The Gospel & Salvation: Salvation Produces Obedience Part 2

Salvation Produces Obedience – Part 2

The Obedience of a Slave

Selected Scriptures

 Let’s turn to Romans 6 this morning. Stand with me as we read verses 12-23. This morning I want to talk more on the subject of obedience. Specifically, I want to talk about the obedience of a slave.

We have been looking in recent weeks at what the true work of salvation accomplishes in the life of the one who is saved by grace through faith in Christ. Salvation is a life transforming reality. Salvation does not just change our eternal destiny. Salvation transforms us by making us to become new creations. Old things pass away and new things come. The work of salvation removes a heart of stone and replaces it with a heart of flesh. This was described by the prophet Ezekiel. God puts His Spirit in the Christian so that he or she willingly walks according to His word. This is the result of the new birth of salvation. Being born again results in spiritual life. We were dead in our trespasses and sins, but God made us alive together with Christ. The results are life changing.

Salvation makes us to be worshippers of God. We learned from John 4 that God seeks those who will worship in spirit and truth. We learned what that means. We saw last week that salvation produces obedience in the life of those truly saved. The first step of obedience is baptism. Since we had the privilege to baptize two young people last week, we took the opportunity to look at what the Bible teaches about that important ordinance of the church.

There is more to be said on the subject of obedience. Baptism is the first step of obedience, but it certainly isn’t the only step. Baptism signifies our desire to be identified with Christ. It symbolizes our union with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection. It pictures death to an old way of life and our resurrection to a new life in Christ. This new life in Christ is a life of increasing, intentional obedience to the will of God in all areas of life. Salvation makes us into a person who wants to do the will of God. 

Jesus only did the will of His Father in heaven. He told His disciples that He didn’t speak of His own initiative, He spoke what the Father gave Him to speak. He did the works of His Father. When faced with the greatest test of obedience, death on the Cross, Jesus prayed, “Not My will, but Your will be done.” Because salvation produces a union with Christ, salvation will make us to be like Jesus in this respect. We, like Him, will strive to do the will of our heavenly Father. He was able to always do His Father’s will perfectly because He was the God-Man. We still struggle with sin in this body so we won’t be as perfectly obedient as Christ, but our desire will be a desire to obey. The direction of our life will be toward greater faithfulness to His will.

When I read the New Testament I get a really good picture of what the Christian life should look like and a clear understanding of all that the work of salvation is intended to accomplish in the life of the follower of Christ. The Bible gives us a very good picture. We read a description of that picture in Romans 6. But when I look at the lives of many people who call themselves Christians, I don’t get a sense that we are reading the same book. This is certainly not the case with everyone. There are some Christians who are obviously very devoted to living faithfully for the honor and glory of Christ. But there are many who seem as though they are Christians in name only. I see and hear enough to realize that far too many Christians are not serious about doing the will of God.

This has become the case because of a major misconception about faith in Christ. Faith and belief are synonymous terms. To believe in Jesus is to have faith in Jesus. To believe in Jesus is to have a firm conviction regarding who He is and what He has done to save us from our sin. We know who He is. He is Lord. We know what He has done to deliver us from sin. He went to the Cross in our place and paid the debt we owed to God. Because of His work at Calvary we believe in Him as Savior. Because of who He is as the God-Man, God Incarnate, God in human flesh, we believe in Him as Lord. He is the Sovereign before whom we bow in worship, and to whom we submit.

Salvation makes us to become people who rightly relate to Jesus as Lord and Savior. We don’t get to separate those two aspects of His identity. We relate to Jesus as Lord and Savior, or I don’t think we get to claim to relate to Him at all. We may claim it, but I fear it is a baseless claim. It is a baseless claim if we say He is Lord, but we don’t do the things He tells us to do. Because He is Lord we must live in submission to Him.

If you look at the emphasis of the teaching of the New Testament, Jesus is presented as Lord. Jesus is Lord. The Greek word is “kurios.” This means the Jesus is the One with all the authority in our relationship. He is the One who calls all the shots. He is the One to whom I must submit. He is the One who alone has the right to command. He is the One whose commands we must obey. He alone is the Boss. Jude 4 identifies Jesus as the “only Master and Lord.” He is not only Lord but He is Master. The Greek word is “despotes” from which we get the word “despot.” A despot is an absolute ruler.

