“Servant” or “Slave”?

Almost all English translations of the Bible render the Greek word doulos, when used in reference to our relationship with Christ, as “servant.” It is true that we are “servants” of Christ. However, mere servanthood does not carry the full meaning of the word doulos. John MacArthur (The Gospel According to Jesus, p. 28) explains:

There are at least six Greek words for “servant,” and doulos is not one of them. For example, diakonos (from which our word deacon is derived) means “servant.” Oiketes speaks of a domestic servant. Pais denotes a young boy who runs errands. Huperetes (usually translated “minister”) literally signifies a low-level servant who pulls an oar on the lower deck of a large ship. Leitourgos, also meaning “minister,” designates someone who performs some kind of religious service. Therapon, used of Moses in Hebrews 3:5 (“faithful in all His house as a servant”), refers to a dignified kind of high-level service. And there are several more specific Greek words that describe service in terms far loftier and more respectable than doulos.

Doulos speaks of slavery, pure and simple. It is not at all a hazy or uncertain term. It describes someone lacking personal freedom and personal rights whose very existence is defined by his service to another. It is the sort of slavery in which “human autonomy is set aside and an alien will takes precedence of one’s own” (Murray J. Harris, Slave of Christ, 112). This is total, unqualified submission to the control and the directives of a higher authority – slavery, not merely service at one’s own discretion.

We must be aware of the differences between a servant and a slave. Harris (Slave of Christ, p. 18) quotes Dr. Josef Tson, a Romanian pastor who had been arrested and imprisoned in 1974 and 1977, then exiled in 1981, and who “forcefully expressed his preference to be introduced simply as “a slave of Jesus Christ”:

In twentieth-century Christianity we have replaced the expression “total surrender” with the word “commitment,” and “slave” with “servant.” But there is an important difference. A servant gives service to someone, but a slave belongs to someone. We commit ourselves to do something, but when we surrender ourselves to someone, we give ourselves up.

What does this understanding of our position as slaves of Christ has to do with Paul’s response to the false teachers in Galatia? What does it imply in our own relationship with Christ as Christians and in the daily decisions we make? Read or listen to the sermon Slave of Christ based on Galatians 1:10-12.

One Way

There is only one gospel, only one “good news” that a person needs to hear in order to be saved. It is the good news of Jesus Christ. It is the “news” that we are saved not by our own works but by grace through faith in Jesus Christ (Eph. 2:8-9).

A person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. (Gal. 2:16)

Paul issued a solemn warning in Galatians 1:6-9 that departing from this true gospel is departing from God. Any “gospel” other than this, whether in the name of Christianity or of other religion, is dangerous to one’s soul.

But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. (Gal. 1:8-9)

If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. (1 Cor. 16:22)

Why is turning away from this “gospel” dangerous? What is the danger of believing and preaching a message of salvation other than Paul’s? Find out here.

Celebrating the Cross of Christ

Our life must be a celebration of the cross of Christ – of what Christ has done to rescue us from our sins. Our life will only have meaning if we will live according to the freedom we have in Christ.

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (2:20).

“But may it never be that I would boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (6:14 NASB).

Life is meant to be a celebration of the freedom we have in Christ because he died on the cross so that we may be free to draw near to God.

I am inviting you to follow this series on Galatians entitled “Galatians: Celebrating the Cross of Christ.” You can read or listen to the first sermon Grace to Us and Glory to God. You can also download study guides for your small group or for personal study.

Joyfully shouting, “I am free!”,

Pastor Derick

Don’t Lose What is Important

I don’t want to lose the greatest gift that the gospel brings, namely, God himself.

The message of the gospel – the good news about the death and resurrection of Christ and the salvation it guarantees for those who believe – is really good news!

By this gospel God declared me righteous through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

By this gospel God is doing his day-by-day cleansing of the impurities of my heart so that one day, I will stand before him pure and blameless in his sight.

By this gospel, I am saved. By this gospel, I am being saved.

These are enough reasons for me to treasure the gospel, not just at the beginning of my Christian life, but everyday.

I will treasure the gospel everyday. I will cling to it and stand on it. I will not lose it. It’s that important. Not only for me. But also for you.

“Preaching is His Life”

Today, not many people (including some pastors) take preaching seriously. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981) was different. He was considered as the greatest preacher of the last century because he was one of the most serious expositors of the Word of God. He was the pastor of Westminster Chapel in London for almost 30 years (1939-1968).

In July 1959, while on a vacation with his wife Bethan in Wales, they attended a prayer meeting at a small church there. He asked the people there, “Would you like me to give a word this morning?” The people there were a little bit hesitant because they don’t want to spoil his vacation and want him to take a rest instead. But his wife said, “Let him, preaching is his life” (Murray, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, p. 373). It was evident in this occasion, among many others, that he took preaching seriously. He wrote in his book Preaching and Preachers, the book which I will admit has one of the greatest impact in my passion for preaching:

“[Preaching] has been my life’s work. I have been forty-two years in the ministry, and the main part of my work has been preaching; not exclusively, but the main part of it has been preaching…to me the work of preaching is the highest and the greatest and the most glorious calling to which anyone can ever be called…the most urgent need in the Christian Church today is true preaching (p. 9, emphasis added)…the primary task of the Church and of the Christian minister is the preaching of the Word of God” (p. 19, emphasis added).

To know more about the seriousness of the preacher’s task, read or listen to the sermon I preached in our church yesterday, “Preach the Word!” I believe that all Christians, especially pastors and teachers, need to listen carefully to Paul’s exhortation to Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:1-5:

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.