This statement that we are slaves to Christ is so central to the Gospel message that Paul makes a huge deal of it in Romans 6 in describing the born-again, transformed life. He had just come out of Romans 5 describing how the grace of God overcomes sin, how Jesus died for us while we were still sinners and still slaves to sin, and that by faith we enter salvation. But he paused to address a train of thought that would derail one’s faith: that because God’s grace is so great, we can sin freely and expect God to cover it. Commentaries suggest that Paul’s language in Romans 6:1-2 is so strong that he comes to nearly cussing. This is the only time besides Galatians 1 (when he confronts the false teacher that led them astray) that he goes this hard. The Christian should never enter the thought or notion of being able to continue in sin without fear of judgment or discipline.
From this, Paul goes on to describe how we are to die to sin and how sin is to become repulsive to us. Last week, I wrote about how many people want to come to Christ on their own terms. They want to hold on to certain sins and certain lifestyles and certain teachings. To be a Christian is to die to those things. Jesus said this clearly: “You must deny yourself, take up your cross daily, and follow Me.” We are not following Him if we follow our own path and do things our own way.
Now to be clear: this is not legalism. I can picture many readers of last week’s post objecting to legalism. If following Christ at the expense of self is legalism, then what you are hearing is not true Christianity but antinomianism. It is the desire to live lawless lives, where they think they are saved but not expected to follow a law. Jesus called those who professed His name and would cast out as “workers of iniquity,” “as lawless ones.” The language is that of “you who live as though I gave you no law to follow.” His yoke is easy, and His burden is light, but there is still a law. I like to boil down this law into two simple commands: believe and obey. That is all there is to it. But obedience requires two things: one is faith; you have to believe Jesus. The second is that you have to submit to the Lordship of Christ. You don’t obey anyone you don’t submit to.
As much as the King James Version is perhaps the most respected version in English, they got something wrong. The KJV translated the Greek term doulos, which is commonly translated as “slave,” as “servant” or “bondservant” to lighten the weight of the term and also to avoid the connotation with the slave trading that had been going on in the rest of Europe. They got this one wrong. This mistranslation has carried to most of the English versions until John MacArthur and his team at The Master’s Seminary went to update the NASB and specifically targeted this term among others when giving the “Legacy Standard Bible.”
The born-again believer is to be a slave to Christ. What does that mean? It means our lives, our job descriptions, our hours, and our routines are to be determined by Christ. Most of us don’t live that way. We run our own schedules and our own agendas before consulting our Master. What Jesus lived for, the very essence of His being, was doing the will of His Father. He was controlled by no other thing but His Father’s will. He did not stop doing what He was to do for the sake of family, food, sleep, shelter, annoyance of unbelief, or anything. Jesus had many opportunities to do many different things, but He took the approach of (and I quote Paul Washer on this), “I have no opportunity but the doing of God’s will!” I can’t think of anyone where that truly is their general lifestyle, with perhaps only Rees Howells getting remotely near that point.
To be a slave to Christ is to give up all your rights. Yes, many of us are Americans, and we Americans love our freedom of speech, our right to bear arms, our right to not be illegally searched or arrested, etc. Paul exercised his Roman rights when under trial in Jerusalem under Felix and Festus. So, if we have political rights, there is nothing wrong with exercising them, but they have to be submitted to the will of a much higher authority – Christ. We are not servants of the United States. While we may be citizens, we should not serve the US as our Lord. We serve Christ. Now serving Christ does mean being good citizens and being peaceful with all men, but our primary authority is Christ. Our job is to what Christ says, and He has the right to rule over us.
When you take up your cross and deny yourself, you are denying your rights and submitting them to Christ. I know this sounds hard, but if Jesus is our Master, He is the one who determines what our rights are. But let me also say this: our rights as the slave of Christ are FAR better than what any country could give us. We don’t need a government agency to uphold our rights or a right to block a government agency from doing something corrupt. We have Christ defending us, and that is much better. Don’t hear what I am not saying. I am not saying that we should sit back while corrupt representatives, who do no representing, take things away from us because they think they can play god with our lives, our money, and our resources.
Slaves in Roman times had rights. Slaves in ancient Israel had rights, too. We also have rights with Christ. But these rights are not to prevent God from ruining our fun. These rights are to give us power and authority to go out and proclaim the Gospel. Remember this: God’s logic is backwards and upside down to us. We picture the slave as being the lowest of the low, yet that is precisely whom God uses to exalt above kings and rulers. If Maximus Marcus Aurelius could, as a slave, become more powerful than the Emperor of Rome (in the movie Gladiator), how much more so the Christian? By becoming a slave to Christ, we become His ambassadors, His representative, and His body. That comes with an extraordinary command and extraordinary power. We can change lives, shut down wicked industries, heal the sick, cast out demons, trample snakes and scorpions, and the list goes on. Are you doing that now? Only on a small scale. Why? Because I have not yet fully submitted myself to Christ as a slave. I still have sin in me that wants to rule my life instead.
But the real reason we don’t see the Church out and about living with power enough that would make rulers shake is because we don’t actually believe the Bible as we claim. Queen Elizabeth I said she feared the prayers of Edmund Burke more than she feared the most powerful armada in the world, and she beat them in battle because of prayer warriors. The Allies should have lost many battles in World War II but Rees Howells took the war on his knees. He prayed over strategies and tactics and battles as though he was on the front lines, and while he wasn’t alone, it was his prayers among others that turned the European front against Hitler. How did Howells have such power that if he was looking at a property, the owner knew to get out of the way? He became a slave to Christ even to the point where he would not spend a penny unless God gave him permission.
Next week I will conclude this series with one major application to being a slave to Christ: to submit every thought to the will of Christ Jesus.
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