To believe in Jesus is to trust Him as the absolute Master. The work of salvation brings us to the place of humble submission to the absolute authority of the One who has saved us. Jesus is Lord, what does that make us? If we are in a personal relationship with the One who is Lord, then what is our role in this relationship? Turn to Romans 10:9-10. These verses make it clear that salvation results from our confession of Jesus as Lord. This confession is more than a verbal expression of a truth. Confession is “homologeo.” It means to speak the same thing. It is to live in such a way that our manner of life is consistent with the words of our lips.

We have to allow the Bible to define salvation. We have to allow the Bible to identify Jesus. We have to allow the Bible to identify who we are in the saving relationship with Jesus the Lord. What is the nature of our relationship to Him? We know He is Lord to us. What are we to be to Him in this relationship?

If Jesus is Lord, and the Bible clearly establishes that He is, then who are we? The most common term referring to those who are in this salvation relationship with Christ is slaves. Look at John 13:12-17. Jesus calls His followers “slaves.” Look at Acts 4:29. What did Peter call himself and the other apostles? The NASB says “bond-servants” but the Greek word is “doulos.” This word is most accurately translated “slave.” Because Jesus is “kurios” Lord, those who relate to Him will necessarily be slaves.

What did Paul consider himself to be in his salvation relationship with Jesus Christ? He was a slave. The translators translate the word doulos as servant or bondservant most of the time but the word Paul used is doulos, or slave. Peter, John, and the rest of the Apostles knew themselves to be slaves.

The word doulos and douloi, the plural form of doulos is found about 150 times in the New Testament. This is the most common word used to describe the Christian’s identity in the salvation relationship to Jesus Christ. That makes sense if you understand Jesus as Lord. If you have a “kurios” Lord, then everyone else in relationship to the Lord is going to be a slave. One is Lord, the many are slaves.

Listen, I don’t want to be known as a believer in Jesus Christ. Someone tells me they believe in Jesus I’m not impressed. The demons believe in Jesus. They are not Christians. When someone tells me they are a Christian, I wonder what they mean. Today that means so many things to so many people in so many different contexts it has come to mean anything from one who checks a box on a medical form to one who professes belief in the teachings of Jesus. It means nothing. I don’t want to be known as a “believer” unless my belief results in my being a faithful and obedient follower of the Lord Jesus Christ.

If we understand the nature of our relationship with Jesus Christ who is Lord we understand that we are a slave of our Master. Just like a slave on the slave market, we were bought with a price. 1 Peter 1:18-19 says, “knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.” The word “redeemed” is “lutroo.” It speaks of a ransom. The precious blood of the unblemished and spotless lamb was given as a ransom. It was shed so we would be purchased from the slave market of sin and made to become slaves of Christ.

If you are a true Christian you are not your own. You belong to Jesus Christ by virtue of His purchase of you. He shed His blood to redeem you. He owns you and you are His slave. The New Testament knows nothing of a Christian who is not a slave of Christ. A slave has no rights, no will of his own. A slave lives totally under the control of the will of another. A slave lives in absolute submission to the will of his master. As Christians we live in absolute submission to the will of Christ the Lord.

Look at Rom. 1:1. The translators translated the word “bond-servant” but the word is doulos or slave. You find the same thing in Philippians 1:1. “Paul and Timothy, bond-servants of Christ Jesus.” The word is “douloi,” the plural of “doulos” and it is “slaves.” James 1:1 same thing. 2 Peter 1:1, “Simon Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus Christ” that is how it should read. Revelation 1:1, “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His bond-servants, the things which must soon take place…”

Paul, Timothy, James, Peter, and John got it. They knew who Jesus was and they knew who they were in relation to Him. They had a personal relationship with Jesus that was based on the reality of who Jesus was and who they were in relation to Him. There is no other basis of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ that is a saving relationship.

Imagine the task of evangelism in the first century A.D. Everyone in the Roman world understood slavery. They knew that slaves had no rights. They could not defend themselves. They were nothing but tools. They were bought and sold. They existed only to do the will of their masters. They could not go to court. They could not own property. They could be killed by their owners and there would be no recourse. No one wanted to be a slave, even those who were slaves.

The Apostles are calling people to become slaves of Jesus Christ. They were telling people to trust in Christ and become slaves of a man who was killed by the Romans by crucifixion. This is why Paul said the message of the cross is foolishness. The Apostles were calling people to deny themselves, take up their crosses, and follow Jesus. Paul was telling them to have the same attitude in themselves that Jesus had in Himself.

