Own It?

Do you own a home, or are you renting? Own your car? Making payments? Leasing? Questions of ownership are becoming even more nuanced in our tech-driven, global society. Even the laws are changing. But even in the most idealistic sense of capitalism you might have experienced in the good old USA, how much do you really own? Want to find out? Stop paying your taxes on your house. Stop paying taxes and registration on your car.

We understand this now moves into the software/hardware arena. Good luck using that phone you own, if you don’t have updated software, and pay for a service provider. I don’t even own the processing app in which I am typing right now. I pay an annual fee, because the product I once bought and owned was made obsolete when support was discontinued, and it was replaced with a perpetual product.

These realities teach some pretty good theology. You are not your own. You never were, and never will be. The serpent’s lie to the original couple (Gn 3) was the illusion of autonomy: God can’t tell you not to eat that fruit. He told you you’ll die because he knows that if you do what you want with it, you’ll demonstrate that you can keep on deciding for yourself what is good or evil. In a sense, the lie was about ownership: You can do what you want with that fruit – it’s yours.

Satan apparently believed his own lie, or at least wanted Jesus to believe it. He told Jesus that all the kingdoms of this world were his (Satan’s) to do with whatever he wanted. He even offered to give them to Jesus to own in the same way (Mt 4:8-9; Lk 4:5-6): All this can be YOURS!  But Jesus understood something the first Adam didn’t. The very condition for "ownership" that would have qualified it for Jesus, also qualified it for Satan: worship. Satan said, “If, then, you will worship me, it will all be yours” (Lk 4:7). Jesus understood that is not ownership, but stewardship. The act of worship declares the one being worshiped as the owner, the ultimate authority. Jesus would not do this, because there is only one worthy of worship, and Satan is not that One. God alone deserves worship because of his de facto and rightful ownership. Satan acknowledged the limited terms of his ownership of worldly authority and glory: “for it has been delivered to me.” His ownership was limited and temporal. That is not ownership – it is stewardship. Satan is a lousy steward, because he is trying to act like an owner, twisting and abusing his reign in this world for his own evil desires.

Jesus, on the other hand, performs his stewardship perfectly. As the God-man, he is both steward and true owner. He is steward in his humanity, for because of his perfect obedience to the Father’s will in his humiliation as the Suffering Servant, he is now exalted as the Lord over the kingdom of this world forever (Rv 11:15). He is owner in his deity, as he is the Eternal Word of God, who spoke the world into existence, and is rightful Lord over all heaven and earth as Creator. The Second Adam did what the first did not, acted as steward in perfect agreement with the will of the owner.

So, back to us. Scripture reminds us that we are not owners, but stewards, for we ourselves are not only owing worship to our Creator, but we have been bought with a price, redeemed to him (1 Cor 6:19-20; 7:23). Freedom in the sense of absolute autonomy and ownership is an illusion. No, more than that – a lie. Freedom is reality when our will as a steward comes into agreement with the rightful owner. We are slaves to someone. Either we are slaves to sin (Jn 8:34; Rm 6:1-14), under the dominion of Satan and this world, which is death (Eph 2:1-2), or we are slaves of obedience, of righteousness, of God, which is life (Rm 6:15-23; Eph 2:4-10). The latter is true freedom that elevates the slave to a position of child and heir, and life forever in the presence of God (Jn 8:36).

The perspective of stewardship is crucial for the Christ-follower, for Satan’s lie takes more than one form. The non-Christian is a slave, to be sure. But freedom for the Christian is not ownership. If we think trusting Christ is our gateway to autonomy we have bought a nuanced version of the same old lie. It is capitalist, or American, or prosperity theology, or something else, but it is not biblical. You are not yours any more than your house and car are yours. And it is more than taxes you owe. It is worship. Our stewardship is contingent upon, and has as its aim, the will of our Creator, our Redeemer, and our Lord. When God judges mankind, those who were poor stewards in this life will no longer be stewards. They will be alone with nothing but torment (Mt 24; Lk 12:41-48). But those who worship the Giver of all good gifts through faithful stewardship will reign under him in His presence forever (Rv 20:6; 22:5).

Of course, we cannot be perfectly faithful stewards, and that is why Christ had to accomplish this for us. This is the gospel. Trusting His faithful stewardship is what gives us life and freedom to follow in obedience. When we turn back and start acting like owners, we have quit being worshipers, and quit being faithful stewards. So, let us confess our failures, and walk on as faithful stewards in Christ.