Romans 14:8

For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; or whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's.

Paul had already written that "neither life nor death" could separate the believer from the Lord (Romans 8:38), and here again is the same thought in other words. Life has many tedious and toilsome duties, but everything the child of God does is done in service to the Lord. In New Testament times, even such a thing as slave labor was discharged with that in view (Ephesians 6:6-8). What a golden glory this sheds upon all life's prosaic sands! What a silver lining this bestows upon every cloud. Even death itself here appears in a new dimension, for Christians are the Lord's even in death. Paul himself lived in daily contemplation of death, living a life that was constantly threatened and in jeopardy every hour. Enemies without and within, perilous travels, serpents, shipwrecks, robbers, and plots of murder made danger his daily bread; but here surfaces the secret spring of his life's overflowing optimism and the source of his granite endurance. He was the Lord's, not merely in life, but in death as well. Every child of God may claim the same legacy.

O death where is thy victory? O death where is thy sting? ... But thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:55-57).