The implications of the Lord/slave relationship are obvious. The slave is to live a life of obedience to his/her Master. The slave has no will to assert. The slave has no desire of his own. The slave exists to do the bidding of his Master. The slave lives to do the will of his Lord. This is to be the level of our willing obedience to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

But we should never forget. We do this because we love Him. Why do we love Him? We love Him because we understand what He has done to redeem us from the curse and eternal consequences of sin. Our motivation for faithful obedience is the love we have for the One who loved us first. We love Him because we realize that following Him even as a slave, and laying down our lives to carry our cross is better than the eternal damnation of the unbeliever. We love Him because we know we could never do as much for Him as He has done for us.

I want to take you to an Old Testament passage to show you something that will help us see the consistency in the way God has always related to His people. The way we are called to relate to Jesus is consistent with the way the Jews were called to relate to God. Let’s look at Deuteronomy 6:4-6. 

The Jews adopted these verses as their confession of faith. The Jews understood what God was calling them to understand in these verses. These verses establish the fundamental principles that govern the relationship between God and His people.

I think Christians have arrived at a place where obedience to God is optional because Christians have been led to believe that they get to relate to God on whatever terms they decide appropriate. It doesn’t matter to many “Christians” that God has given clear and specific instructions on the Christian life. Those instructions are optional to them because they don’t think it matters to God how we relate to Him, just so we do something to try to relate to Him. 

God established these fundamental principles by which we must relate to Him. These fundamental principles are probably best summarized the most succinctly and efficiently in Deuteronomy 6:4-6. This is a call to hear and understand this fundamental principle, established by God, which essentially describes how we are to relate to Him. 

We find the first aspect of this principle in verse 4. “Hear O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is One!” The first aspect of this principle is this: There is one God, and it isn’t you. The Lord is our God and He is the only God there is. The Lord is our God. He has chosen us to be in a relationship with Himself. He has redeemed us. He has made us His own. He has forgiven us our sins. He has saved us, not on the basis of our good deeds, but by His grace. There is one God. He has chosen to become our heavenly Father. He has given us of His Spirit. He has called us as sons and daughters. We belong to Him and we must never forget that He alone is the only God there is. He is our God.

The second aspect of this fundamental principle is found in verse 5. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” This is as clear a declaration of this principle as you will find in Scripture. This is essential to relating properly to God. He created us to love Him. Because He is God, He is worthy of our supreme love. We demonstrate that love in the way we relate to Him.

To love God with all your heart, soul and might, is to love Him supremely. It is to love Him and obey and serve Him. I hope you remember our study of our sin problem and the Fall of the first couple into sin. The problem of sin was the direct result of their failure to love God supremely, with all their heart, soul, and might. If they had loved God as they should, they never would have listened to the questions of the serpent which sowed the seeds of doubt in their minds. If they had loved God supremely they would have defended Him and His word and His will as that which was the very best for them.

The third aspect of this fundamental principle is found in verse 6. “These words which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart.” This is as simple as 1,2,3. 1. God alone is God. 2. I am to love God supremely. 3. I demonstrate my love for God by doing what He commands. His words which He commands are consistently on my heart. This means that I always look to His word first for truth and guidance. It means that I follow His word as the only reliable and sufficient source of wisdom for a life that is pleasing to Him. It means that I will obey what He tells me.

There is a parallel to the Deuteronomy passage and the truth of the New Testament. First, the Deuteronomy passage teaches us that God alone is God. There is one God and God alone is that God. In the New Testament we learn that Jesus is God. Because He is God Jesus is Lord. He alone is Lord. He is our Lord.

Second, the Deuteronomy passage calls us to love the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our soul, and with all our might. Because Jesus is the Lord our God, Him we are to love with all our heart, soul, and all our might. We are to love Jesus supremely.

Third, we demonstrate our love because the words which Jesus commanded us are on our hearts. This means that we are living with intentional obedience to all that Jesus commanded us. The Great Commission was a call to go, make disciples, baptize, and teach those disciples to observe all Jesus commanded.

As we come to the conclusion of this service we are going to share the elements of the Lord’s Table. This is a reminder of the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross. The Cross of Christ is the basis of our salvation. This was the greatest demonstration of love man has ever seen. This was the greatest act of obedience to which anyone ever submitted. Jesus laid down His life for those who He calls to be His slaves.

The sinless Son of God went to the Cross of Calvary to endure the wrath of God which I deserved because I am the sinner. He shed His blood. His body was beaten, scourged, spat upon, slapped, mocked, despised, and nailed to the cross. His body was broken. His blood was shed.

What is the appropriate response to this remarkable truth? His sacrifice set me free from sin. Paul wrote in Romans 6:18, “and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.” As a slave of righteousness, my response to His saving work is to be obedient as a slave of righteousness.

Let’s pray.