Note: this is Part III of a series exploring the implications of Christian stewardship relating to vaccinations. In this section, I discuss part of the Biblical teaching of God’s moral ownership claim to all people, and to Christians particularly as his special possession. This is an edited passage from my original request to be excused from my employer’s mandatory vaccination policy. Click here to go to beginning of the series.
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In our day to speak of human beings as property seems odd and morally wrong. Indeed, the sentiment is as it should be since the Bible teaches that God regards human slavery or involuntary servitude as unequivocally immoral. The practice of slavery raises intrinsic moral claims made about the practice by those who conduct it – moral claims to ownership made over other adult human beings. As our Creator, God does possess intrinsic moral claims to human beings. He is certainly not in the same category as enslavers, however, since he is the Creator of life. As a clock maker possesses a valid moral claim to ownership of the gears he has fashioned, so God possesses a valid moral claim to his creatures because he created them. (For one gear to claim ownership of another gear is patently absurd.)
Just as a person has some legal claim to a picture because it is a representation of them (for example, you typically sign release rights to pictures taken of you for commercial uses), I believe that being made in God’s image gives him a special claim to me. Made in God’s image, as previously discussed, is a special manifestation of God’s attributes in humanity and he still holds exclusive copyright to those manifestations. This is distinct from and (in my opinion) superior to his valid claim to us as our Creator. Both of these claims, however, imply that the human body is ultimately the property of God.
“Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine.” – Ezk. 18:4
“Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord….” – 1 Cor. 6:13
“You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh [body] for the dead, nor print any marks upon you [tattoos]: I am the Lord.” – Lev. 19:28
The Bible also teaches that Christians are property of God because he redeemed (ie. bought) them from rebellion and enslavement to the devil. As Christianity has always taught, and I believe, this was made possible through the Work of Jesus Christ. In the fullness of time, God (in the person of Jesus Christ) came into the world, born of a virgin, Mary, into a physical body and lived a sinless life. Jesus taught about his kingdom based in heaven and that entrance into the kingdom was by repenting from sin/rebellion and exercising faith in God on the basis on who God had shown himself to be. Religious authorities of the day hated him because he castigated them for being hypocrites; his own nation rejected him; his friend betrayed him. The authorities falsely accused him and the Roman governor unjustly condemned him to death.
Jesus Christ died on a cross outside of Jerusalem cira. 29 A.D. In his death, all forsook him, even God. He was buried in a tomb but God rose him bodily from the dead two days later. The Bible teaches that his death was the death we all deserved – forsaken and abhorred by God – for our rebellion against God. But why him? What had he done to merit such humiliation? He was condemned by men as an evil doer but he was surely innocent. We are told further that He died there in our collective place so that we would could be welcomed back into happy fellowship with God: It was the price of redemption. The death of Jesus Christ was a price so great, and spent so lavishly on sinners, that it defies comprehension; yet any price for a Christian’s redemption would still make the entire Christian – both soul and body – the moral property of God. After selling ourselves into war and rebellion against him, by being redeemed by him, we are bound to him by legal ties.
“In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.” – Col. 1:14
“But now in Christ Jesus you who sometimes were far off [because of rebellion/sin] are made nigh by the blood of Christ…” – Eph. 2:13
“For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” – 1 Cor. 6:20
“Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood [death] of Christ, as of a lamb without spot.” – 1 Pet. 1:18-19
“…he that is called, being free, is Christ’s servant. You are bought with a price…” – 1 Cor. 7:22-23
Lastly, the Bible teaches that the Christian is the property of God because God has chosen to adopt us into his intimate family. We are not mere creations of an impersonal being destined to never know God because of our previous waging war against him. Only through the Work of Jesus Christ, God made it possible and entirely just for finite rebel man, to set down his weapons and dine with an eternal God around a table in peace as part of his own family. The Bible teaches that Christians are adopted into the family of a knowable God as his sons and daughters. We are bound by familiar ties of loyalty and love.
“…and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.” – Eph. 2:6-9
“But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” – Jn. 1:12
“Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ?” – 1 Cor. 6:15
“He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all – how shall he not, with him, also freely give us all things?” – Rom. 8:32
“To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.” – Gal. 4:5
“Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself.” – Eph. 1:5
“For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, ‘Abba, Father’.” – Rom. 8:15
“I will fear no evil: for you are with me…You prepare a table before me…you wash my head with oil…surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” – Ps. 23:4-6
“And [I] will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.” – 2nd Cor. 6:18
“Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.” – 1 Jn. 3:1
“He that overcomes [remains faithful] shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.” – Rev. 21:7
*Image by Unknown. Released under CC Licence.
