with his own blood, "all he had."
Surely, after all this, we cannot question the fact of his ownership!
Since, then, it is a settled fact that we are not our own, but that we belong to God, let us consider what follows from this.
1. His ownership of us lays upon him the responsibility of caring for us.
2. It lays upon us the responsibility of surrender, and trust, and obedience to him.
We will consider first the responsibilities of ownership.
If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.—1 Tm 5:8
The whole world acknowledges the justice of this. To own anything means that the owner is bound to care for and protect and bless, to the limit of ability, that which is owned. We are all accustomed to looking so exclusively on the human side of the question of our salvation, on our duties and our responsibilities, that we lose sight almost altogether of God's side, and thus miss of that, which after all, is the vital point of the whole matter. The responsibilities of an owner, and much more of a Creator, are greater than can be expressed. Parents feel this, and by a universal instinct, which is inalienable in our natures, all parents are held responsible to their own consciences and to their fellow-men for the welfare of their children. In the same way, owners of animals, or owners of property, or owners of anything whatever, are considered to be bound to care for that which they own, and are held responsible for its welfare. Even children feel this responsibility, and will fulfil the duties of ownership, no matter how irksome, feeding the bird or the
God Owns Us / 151 rabbit without complaint because it is their own.
In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein we have an allegory that vividly illustrates this truth. The writer imagines a student who has penetrated into the secrets of life, and who proposes to make a man. He spends some two years in framing a huge being, creating bones and muscle and tendons and nerves, and arranging them in their relative order. At the proper moment he communicates the vital spark, and the creature opens its eyes, stares around it, and begins to move. The workman is suddenly awakened to a sense of the awful responsibility he has incurred in the act of creation, and flies in terror from the work of his hands. But he cannot escape his responsibilities. The creature wanders over the earth, making misery for itself and others wherever it goes, and its creator is forced to follow it in order to atone for its mistakes and its sins, and to free it from its continually recurring difficulties. At last they have an interview, and the creature reproaches the man for having made it, and tells him that he is responsible for all that it has done and suffered.
Our Lord himself asserts this truth when he compares himself and his own faithful care of his sheep, to the neglect and unfaithfulness of a hired hand "who does not own the sheep."
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.
I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me.—Jn 10:11-14 In Ezekiel we have a vivid description of the stern disapproval with which the Lord regards those shepherds who care for themselves rather than for the flocks under their control.
The word of the Lord came to me: "Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them: 'This is
152 / The Open Secret what the Sovereign Lord says: Woe to the shepherds of Israel who only take care of themselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock.
You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally.
—Ez 34:1-4 (Ez 34:5-10; Jer 23:1-2,; Zc 11:17) From these condemnations of the idle shepherds who do not own the sheep we may learn what the duties of the owner of the sheep must be. These foolish shepherds fed themselves but not the flock; the owner would feed the flock, even though he must go without himself. These false shepherds neglected the diseased, and failed to strengthen the weak, they did not seek for those who were lost and they ruled the flock "harshly and brutally"; the owner heals the sick, and strengthens the weak, and seeks the lost, and rules the flock with gentleness and love.
For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep.
I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness. . . . I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign Lord. I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice. —Ez 34:11-12, 15-16
And such is Christ, the "Good Shepherd," to whom the sheep belong.
The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: / "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, / because he has anointed me / to preach good news to the poor. / He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners / and recovery of sight for the blind, / to release the oppressed, / to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." / Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by
God Owns Us / 153 saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." —Lk 4:17-21 In all ages of the church this responsibility of ownership has been recognized. Moses referred to it as being a burden greater than he could bear, and reminded the Lord that because the Israelites were his people, therefore the care of them must rest upon /is shoulders and not upon Moses' own shoulders. Had they belonged to Moses, it would have been his duty to care for them; but since they belonged to God it was plainly God's duty.
He asked the Lord, "Why have you brought this trouble on your servant? What have I done to displease you that you put the burden of all these people on me? Did I conceive all these people?
Did I give them birth? Why do you tell me to carry them in my arms, as a nurse Carries an infant, to the land you promised on oath to their forefathers? Where can I get meat for all these people?
They keep wailing to me, 'Give us meat to eat!' I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me.
—Nm 11:11-14 And forgive your people, who have sinned against you; forgive all the offenses they have committed against you, and cause their conquerors to show them mercy; for they are your people and your inheritance, whom you brought out of Egypt, out of that iron-smelting furnace.—1 Kg 8:50 (Dt 9:27-29)
"For they are your people"; this was a plea that admitted of no denial. Nehemiah and Isaiah realized this, and made similar pleas.
They are your servants and your people, whom you redeemed by your great strength and your mighty hand. O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man." I was cupbearer to the king.—Neh 1:10-11
Yet, O Lord, you are our Father. / We are the clay, you are the potter; / we are all the work of your hand. / Do not be angry
154 / The Open Secret beyond measure, O Lord; / do not remember our sins forever. /
Oh, look upon us, we pray, / for we are all your people.—Is 64:8-9 "For we are all your people!" Where could we find a stronger plea?
