slaves and sons in the New Testament: We are creatures of God who have sold ourselves, like so many football players, into life-time contracts to serve sin. Some of us did this knowingly but foolishly, others of us did this without realizing what we were getting into. We were deceived. (In this mess, Satan is not our master, just the fast-talker who persuaded us to do it. Satan is a liar who has no legitimate claim to anything.) Jesus sees this, takes pity on us, and purchases us with His blood. That is to say, He buys our life-time contracts by paying the penalty of sin (that is death) not to Satan, but to the Law (according to Hebrews). We were slaves to sin, not Satan, however much he might flatter himself otherwise. Here’s another way of looking at it: Suppose Jesus owns an football franchise, but He doesn’t have a team yet. He notices that another team is suffering under very bad conditions and they’re going nowhere fast. The players are all under contract to an owner who cannot provide for them properly, but they aren’t free to leave, because of their contracts. So Jesus, moved by compassion, makes a big sacrifice and risks everything to buy their contracts. This disposes of the inept owner, but it doesn’t make the football players into free agents! No, if Jesus bought their contracts, their obligations are merely shifted from their old owner to their new owner! Then, in an act of further mercy, Jesus makes them all co-owners of the team! They become the first player-owned team in the football league, but Jesus retains the controlling interest. So the players are employees and owners at the same time. In the same way, Jesus found us as slaves to sin; He bought us, which made us His slaves. Then He caused us to be adopted as sons of God. That means that we become God’s business agents in this world; we are each given a distributorship of God’s love, grace, and providence in this world. We are the instruments through which God will answer people’s prayers. But Jesus retains the controlling interest, so we are slaves and sons at the same time. Jesus bought us, which made us His slaves, then He adopted us into His family. Therefore we remain in His household forever. So when Jesus sets us free, we are free indeed! So the metaphor isn’t really mixed at all, viewed from the first century. We can glory in the fact that we are sons, but it is probably more strategic to be grateful for the sonship, but to work as if we were only slaves, so that our service will please our Benefactor. I doubt there is much reward for the adopted sons of God who take up a playboy life and live off of room service! This appears to be the tack that the apostles took, counting themselves slaves, while proclaiming our sonship! This is a far cry from the old sacrificial system, which set no one free from sin; it just sort of hosed off the muck from time to time.
Posted on: Sat, 02 Aug 2014 20:52:29 +0000
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