Servants of Christ

THE work of the Lord Jesus has not only wrought a mighty transformation for a countless number of sinners given to Him by the Father, but it has given a new and honourable meaning to words expressive of relationships that were anything but ennobling and exalted. Such a word we have in “servant,” the translation in our Authorised Version of “doulos,” a bondman or slave. Paul glories in being a servant of Jesus Christ, yet the word expressive of this relationship must have appeared anything but suggestive of a coveted relationship to those familiar with the conditions prevailing in the Greek and Roman world in apostolic times. But there was something in the new relationship of the Christian and his Master which gave a new meaning to the word, while suggesting to the mind of the early Christians certain features of this new relationship which filled them with wonder and a sense of deep humility.

“Servant,” as we use the word, has lost certain features described by the term used by the Apostle. In order to bring out the idea, sometimes Paul’s word is translated “slave” and sometimes “bondman.” The former does not quite convey the meaning; as a “slave,” though the possession of his master, does not receive wages, while a “servant,” though receiving wages, is not the possession of his master. It was not so with the “bondman”; he was the possession of his master, and received wages for his work. Unlike the servant, he could not leave the service of his master any time he pleased until he was bought with a price, and he was unlike the slave, in this respect, that he received wages for his work. This thought underlies the Apostle’s figure used in Romans, where sin is the master and sinners the bondmen who are receiving

wages—the wages of sin, which is death. It is this change from being servants of sin to be servants of Christ that moved the heart of the Apostle so deeply, and with what we have already said about this term we may now make application of its bearing on (1) the former condition of believers in sin, (2) their new condition brought about by the price paid for their redemption and the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit.

1. In regard to the believer’s former condition, there was everything to awaken in their minds the deepest anxiety if they had been only sensible of their condition—they were the servants or bondmen of sin. Sin was their master, cruel, tyrannical, and exacting. No one was too young or too old to be in his service. He kept them busily employed day and night, from youth to old age (if God, in mercy, did not intervene). There was no pity and no compassion for youth or age. With remorseless power he kept his bondmen busy in his service, and at the end of the long or short day he faithfully paid the wages that had been wrought for. The term “wages” is significant, it implies the reward for something that has been wrought for and which must legally be paid. The master is not at liberty to withhold wages, he is legally bound to pay what has been wrought for, and what a tremendous meaning there is, therefore, in the Apostle’s words, “the wages of sin is death.” The state and prospects of the bondmen were anything but uplifting and encouraging, but it was possible for them to become freemen by paying a certain price to their master, but with sinners the price was too great and the state of bondage was eternally interminable so far as they were concerned, and had it not been that One came who was able to pay the price for their redemption, the “servants of sin” would never have become “the servants of Christ or of God.” This brings us to notice briefly how this great change was brought about.

2. The new condition of the believer is brought about by a divine work. The sinner had nothing wherewith to purchase his freedom, and his case from anything he could do himself was hopeless. The price for his redemption was too great to be paid by any created being. It was in view of this that infinite Wisdom provided the means whereby the price was to be paid, and that price was not silver and gold, but the precious blood of Christ as a lamb that was slain. The greatness of the price paid for his redemption made an indelible impression on the Apostle’s mind, and fills the expressions, “servant of Christ” and “our Lord”

with a profound significance. The price being paid by Him who was now and for ever their Lord and Master opened the way for their transference from their old state to the new. Through the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit they became new creatures in Christ Jesus, and being made free from sin they became the servants of righteousness.

In the transactions of giving bondmen their liberty it was customary that the freedom was attested by witnesses, and in the Epistle to the Romans the Apostle, in speaking of the believer’s deliverance from the spirit of bondage and fear, says:—”The Spirit Himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God” (Roms. viii. 16). Those whom Christ has made freemen are also bondmen of His forever. This was the relationship in which the Apostle glorified. He once was the servant of sin, but now he had been set free to become the servant of Christ. There is no indignity in true service, but in Christ’s service the service confers an honour so great, not only because of the exalted nature of the Person who is now Lord and Master, but because of the exceeding great price that was paid for the servant’s redemption. Into that service the Apostle was brought, in common with all believers, and out of it he shall never go. However kind the earthly Master may be, and however forbearing, yet there are times when there is a longing for change, but it is not so in this service. The Christian’s Master having unlimited resources at His command, does not, like so many masters, wish to get rid of His servants in old age, but is very kind and gracious to them in the last years of their earthly pilgrimage, and when that is finished He takes them to be with Him forever. The true Christian, therefore, may appropriately use the words of the Apostle—”The God whose I am, whom also I serve,” though he will safeguard himself in so speaking from presuming to set himself on the same plane with the great Apostle of the Gentiles, whose manifold labours and sufferings in the service of His Master reads like something that was beyond the power of man to accomplish.

I did not speak that word strong enough, which says, “He that believeth not shall be damned.” It is said of one of the primitive preachers, that he used so to speak that word “damned,” that it struck all his hearers. We are afraid of speaking that word, for fear of offending such and such; who yet despise the servant for not being so honest as his Master.—George Whitefield.