Remember Galatians 5:1 says, “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand fast therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” We have been set free by the Life and blood of Jesus Christ that we might stand fast (immovable) in the deliverance and protection of the Salvation that He has provided, never to be enslaved by Satan’s will of deception and sin again. So, why then, does Paul tell us in Romans 1:1 that he is a “servant of Jesus Christ?” The Greek word for servant in this passage means bondsman or bond servant. To understand what Paul is telling us, we need to look at the law of the “bond servant” which is found in Exodus 21:2-6. Exodus 21:2 tells us exactly what a bond servant is, “When you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years, and in the seventh he shall go out free, for nothing………” Exodus 21:5-6 says, “ But if the slave plainly says, ‘I love my master…..; I will not go out free,’ then his master shall bring him to God, and he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost. And his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall be his slave forever.” In other words, the bondsman has lived in the world where he had to provide for himself by his own wits and effort; and he has lived in his master’s house where his every need was met - food, clothing, warmth, and various other benefits. He did not have to figure or strive for these basic needs; he simply had to obey the will of his master. All he had to do was to do what the master told him to do, to say what the master told him to say. Hmmmmm......... That sounds a lot like Jesus doesn’t it. He tells us repeatedly in the New Testament that He only says what the Father tells Him to say; He only does what the Father tells Him to do. Clearly Jesus believed that the Father God met all His daily needs. Did He not direct us to consider the lilies of the field that “toil and spin not” yet all their needs are met? So, Paul like Jesus was living the life of a bond servant in relation to the Father God That is not all, however, we must remember that the bond servant has been set free, just as we have been set free from the bonds of sin and death, just as we have been released from the chains of poverty and sickness in the kingdom of Satan. We are free just as Adam male and female were free in the Garden of Eden; we are free to choose who we will serve. Joshua realized that he had that choice when he said in Joshua 24:15 “And if you be unwilling to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD. We have the “freewill” to choose who we will serve. We have been deceived to believe that we must constantly be choosing between right and wrong - good and evil; however, our choice is simpler than that. The Father never intended us to have to decide what is “good or evil,” what is “right or wrong.” Remember, He said in Genesis 2:17 “but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die. The Father only intended that we be obedient to Him. He did not intend that we decide what is good or evil; for to decide, we must experience them. The Father never intended us to experience evil. He intended us to experience only good and to live forever. If we are His children, we are as Adam, male and female were in the beginning. The decision is His; we are but to do His will. So, when Paul says he is a bond servant of Christ, he is simply saying, “I have tried it out here in the world - making my own decisions about what is right to do and wrong to do. I have labored for my provision and made all the wrong choices. I have also lived in Your house, Father God; and I choose to be a servant in your house where I am loved, protected, and provided for. All I have to do is obey you. All I have to do is “by the obedience of faith” trust you that your plan and purpose for my life is better than my own. Continuing...................
Posted on: Wed, 05 Nov 2014 22:37:40 +0000
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