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Neither Death nor Life

Scripture References

Confessions and Statements of Faith References

Further Reflections on Confessions and Statements of Faith References

Difficult times occur in the lives and communities of God’s people because this is a fallen world. The confessions demonstrate this perspective:

  • Belgic Confession, Article 15 teaches that “…by the disobedience of Adam original sin has been spread through the whole human race…a corruption of the whole human nature...” As a result, God’s people are “guilty and subject to physical and spiritual death, having become wicked, perverse, and corrupt in all [our] ways” (Article 14). In addition, “The devils and evil spirits are so corrupt that they are enemies of God and of everything good. They lie in wait for the church and every member of it like thieves, with all their power, to destroy and spoil everything by their deceptions” (Article 12).
  • Our World Belongs to God continues to affirm that “God has not abandoned the work of his hands,” nevertheless “our world, fallen into sin, has lost its first goodness...” (paragraph 4). And now “all spheres of life—family and friendship, work and worship school and state, play and art—bear the wounds of our rebellion” (paragraph 16).

Yet, in a fallen world, God’s providential care is the source of great assurance, comfort and strength. Through these thoughts, our trust in God is inspired.

  • Belgic Confession, Article 13 is a reminder that God’s providence reassures us that God leads and governs all in this world “according to his holy will…nothing happens in this world without his orderly arrangement.” Further, this Confession identifies that this “gives us unspeakable comfort since it teaches us that nothing can happen to us by chance but only by the arrangement of our gracious heavenly Father, who watches over us with fatherly care...in this thought we rest.”
  • Belgic Confession, Article 13, is a reminder that much is beyond human understanding and so “we do not wish to inquire with undue curiosity into what God does that surpasses human understanding and is beyond our ability to comprehend.”
  • In Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 9, Question and Answer 26 we testify that we “trust God so much that [we] do not doubt that he will provide whatever [we] need for body and soul and will turn to [our] good whatever adversity he sends upon [us] in this sad world.”
  • In Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 10, Question and Answer 28, we are assured that through our trust in the providence of God we can have “good confidence in our faithful God and Father that nothing in creation will separate us from his love.”
  • When we pray the Lord’s Prayer we ask not to be brought into the time of trial but rescued from evil. In doing so we ask that the Lord will “uphold us and make us strong with the strength of your Holy Spirit so that we may not go down to defeat in this spiritual struggle...” (Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 52, Question and Answer 127)

Belgic Confession, Article 26 speaks about the intercession of Christ as the ascended Lord. “We have no access to God except through the one and only Mediator and Intercessor, Jesus Christ the Righteous.” We, therefore, do not offer our prayers as though saints could be our intercessor, nor do we offer them on the “basis of our own dignity but only on the basis of the excellence and dignity of Jesus Christ, whose righteousness is ours by faith.” Because Jesus Christ is our sympathetic High Priest, we approach the throne “in full assurance of faith.”

 

No greater assurance can be found than that expressed in Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 1, Question and Answer 1: “I am not my own by I belong—body and soul, in life and in death—to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.”

 
In all difficult times, we eagerly await the final day when God “will set all things right, judge evil, and condemn the wicked” (Our World Belongs to God, paragraph 57).

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Neither Death nor Life

Additional Prayers

 
3 God of all times and places,
as we leave this place of worship,
help us to know that there is no place we might go
that will separate us from you.
With this sure knowledge,
give us Spirit-inspired courage and imagination
to discern faithful ways of responding
to every person we will meet this week
and to every situation we will encounter.
May our Lenten vows of faithfulness
lead us to joyful obedience all week long. Amen.
[The Worship Sourcebook]
— Worship Sourcebook Edition Two
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Neither Death nor Life

Tune Information

Name
NEITHER DEATH
Key
B♭ Major

Recordings

Musical Suggestion

Contemporary songwriter Marty Haugen took the final verses of Romans 8 to create a joyful and memorable refrain in gospel style, “Neither Death, nor Life.” Like any good refrain, it invites repetition: sing it once, and you’ll want to sing it again. By the end, the refrain will be etched firmly in your minds, hearts, and voices. Like all good worship songs, “Neither Death, nor Life” internalizes truths of Scripture so that you’ll be able to remember them and sing them anytime and anywhere. This refrain comes from a larger hymn, which is available from GIA Publications, Inc., #G-5650. 
(from Reformed Worship, Issue 86)
— Emily Brink
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Neither Death nor Life

Hymn Story/Background

This joyful, even rollicking gospel-style scripture chorus provides an excellent opportunity to memorize this profession of faith from the concluding verses of Romans 8. The chorus is the refrain of a larger setting in five stanzas that cover more of that chapter. Sing when discouraged to become encouraged that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ—an exclamation that comes at the center of Paul’s letter to the Romans. Haugen wrote this hymn in 2000 for a gathering of bishops in San Antonio, Texas, from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America meeting in San Antonio, Texas.
— Emily Brink

Author and Composer Information

Marty Haugen (b. 1950), is a prolific liturgical composer with many songs included in hymnals across the liturgical spectrum of North American hymnals and beyond, with many songs translated into different languages. He was raised in the American Lutheran Church, received a BA in psychology from Luther College, yet found his first position as a church musician in a Roman Catholic parish at a time when the Roman Catholic Church was undergoing profound liturgical and musical changes after Vatican II. Finding a vocation in that parish to provide accessible songs for worship, he continued to compose and to study, receiving an MA in pastoral studies at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul Minnesota. A number of liturgical settings were prepared for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and more than 400 of his compositions are available from several publishers, especially GIA Publications, who also produced some 30 recordings of his songs. He is composer-in-residence at Mayflower Community Congregational Church in Minneapolis and continues to compose and travel to speak and teach at worship events around the world.
— Emily Brink
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