10.3.09
Slaves or Friends?
The Bible teaches that obedience is important, and that true obedience should come from the heart. God wants to have a love relationship with us! In Romans, Paul distinguishes between being a slave to sin, and being delivered through a correct doctrine of obedience from the heart:
Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. Romans 6:16, 17
Only the devil enslaves us. God delivers us! The Son sets us free!
And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. John 8:35, 36
For they are not all
Here in Romans 9, Paul explains that the correct relation to God has always been a faith relation. It’s always been a matter of faith and trust. It’s never been a blood relation, but rather a faith relation.
In Romans 7:12 we are told “Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.” Psalm 19:7 says “The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul”.
There are a lot of miserable Christians walking around today. They have not learned that the Christian faith is a matter of the heart. The man that is described in Romans 7 is a miserable person who is not having a happy, successful spiritual life.
The man of Romans 7 is a person who sees that “the law is spiritual”, that is to say, not only the outward aspects—our actions--but it also lays claim to our motives and our thoughts as well. He admits that “in me nothing good dwells, to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find” (verse 18). (“I want to”) i.e. he wants to keep God’s law, wants to be righteous….but…..he doesn’t know HOW…HE’S INTELLECTUALLY AWARE OF WHAT IS RIGHT, an INTELLECTUAL CHRISTIAN, with an INTELLECTUAL RELIGION…HE KNOWS THINGS, BUT HE DOESN’T EXPERIENCE WHAT HE KNOWS…HOW to perform that which is good I do not find.
He’s miserable; wants to do good, but doesn’t….not that he wants to be miserable….He knows God’s will, but doesn’t know how to experience it. This is a formula for misery.
Matt. 5:20—background: Jesus is addressing a mixed multitude of Jews, who are all seated on the grassy hillside. And on the edges of the crowd, there are scribes and Pharisees. They are there to spy on Jesus and to catch Him in something He might say that is a little off.
And Jesus, knowing that they are there, says this to the multitude: “For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Pretty heavy statement! They thought these people were the apex of righteousness. Every Israelite mother cherished the thought that her son might be a scribe or Pharisee, and that her daughter might be the wife of a scribe or Pharisee. These were thought to be the very elite of holiness and dignity.
It can be a very depressing statement; He’s either saying, you need more of what they have…..you need to be twice as they are….you need to be ultra, ultra conservative….strain amebas not just gnats!
No—He’s saying “You need righteousness of an entirely different order—that’s not it! You need something totally different than what they have. Don’t follow them.”
Matt. 23:23ff—He tells us what kind of righteousness we really need to have. He calls them “hypocrites”. What’s a hypocrite? Give me some synonyms or describing words. “Two-faced”; “pretenders”.
“You pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith” (Luke adds love). “These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.”
They are not acting out of love. They are not converted men, these Pharisees. They haven’t received a new heart.
There are those who profess to serve God, while they rely upon their own efforts to obey His law, to form a right character, and secure salvation. Their hearts are not moved by any deep sense of the love of Christ, but they seek to perform the duties of the Christian life as that which God requires of them in order to gain heaven. Such religion is worth nothing. Steps to Christ, 44
Relying on your own efforts to change, going through the motions week after week just to make it to heaven—it’s worth NOTHING. God wants our hearts! He wants to commune with us! He longs to have a friendship with us that will last forever!
When Christ dwells in the heart, the soul will be so filled with His love, with the joy of communion with Him, that it will cleave to Him; and in the contemplation of Him, self will be forgotten. Love to Christ will be the spring of action. Those who feel the constraining love of God, do not ask how little may be given to meet the requirements of God; they do not ask for the lowest standard, but aim at perfect conformity to the will of their Redeemer. With earnest desire they yield all and manifest an interest proportionate to the value of the object which they seek. A profession of Christ without this deep love is mere talk, dry formality, and heavy drudgery. Steps to Christ, 44-45
Drudgery! That’s what it is! Without the love of Jesus in our hearts, the Christian life is drudgery, misery, dry formality, Laodiceanism! And God has something much better for us.
David says in Psalm 119:70, “I delight in Your law”. John says in 1 John 1:3, 4, “His commandments are not burdensome. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world.”
The commandments are a burden without a love relationship with Jesus.
We’re trying to measure up to the standards of God’s Word, but we’re not Christians. We don’t know Him. That is why we are so often miserable, and the Christian life is drudgery.
Jn. 15: 9ff “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love [basis]. These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.”
Is He trying to make life hard for us? NO. He wants us to have an experience of joy! Obedience that is motivated by love. “You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.” John 15:15.
Slaves vs. Friends. Slavery: do what you’re told, no questions; submission without understanding; do it or else. Friendship: love, respect, trust. Jesus: “I want you to be My friends.” “I don’t want puppet behavior….I don’t want to make you do right things….I’m not merely after controlling your habit patterns outwardly…yes, I’m interested that you live in obedience to My law…but I don’t want to make you slaves…I want to be your Friend….I want you to obey Me out of a sense of love for Me, because you trust Me and you respect Me. I want to be your Friend.” How inviting!
I invite you to receive Christ Jesus as Savior and Lord. To move from misery to joy.
Jesus says that this close friendship with Him will result in continuing fruitage in our lives—“You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain.” John 15:16
Jesus has chosen us to walk with Him in peace. He has chosen us to be His friends. He has chosen us to bear fruit in our lives to His glory and goodness.
“We need to be converted from our faulty lives to the faith of the Gospel. Christ's followers have no need to try to shine. If they will behold constantly the life of Christ they will be changed in mind and heart into the same image. Then they will shine without any superficial attempt. The Lord asks for no display of goodness. In the gift of His Son He has made provision that our inward lives may be imbued with the principles of heaven. It is the appropriation of this provision that will lead to a manifestation of Christ to the world. When the people of God experience the new birth, their honesty, their uprightness, their fidelity, their steadfast principles, will unfailingly reveal it.” Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students, 251
Today, open your heart to receive all that the Lord has for you. Open up your mind to appropriate, to take in the gift of the Son. Let the Son of God fill you with His goodness and His principles. Let your Friend Jesus have complete control of your life from this day forward. Say yes to Jesus! Be a friend of Jesus today. It’s easy to walk with a Friend.