The responsibility of ownership is an inexorable divine law, which is only another name for the eternal nature of things.
And if we can realize this, it will make the fact of our being owned by God one of the most comforting and peace-giving facts in existence.
But now, this is what the Lord says— / he who created you, O Jacob, / he who formed you, O Israel: / "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; / I have called you by name; you are mine. / When you pass through the waters, / I will be with you; / and when you pass through the rivers, / they will not sweep over you. / When you walk through the fire, / you will not be burned; / the flames will not set you ablaze. / For lam the Lord, your God, / the Holy
One of Israel, your Savior; / I give Egypt for your ransom, / Cush and Seba in your stead. / Since you are precious and honored in my sight, / and because I love you, / I will give men in exchange for you, / and people in exchange for your life. / Do not be afraid, for Iam with you; / I will bring your children from the east / and gather you from the west. / I will say to the north, 'Give them up!"
/ and to the south, 'Do not hold them back.' / Bring my sons from afar / and my daughters from the ends of the earth— / everyone who is called by my name, / whom I created for my glory, / whom
I formed and made." —Is 43:1-7 All this therefore, and infinitely more, will the Lord do for us because he has made us and we belong to him. Can we feel anything but joy then to know that we are his? I remember when the bliss of this divine ownership first dawned upon my soul. I was in the woods away from man's world, almost alone in God's world of nature. I was reading the verse, "You are not your own, you are bought with a price," when suddenly the veil parted and I saw what it meant. No words could tell what that sight was! But I hadto hold my Bible open and keep my finger on the printed verse to make myself sure that the bliss that had
God Owns Us / 155 dawned upon me could really be true. And from that moment, to belong to God has seemed to me the blessing of all blessings in my life!
To the soul that has hada revelation suchas this, it can never be anything but joy to sing the good old hymn:
Lord, I am thine, entirely thine, Purchased and saved by love divine; With full consent thine will I be, And own thy sovereign right in me.
Sometimes the fact of God's "sovereign right" in us is looked upon as a hard thing, and the soul shrinks and hesitates from consenting to it. But that can only be because such a one does not know what it means.
Let us consider more fully what it is that he does for his own.
1. He loves his own.
It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love.—Jn 13:1
2. He lays down his life for his own.
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.—Jn 10:11 (Eph 5:2) 3. He seeks his own when they are lost.
The Son of Man came to save what was lost.
What do you think? Ifa man ownsa hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off?—Mt 18:11-13
4. He heals his own when they are sick.
When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and
156 / The Open Secret healed all the sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:
"He took up our infirmities / and carried our diseases."
—Mt 8:16-17 5. He strengthens his own when they are weak.
But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.—2 Cor 12:9
6. He delivers his own from their enemies.
For he will deliver the needy who cry out, the afflicted who have no one to help.—Ps 72:12
7. He keeps his own from danger.
I, the Lord, watch over it; / I water it continually. / I guard it day and night / so that no one may harm it.—Is 27:3
8. He leads and teaches his own.
This is what the Lord says— / your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: / "I am the Lord your God, / who teaches you what is best for you, / who directs you in the way you should go."—Is 48:17
9. He supplies all their needs.
And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. —Phil 4:19
10. He carries all their cares.
Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.—1 Pt 5:7
Cast your cares on the Lord / and he will sustain you; / he will never let the righteous fall.—Ps 55:22
11. He purifies his own.
God Owns Us / 157 Who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himselfa people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.—Ti 2:14
12. He gives his own all things.
So then, no more boasting about men! All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.—1 Cor 3:21-23 13. He makes his own one with himself, and gives them a share in his glory.
My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one,
Father, just as you are inme and I am in you. May they also be inus so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
—Jn 17:20-22 (Jn 17:23-24) In the face of such revelations as these, who would not be eager to surrender themselves to such a blessed ownership and control? The control of love is always lovely, even when that love is earthly; because in the very nature of things love can choose only the best it knows for its beloved ones, and must pour itself out to the last drop to help and to bless them. How much more then must be the blessedness of the control of God, who is love; who is not merely loving, but is Love itself, and in whose ownership there must be and can be nothing but infinite and fathomless bliss!
Our views are so limited and our thoughts are so bounded by self, that we are apt to think far more of the fact that the Lord belongs to us, than that we belong to him. But when we come to consider it, we can see ina moment how much more vital and full of blessing is God's ownership ofus, than ours of him could ever possibily be. If we own him, then the responsibility of keeping him is upon our shoulders. While if he owns us, this responsibility is on his shoulders. Moreover
158 / The Open Secret our keeping is such a poor thing, that if it depended on us we should be sure to lose him, while we can never have any fear of him losing us.
The soul does not always find this out at once. It is a knowledge that comes with spiritual growth. In the Song of Songs there are three passages that develop this growing knowledge.
