Identity: Slaves of Righteousness (Part 1)

~ The Biblical Story ~

“Let my people go….” The words must have resounded in Pharaoh’s courts, creating a jar, stir, still, hush. Look at the words touch Pharaoh’s face for the first time, the paint unable to hide his emotions. Look at Moses, a supernatural boldness rising in what should have left him trembling and quaking in his dusty sandals and peasant robe, unmatched in the splendor of Pharaoh’s court. Look at the wave of hope, fear, can-it-be, dare-we-hope in the Israelites.

“Let my people go, that they may serve [‘abad] me in the wilderness” says the Lord (Ex. 7:16). Hebrew ‘abad: serve, worship. They ‘abad, slave for Pharoah. They ‘abad worship (thus NIV, NLT, CSB say “that they may worship me”). Abad—to slave, to worship Adonai (meaning “lord,” “master,” “owner”).

We are slaves to righteousness, slaves to worship, bondslaves of love.

 

What do you long to be free of, that you know hinders wholehearted love, freedom, devotion? I sit, anxiety fiercer than a hailstorm. Oh, to trust more! Other times, I realize fear is sitting on my shoulder, its presence unnoticed yet screaming louder than a train horn. Oh, to trust more! Most of us have something—an uncontrolled tongue, a cynical attitude, ingratitude, addiction, bitterness and unforgiveness, insecurity, fears, that habitual sin—something that still hinders obedience and the freedom Christ promises. Sins of omission—we should go and love that person, but that person? We should have that hard conversation, but it’s easier to just put up with it. It’s easier to sit at home than serve—but yet, the call of Christ. Do you feel that yearning, that fight, conflict?

*What do you long to be free of? What is that next step of obedience you long for?

The conflict is God’s “Let my people go” forcing out the pharaohs in us. The conflict is the very area in which the Spirit is at work, forging more of Christ’s beauty in you. The conflict is the precious call of Christ for that area of life, a call saying that he is King and worthy of all, a call that all of you is too precious, too eternal, to not touch.

This conflict is rooted in our new God-given identity—as obedient children (1 Pet. 1:14), exclusive lovers, and slaves of righteousness (Rom. 6:18).  A slave of righteousness—is this how you see yourself? Bound in love obedience to the Master of Love? A slave of righteousness, in Brad Hambrick’s words (2), is the volitional component of our identity. What we choose, decide, set our hearts on, obey is part of who we are, and in turn reinforces and shapes who we are.

*Have you thought of yourself as a slave to righteousness? How much of your identity is formed by that?

This was the calling of the Israelites—“And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good?” (Deut. 10:12-13).

Fear.

Walk in his ways.

Love.

Serve.

Keep commandments.

Freedom and servitude, love and slavery, all bound up in one exodus. Called from one master, Pharaoh, to another, the King of Righteousness. Slaves of Righteousness. Their freedom was to serve, not to autonomy (indeed, in Judges, as they did what was right in their own eyes, what we might call “freedom” today, led to disaster).

Let my people go—words of hope that still resound for us today, but in far more heavenly courts.

~ Jesus’s Story ~

In another Roman court, two thousand years ago, the King of Righteousness surrendered himself, and would not let himself go so that we his people would be let go. He submitted unto death—so we could submit our lives to him.

As slaves of righteousness, we follow in the footsteps of Jesus, the Servant of the Lord promised in Isaiah, who took the form of a servant (Phil. 2:7). The most truly free, the most truly powerful human that had stepped on this dusty earth was also the most submissive. He himself stated, “Amen, Amen, I tell you: The Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing. Indeed, the Son does exactly what the Father does” (Jn. 5:19). Down to his very words he was a submissive servant of his Father, “For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak” (Jn. 12:49).

His was the ultimate devotion, the ultimate love-bond-servitude to his Father. His was exclusive loyalty, bowing his knee to no other master, not even his own will and preferences, his own temptations (that were just as real as ours). But he was a Servant of the Lord. He was not mastered by sin.

He had surrendered his rights to decide for himself. He decided for us.

Jesus was truly free—free to do what his deepest yearning was, submit himself to his Father’s glory.

"We become free only through obedience. A child who has never been obliged to follow, remains a weak creature all his life, the football of his moods, a slave of his desires and passions. A man who holds aloft only the one word 'Liberty' without knowing first and foremost that God is the Lord, whom man must unquestioningly obey, is and remains a child, a spoiled, poor, silly child."

Emil Brunner, Our Faith

Jesus was truly human—we often explain our sin, bad attitudes, caving into fear, “But I’m just human.” Yet! Yet, to be human is to be made in the image of God, to be renewed in the image of Christ. Anything of sin is a deviation, a deficiency of being human. We cry, “But it feels so natural! It’s so hard not to grumble, be anxious, be….do….!” Sometimes cutting out a sin seems like cutting out our eye or cutting off our hand (Mat. 18:19), it seems part of us. But it is the cancer in us, not truly who you are in Christ. It is not human.

Jesus was truly himself—all that God created him to be, untarnished by sin. His was not a squashed personality but rather he could bloom. Like sunlight, nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, water is to a flower’s blooming, a submissive obedience to God, the God who designed the way humans should work, is to us.

To be truly free, truly human is to be a slave to righteousness. To be so set free from the eating decay of sin and Pharaoh, to become a bond-servant of God, a lover that bondservants oneself to God.

*Do you see complete submission and then, on the other hand, freedom, your human dignity, and your personality as related or at odds with each other?

*Spend some time just praising the Obedient One.

NOTES

(1) James M. Hamilton, “The Messianic Music of the Song of Songs: A Non-Allegorical Interpretation,” Westminster Theological Journal 68 (2006): 331-45. Laurence Cantwell, “The Allegory of the Canticle of Canticles,” accessed March 11 from biblicalstudies.org

(2) Brad Hambrick, “Finding Your Confidence, Identity, and Security in Christ” http://bradhambrick.com/identity/

(3) Charles Hodge, Romans (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1993), 192.