Thanksgiving, AD2011

Have you every thanked God that you are a slave?

Do you even know that you are a slave?

The Bible tells us that God is our “Master” (Colossians 4:1) and that we are “enslaved to God” (Romans 6:22). And yet Jesus said He came to set us free (John 8:22).

Even more confusing to some, the Apostle Paul wrote: "For he who was called in the Lord while a slave, is the Lord's freedman; likewise he who was called while free, is Christ's slave" (1 Corinthians 7:22).

Are there contradictions here? How can we be both enslaved and free or free and enslaved?

The word “slave” conjures up all sorts of negative thoughts because the term refers to a person who is the actual or ostensible property of and wholly subject to someone or some thing outside of self; a bond servant. Thus an individual can be enslaved to another person, an ideology, a chemical substance, or any other habitual behavior.

But if that were not enough, Scripture also tells us we were made servants of Christ (1 Timothy 4:6). Slave? Servant? What do those terms mean in this context? At first thought, servanthood might not seem much better than enslavement. How can we be servants and still be free? Slaves and servants must do the work of their master.

We could rationalize the apparent contradiction that doing God’s work is freedom by comparison with doing the work of the Devil. But there is more truth to it than that.

I think Paul’s point is that serving God is an honor, a blessing, a duty, a privilege, and that serving Him is to worship Him, to praise Him, and to thank Him. But it would be a tragic misunderstanding to think that we must serve God in order to maintain good standing with Him in order to avoid “losing” salvation or to be punished.

Understand this Bible teaching: When we serve God we perform "good works" that produce “fruit for God” (Romans 7:4). Such works have no bearing on our relationship with God, but have much to do with our fellowship with Him.

The biblical terms “master” and “slave” refer to the authority of one over the other. As Christians we are under God’s authority and are to submit to Him.

There are other aspects of this which must not be overlooked. The first has to do with the identity we have in Christ. Masters own their slaves. And slaves are identified by who owns them.

I have read that in early America it was not uncommon for African slaves to take the surname of their master. So a slave’s identity was found both in their ownership by their master as well as in the acquired surname of their master.

Among the variety of things I have done, was to produce Christian videos. The original recorded video tapes were digitized into a computer and edited. The finished version is called a “master.” It is used for duplicating copies onto video cassettes or DVDs. The master is placed into a playback deck, and blank tapes or discs are placed in recording decks called “slaves.” The machines are started simultaneously, and the contents of the master are duplicated onto the blank tapes or discs on the slave recorders. In the end, the slave tapes or discs are no longer blank, but are digitally identical copies of the master.

So when the Bible says we are enslaved to God, it might be helpful to think that the Master transferred the life, nature, and glory of His Son into the spirit of your new spiritual heart. In short, we slaves are being conformed to the image of Christ.

Keep in mind that when God gave you a new heart (Ezekiel 36:26, 27), He gave you a new soul and placed in it the Christlike faculties of mind, emotion, and will. (But He did not transfer His unique personhood and deity to you; your personhood remained you, in resurrection and regeneration.) As a slave of God, then, you derive your life and spiritual nature from your Master, and your identity is in Him.

Now, let’s read Romans 6:22 in it entirety to get a direct biblical perspective of what it means to be enslaved to God: “But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.”

Conditional slavery
The Half-Hearted Christian does not fully experience his sanctification, new life, and freedom in Christ. He walks or lives in spiritually dysfunctional enslavement to several old spiritual masters—the darkness, the flesh, Satan, Sin, the World, and the Law. By walking in their ways, he is obedient to them and not to the Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore, as Paul writes, “when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey...” (Romans 6:15a).

Paul goes on in Romans 6 to explain that to present ourselves for obedience to someone or something other than Christ is a sin that results in "death" or separation from fellowship with Him (not separation of relationship). However, if we present ourselves as slaves of obedience to God, we experience many wonderful blessings, among them: sanctification and eternal life (Romans 6:22). And because we are slaves of obedience to God, we are slaves to all things that are of God, chief among them being God’s Love, God’s Kingdom, and God’s Grace.

The Ways of the Whole-Hearted Christian

When we walk whole-heartedly (truly in loving unity with Him), we walk in God’s ways and experience freedom in Christ and in His Love, His Kingdom, and His Grace. However, when we function half-heartedly, we walk in the ways of one or more old spiritual masters: the flesh, Satan, Sin, the World, and the Law.

Did you notice that the dictionary echoes the Bible’s teaching that we are sanctified in our hearts? God gave you a sanctified new heart. In the ontological sense, it is absolutely and irreversibly holy, pure, and free from bondage to sin. And it made you a legitimate child of God, which entitles you to an inheritance of abundant blessings.

So, there is no contradiction between Christ’s proclamation that He came to set us free of our old humanity and old spiritual masters, and Paul’s teaching that we are enslaved to God.

While our spiritual baptism into Christ resulted in our ontological sanctification, our new heart continues to be sanctified conditionally and functionally by the Holy Spirit and with our cooperation for the sake of our “wholeness.” For our part, we turn from sin to love and open the door of our soul to the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And when our heart is right with God and we walk by His Spirit, we walk in His ways.

The Roman Christians, like all believers, received ontological sanctification and eternal life at the time of their salvation. But Paul, writing in Romans 6, moved beyond the salvational issues to address sanctification and eternal life from the conditional/functional/behavioral perspectives. He tells the Romans that, through loving “obedience from the heart” (Romans 6:17), they present themselves as slaves for obedience to God, and that through such loving obedience, they can experience the benefits of sanctification and eternal life in their present daily lives (Romans 6:22).

That same good news applies to all of us who are “enslaved” to God.

And that is much to be thankful for.
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For more biblical teaching on the Adamic heart and the Christian's new heart on this web site, please click below:

The Whole-Hearted Christian

The Christian’s New Heart

The Ways of the Heart
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*Quotes from Scripture in all my writings are from the New American Standard Version of the Bible unless otherwise indicated.
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©Copyright AD2011 Frank Allnutt. All rights reserved.