The soul thinks first of its own ownership of its Beloved, and ranks his ownership of herself in the second place.
My lover is mine and I am his; / he browses among the lilies.
—Sg 2:16
The soul learns next that the Lord's ownership is the most important, and must take the first place.
I am my lover's and my lover is mine; / he browses among the lilies. —Sg 6:3
The soul learns at last that the only important thing is his ownership, and forgets to mention her own at all.
I belong to my lover, / and his desire is for me.—Sg 7:10
The question next arises as to what are the responsibilities that rest upon us in view of the fact that God's owns us. They are very simple. We are only responsible to do three things: to yield, to trust, to obey. We are the Lord's; now we must recognize this, and must acknowledge him as our Owner and Master, and must abandon ourselves to his care and control.
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—which is your spiritual worship.—Rom 12:1
It is indeed only a "reasonable service," for those who are in the Lord's blessed ownership, to consent to it, and consciously and intelligently give themselves up to his control. A man's
"own possessions" are either a credit to him ora disgrace; and
God Owns Us / 159 we cannot be a credit to our Lord and Master unless we submit ourselves to him, and let him have his own way with us.
... You were bought with a price. Therefore honor God with your body.—1 Cor 6:20 (Is 43:21; Eph 1:12) ... "So I bound the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah to me" declares the Lord, "To be my people for my renown and praise and honor. But they have not listened."—Jer 13:11
May it never be said of any of us that we "would not hear!"
But you his son, O Belshazzar, have not humbled yourself, though you knew all this. Instead, you have set yourself up against the Lord of heaven. You had the goblets from his temple brought to you, and you and your nobles, your wives and your concubines drank wine from them. You praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or understand. But you did not honor the God who holds in his hand your life and all your ways.—Dn 5:22-23 Since we are not our own, we must not "live for ourselves," and we can therefore have no liberty to use ourselves for our own purposes.
And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
—2 Cor 5:15 (1 Pt 4:1-2) Further since we belong to the Lord, we must let the world see how well he cares for us, by receiving in childlike faith all the good things he would bestow upon us.
Nevertheless, I will bring health and healing to it; I will heal my people and will let them enjoy abundant peace and security. I will bring Judah and Israel back from captivity and will rebuild them as they were before. I will cleanse them from all the sin they have committed against me and will forgive all their sins of rebellion against me. Then this city will bring me renown, joy, praise and honor before all nations on earth that hear ofall the good things I do for it; and they will be in awe and will tremble at the abundant prosperity and peace I provide for it.—Jer 33:6-9
160 / The Open Secret Contrast with this the dishonor that Moses felt would come upon the Lord, should the Israelites fail in receiving the promised deliverance.
If you put these people to death all at one time, the nations who have heard this report about you will say, "The Lord was not able to bring these people into the land he promised them on oath; so he slaughtered them in the desert.—Nm 14:15-16(Nm 14:13-14)
Let us then show, by the thoroughness of our trust in him, the utter trustworthiness of the Lord "whose we are and whom we serve"; and let us allow him to save us to the very uttermost, lest the world should say (as, alas, they already do) that it is because "the Lord is not able."
What is needed therefore is that we should first come into a clear knowledge of God's ownership, and then that we should
"live up" to this knowledge. There are certain definite exercises of soul that will help the heart into this knowledge. These are set forth in Deuteronomy 26.
And say to the priest in office at the time, "I declare today to the Lord your God that I have come to the land the Lord swore to our forefathers to give us."... He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey." .
. You have declared this day that the Lord is your God and that you will walk in his ways, that you will keep his decrees, commands and laws, and that you will obey him. And the Lord has declared this day that you are his people, his treasured possession as he promised, and that you are to keep all his commands. He has declared that he will set you in praise, fame and honor high above all the nations he has made and that you will be a people holy to the Lord your God, as he promises. —Dt 26:3, 9, 17-19 First, we must confess that God owns us. "I declare today to the Lord your God that I have come to the land" (verse 3), and,
"He brought us to this place, and had given us this land" (verse 9). Then we must declare the Lord to be our God, and must surrender ourselves to his control (verse 17). And then finally we shall know that the Lord declares us to be his people, as he
God Owns Us / 161 has promised us (verse 18). And the question of our foundation text, "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit?... You are not your own" will be answered with a glad and hearty "Yes, I do know it! I am not my own, but God's. I belong to him alone, and he is my sole and sovereign
Owner."
Since I belong to thee, my Savior, God, All must be well, however rough my road;
However dark my way or prospects be, All, all is right, since overruled by thee.
Feeblest of all thy flock, thou knowest me, Lord; Helpless and weak, I stay upon thy word;
In all my weakness, this is still my plea, That thou art mine, and I belong to thee.
Then come whatever may, I am secure, Thy love unchanged shall to the end endure;
Frail though I am, thine everlasting arm Shall shield thy child from every breath of harm.
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