Christian Service # 1

Christian Service # 1

Our present subject follows logically upon the theme of our last paper, for we are saved to serve, as was adumbrated of old in connection with God's earthly peoples, "And the Lord spoke unto Moses, "Go unto Pharaoh, and say unto him, thus says the Lord, Let My people go, that they may serve Me" (Ex. 8:1).

Pharaoh was a type of satan. The bondage of Egypt was a type of our "serving divers lusts" (Tim. 3:3). Israel's exodus from Egypt and their entering into covenant with Jehovah at Sinai illustrates the experience of conversion, when a rebel against God throws down the weapons of his warfare and gives himself up to be ruled by God's will.

Salvation, then, is a change of masters. There are but two masters, and each person serves one of them - sin and God. Every man serves one of them, but no man can serve both. Every man serves either sin or righteousness, God or the devil, giving his time and strength to one or the other. "Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Holy Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires" (Romans 8:5). There is NO middle ground, or neutral state. Both of these services are entered by consent, "Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey - whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?" (Romans 6:16).

It is true there are degrees in this, some yielding up themselves more completely and entirely than others. Nevertheless, the service which the regenerate render to righteousness is quite voluntary. The service of sin must be abandoned, before the service of God can be entered, "But now that you have been set free from sin, and have become slaves to God - the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life" (Romans 6:22). That order is unchangeable. 

By nature we are not in subjection to God, for man is "born like a wild donkey's colt" (Job 11:12). As they contemplate their unregenerate days, the Lord's people sorrowfully confess, "All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned one to his own way!" (Isa. 53:6). Yes, that is the quintessence of sin - the determination to please ourselves.

Thus it was at the beginning. Our first parents chafed at the divine restraint, and took matters into their own hands. But by grace, all this is altered. The language of a quickened soul is, "Lord, what will You have me to do" (Acts 9:6).

True conversion is a being brought into subjection to God.

First, the conscience is convicted of insubordination to God, and we are made to tremble for having so long and so grievously defied Him. His claims are now recognized and felt, and there is a broken-hearted repentance for having disregarded those claims.

Second, there is a bending of our wills, a subduing of the fleshly principle within, and a being made desirous for God to rule us (Psalm 110:3). Self-lover, self-will, and self-righteousness receive their death wounds!

Third, there is wrought in the heart a readiness to submit to God's way of salvation (Rom. 10:3), so that we come as empty-handed beggars to receive out of the fullness of His grace.

Fourth, there is a receiving of Christ Jesus as Lord (Col. 2:6). "O Lord, our God, other lords besides You have ruled over us, but Your name alone do we honor" (Isa. 26:13). In the past, "lord" self-pleasing, "lord" self-love, and "lord" self-gratification - ruled us. But now, these are repudiated. We have become "servants of God," and a servant is one who owns the authority of a superior, who is yielded to the will of his master and lives and labors to promote his interests.

~A. W. Pink~

(continued with # 2)