The Vision (11.20.15): A New Master

Image:  Leaf raking at CRBC last Saturday (11.14.15)

Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God (Romans 1:1).

 Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men (1 Corinthians 7:23).

One of the frequent titles that the inspired NT authors use to describe themselves is “servant” (so Paul in Rom 1:1; Gal 1:10; Titus 1:10; James in James 1:1; Peter in 1 Peter 2:1; and Jude in Jude 1:1).  The Greek word rendered “servant” in these passages is doulos.  It is perhaps better rendered as “slave.”  A Christian is a slave of Christ.  Related to this term designating believers is the title of Lord (kurios) or “master” to refer to Christ.

Slavery in the ancient world was a different institution than that which existed in the American South.  In the ancient world, slaves could not only serve in menial tasks but also in positions of authority as managers, physicians, and teachers.  Many came into slavery as the result of war.  A person could also sell himself into slavery to settle debts.   Some could actually improve their circumstances in life by becoming slaves, provided they had a master who would be kind and generous.  In the right circumstances, some slaves could also save enough money to purchase their freedom.

In a book on the life and teaching of the apostle Paul, Anthony C. Thiselton provides this helpful discussion:

What did being a slave imply in the world of Paul’s day?  At one extreme, a slave was regarded as a ‘thing’ (Latin, res), or as a property.  Many slave owners or ‘lords’ were harsh and treated their slaves ruthlessly as their personal property, to do with as they wished.  At the other extreme, however, many Stoics, ‘God-fearers,’ and other ‘good’ pagans could be humane, and employ literate or numerate slaves to manage their estates or their businesses while they indulged in city-politics, personal pleasures, or other interests.  If a slave had a ‘good’ master, slavery could be attractive.  It was possible to rise high, and to earn enough pocket money to begin life again as an honoured freedman or freedwoman, perhaps in one’s thirties.  For this reason some who fell on hard times sold themselves into slavery, alongside prisoners captured in war, or people who had committed crimes.  Everything depended on who the lord or master would be.  If they were fortunate, the master’s name and reputation would guarantee them a better status or  higher security against thieves and kidnappers than ever they could have had as poor freemen, left to rely on their own resources.

Paul sees Christ as the most generous, loving, and kind of all masters or lords at whose disposal it was possible to be.  With Christ as his Lord, a Christian no longer worried about himself.  Even if he were to die, his wife and children would remain the responsibility of his Lord….  Coming to faith means being freed from unwanted bondage to evil powers beyond one’s control, to enter into ‘belonging’ to Jesus Christ…. (The Living Paul, pp. 38-39).

May we understand that we now belong to Christ.  He is our good and faithful master who is able to provide for us beyond all that we can ask or imagine.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (10.23.15): Sanctification is like warming up from the cold

Note:  This devotion is adapted from last Sunday morning’s sermon On Hebrews 2:10-15.

For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren (Hebrews 2:11).

Hebrews 2:11 reminds us that the God who saves is also the God who sanctifies.  It also affirms that those who are saved and those whom God sanctifies are given unity or union with Christ:  “For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all one.”

Consider the act of progressive sanctification, which is referred to here.  Becoming a Christian is both something that happens all at once and something that happens little by little over time.  Justification happens all at once.  Sanctification, however, is a process that begins the moment we are saved but which is never fully accomplished in this life.  We only arrive at definitive sanctification at the final stage of life:  glorification.  And this occurs at our deaths (absent from the body and present with the Lord; 2 Cor 5:8) and, ultimately, at the end of the ages in the final resurrection (when we receive our resurrection bodies; John 5:28-29). 

I recently read a book in which the author described sanctification as like being transferred “from the icy cold into a warm room.”  He continues:

The heat is a decisive force; it cannot be reversed.  But as someone stands in front of a roaring fire or even a radiator, that person still suffers from frozen joints or from pockets of cold.  They feel the decisive heat, and know that eventually they will be warm through and through.  But it remains a steady process, even though the warm and the cold represent two kinds of forces or ‘orders of existence’ (A. Thiselton, The Living Paul, p. 12).

Indeed, becoming a Christian is like coming in from the bitter cold and slowly being warmed up, even while we still feel the chill in our bones.

May the Lord continue to warm us up in holiness.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle