March 26, 2012

• Lenten Reflections: Romans 1:1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus

  Romans 1:1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus

  

  From Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary on Romans 1...

  "The person who writes the epistle described (1): Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ; this is his title of honour, which he glories in, not as the Jewish teachers, Rabbi, Rabbi; but a servant, a more immediate attendant, a steward in the house."

  I imagine most of us would love to hear those cries of "Rabbi, Rabbi!" ringing in our ears (and I know my flesh constantly lusts for that), but how many of us are happy, more than happy to lead quiet lives and be doorkeepers in the house of our Lord? Godliness with contentment truly is great gain – is it not?

  
  The Greek word for servant is doulos. Paul also uses the same word in Philippians 1:1, II Corinthians 4:5, Galatians 1:10, Titus 1:1 to refer to himself; and Peter, James and Jude use the term to refer to themselves (II Peter 1:1, James 1:1, Jude 1:1). It's also used by Paul to describe Timothy and Epaphras.

  From the Outline of Biblical Usage, the word doulos is defined as:

  1) a slave, bondman, man of servile condition

  a) a slave

  b) metaph., one who gives himself up to another's will those whose service is used by Christ in extending and advancing his cause among men

  c) devoted to another to the disregard of one's own interests

  2) a servant, attendant

  Many of us don't really mind the term servant so much – well, to a point anyhow – and especially in comparison with being a slave. I remember many years ago reading a devotional with one of our children (I think it was on Romans 6), and my child found the concept that we are to be slaves to God nothing short of repulsive. (More on Romans 6 below...)

  Here's more on doulos from Strong's Concordance...

  1401 doulos (doo'-los) from 1210; a slave (literal or figurative, involuntary or voluntary; frequently, therefore in a qualified sense of subjection or subserviency):--bond(-man), servant. see GREEK for 1210

   
  Then, continuing to trace the word origin, going to the Greek entry 1210, deo (deh'-o):

   a primary verb; to bind (in various applications, literally or figuratively):--bind, be in bonds, knit, tie, wind. See also 1163, 1189.

  I was familiar with doulos, but I'd never gone that far in the search previously, but it brings me back first to Psalm 116, particularly verse 16 (KJV):

  O LORD, truly I am thy servant; I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid: thou hast loosed my bonds.

  and then to Matthew Henry's wonderful words:

  He that procured the release of a captive took him for his servant. "Lord, thou hast loosed my bonds; those sorrows of death that compassed me, thou hast discharged me from them, and therefore I am thy servant, and entitled to thy protection as well as obliged to thy work." The very bonds which thou hast loosed shall tie me faster unto thee. Patrick.

  That's exactly what happens in our conversion. We have been redeemed by the blood of Christ, crucified with Christ and raised to new life with Him. The bonds of sin which held us have now been broken asunder! Why? So we might be free to be bound to the Lord Jesus Christ! So we might be free to be slaves to the Lord Jesus Christ! If the Son sets you free, you are free indeed!

  John 8:34  Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. 35  The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. 36  So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

  Paul picks up with doulos in Romans 6. This chapter is key to our understanding the work of the Holy Spirit in the believer. Please don't gloss over it! Many people skip right into Romans 12 and beyond, but they don't have the foundation right, they don't understand the work of the Holy Spirit, and so they try to offer themselves as living sacrifices and work out their own salvation in their own power. Impossible! That's a form of Christianity that denies the power! When we do that, we're putting ourselves right back under the yoke of bondage to the law. Jesus came to free us from that yoke:

  Matthew 11:28  “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

  We must understand that apart from God's power at work in us, we can do nothing. It is God who works in us to will and to do of His good pleasure. Due to God's working (energeo in the Greek) in us, we work! We work only because God's Spirit works in us! (Phil. 2:12-13). We can't live the Christian life apart from the life of Christ working in us! (All the places where the word slave is used below, it is the Greek word doulos (or variations of it), and I've emphasized those.)

  Romans 6:1  What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2  By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3  Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4  We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

  5  For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6  We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7  For one who has died has been set free from sin. 8  Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9  We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10  For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11  So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

  12  Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. 13  Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14  For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

  15  What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16  Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17  But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18  and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. 19  I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

  20  When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21  But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death. 22  But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23  For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

  7:1  Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? 2  Thus a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. 3  Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.

  4  Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. 5  For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. 6  But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit.

  By the cross of Christ, we who were once slaves to sin and to the law have now been set free to be married to another – the Lord Jesus Christ! We are the bride of Christ!

  I know some of you may still be recoiling at this idea of our being a slave... so let us consider the Lord Jesus Christ Himself...

  Philippians 2:5  Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: 6  Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: 7  But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: 8  And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

  Let this mind be in you. That's us... All believers. And, yes, the word for servant is doulos, though it's translated here as servant. We can't deny it: the King of kings and the Lord of lords, the Creator and Sustainer of all things, the Son of God became a slave! O! What glorious condescension for sinners like us! Read the Servant Songs (Isaiah 42:1-9; 49:1-7; 50:4-9; 52:13-53:12). Read through the passion of Jesus Christ in the four gospels. Behold the Lamb! John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth! Have you ever really taken time to behold the Author and Finisher of our faith? Have you ever gazed upon His glory (II Cor. 3:12-18)?

  How can we refuse to do our Father's bidding, when the Son of God willingly became a slave to set us free from being slaves to the law, to sin, to death and to the devil!

  And yet, don't you and I so often resemble Jesus' disciples? We jockey for position, we look around at each other and ask who is the greatest, and we might even be so audacious at one time or another as to ask Jesus to let us sit at his side in His glory!

  Mark 10:35  And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” 36  And he said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?” 37  And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” 38  Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” 39  And they said to him, “We are able.” And Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized, 40  but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.” 41  And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John. 42  And Jesus called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 43  But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, 44  and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. 45  For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (See also Matthew 18 and 20, Mark 9, and Luke 22.)

  
  

  Must be
  (not an option)
  
  slave...
  
  of all.

  And we can only be slaves of all as we render ourselves as slaves to God first of all!

  
  In stark contrast to the disciples' behavior at that time (behavior which the Lord Jesus said should not be among them – or among us), look at the attitude of the apostle Paul during his house arrest in Rome. Because Paul counted everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus his Lord (Phil. 3:8), we read of the blessedness he experienced as a slave to Christ. Can we not hear the living water flowing from his heart in these words?

  Philippians 1:12  I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, 13  so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. 14  And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.

  15  Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. 16  The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. 17  The former proclaim Christ out of rivalry, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. 18  What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.

  Yes, and I will rejoice...

  Only as we embrace our position in Christ – acknowledging that slavery to Christ is true freedom, as we experience and begin to live out that freedom, being strengthened by God's Spirit to entrust ourselves to God and God's sovereignty, to walk by faith and submit ourselves completely to God's will for us (no matter how grievous it may seem to our flesh), and render ourselves as slaves to Christ – like Paul, we will learn to be content in whatever state we are in (Phil. 4:11-13), stop whining and complaining (Phil. 2:4), and show forth a vibrant and joy-filled testimony – being lights in a dark world. Whether the Lord gives or the Lord takes away, even in those "prison places" in our lives (times of temptation, tribulation, suffering, trial and disappointment), we will be empowered to offer the sacrifice of praise to God: "Blessed be the name of the LORD!"

  May God's grace abound to us so we might glory in Christ and glory in being His slaves, so we might shine forth as a testimony to the glorious grace of God to all the nations who are still in darkness!

  That is God's desire for us:

  Isaiah 62:1-2
  For Zion's sake I will not keep silent,
  and for Jerusalem's sake I will not be quiet,
  until her righteousness goes forth as brightness,
  and her salvation as a burning torch.
  The nations shall see your righteousness,
  and all the kings your glory,
  and you shall be called by a new name
  that the mouth of the LORD will give.

  I Corinthians 6:19-20
  Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you,
  whom you have from God?
  You are not your own,
  for you were bought with a price.
  So glorify God in your body.

  ---

  Related:

  • but made Himself of no reputation ~ O, for grace to be a doorkeeper! (Philippians 2, Psalm 84)
  • Lenten Reflections: What HE Gave Up ~ Does His grace get you amazed?
  • Lenten Reflections: what we did, what He did ~ Isaiah 50:5-6
  • Lenten Reflections: Climbing (the minister's descent)
  • Lenten Reflections: His ear opened, Our ears stopped ~ Are you following the Servant? (Isaiah 50)
  • He loved them unto the end
  • Jesus tasted . . . Have you?
  • Linger, linger, linger – so you might know God's love
  • Lenten Reflections: "so Joel had another appointment"
  • Bible Reading: Things To Look for in a Church–What We Find in Solomon's Temple, #4: Sacrifice
  • (2) Kingdom-Obsessed People know who's "The King"
  • Palm Sunday: Why loose the donkey and the colt?
  • Kingdom-Obsessed People don't seek "great things" for themselves
  • My love affair . . . whose trumpet, whose glory & incomplete joy
  • Romans 12:1-2 ~ Ann Hasseltine Judson: a willing sacrifice – Are you?
  • Lent II.-God's calling: "As my Father hath sent Me, so send I you." | Oswald Chambers
  • "if I would but cease struggling ... I might be happy" (Edward Payson)
  • by my God I can leap over a wall (Psalm 18:29b)

  Reference: Blue Letter Bible. "Dictionary and Word Search for doulos (Strong's 1401)". Blue Letter Bible. 1996-2012. 26 Mar 2012. < http:// www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=G1401&t=KJV >

  Work found at http://www.artbible.info/art/large/460.html / {{PD-Art|PD-old-100}}

  Scripture quotations unless otherwise indicated are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Emphasis mine.

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