From: wagner@grace.math.uh.edu (David Wagner)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: Re: God's Slaves? (Was Re: Question on the Bible)
Date: 9 Oct 92 08:43:49 GMT
Organization: UH Dept of Math

"Stephen" == Stephen Northcutt <snorthc@relay.nswc.navy.mil> writes:


Stephen> 
>  we ALL choose to be slaves of either God or Satan.

Stephen> The context if you see the previous posts is that you/I ARE
Stephen> slaves, the only question is whether you serve a master (the
Stephen> world) or a Master (God in The kingdom).

Stephen> Liz writes:
Liz> Slavery sounds like an involuntary relationship

Stephen> Yes I am trying to convey this exact point.... that you WILL
Stephen> serve is involuntary, consider the last roundup.... every
Stephen> knee shall bow.....

Perhaps this is Yet Another Nitpick, but here goes.

It is something of a contradiction in terms to say, on the one hand,
that we choose to be slaves of either God or Satan, and on the
other hand, that either one is an involuntary relationship.

From the viewpoint of Scripture, we choose nothing in this matter.
It is God who chooses us.  Yet he does this through Word and
Sacrament, "I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power
of salvation for everyone who believes" Rom 1:16, "Faith comes
from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the
word of Christ" Rom 10:17.

Jesus invites us to faith with the words, "Come to me, all you 
who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my
yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in
heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke
is easy and my burden is light."

With these words Jesus invites us to throw off Satan's yoke
of slavery and accept Jesus' easy yoke.  Even though Satan
is not mentioned here, Satan's yoke of slavery is the
obvious unstated contrast to Christ's spiritual sabbath-rest.
Satan's yoke was so appealing in the garden that Adam and Eve 
chose Satan's slavery rather than follow God.  In that choice 
they and we lost all our freedom.  Since then we have all been
born into Satan's slavery.

Another way in which this condition is described in Scripture,
is that before we believed, we were spiritually dead in sins
and trangressiion, (Ephesians 2). Our conversion is then described
as a resurrection: "But because of his great love for us, God, who
is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were
dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved."
Note that it is God who makes us alive, not ourselves.   

Satan's yoke of slavery still appeals to us today, and continually tempts 
us to sin.  Yet whatever short term pleasures we may obtain from sin, 
in the long run, and particularly from an eternal viewpoint, we only 
obtain weariness and burdens from them. Jesus urges us to come to him,
trusting in him for full forgiveness; he will give us true rest
from our burdens.

When we believe in Jesus we do accept a new Master, but his burden
is light and his yoke is easy.  The God who created us also loves
us, and his will is good for us.
  
We struggle with sin in our life of sanctification.  We can only
do so by the power of the Spirit. Paul described his own struggle
in Romans 7, and concluded: "So, then, I myself in my mind am a
slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of
sin."  Yet he follows these words with:  "Therefore, there is now no
condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through
Christ the law of the Spirit set me free from the law of sin and
death."  So `slavery' under Christ is really freedom.  In a 
sense the meaning of this is: only the believer is free to 
do God's will.

David H. Wagner
a confessional Lutheran		"Take my will and make it Thine,
				It shall be no longer mine;
				Take my heart, it is Thine own,
				It shall be Thy royal throne."

				--"Take My Life and Let It Be.", v.5
				--Frances R. Havergal, 1874