FRIENDS VERSUS SERVANTS

"Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you" (John 15:14-15).

Devotion 1 of 13

INTRODUCTION

The relationship believers sustain to God through Christ is unique. It stands in stark contrast to all other forms of religion. Although most contemporary "Christianity" emphasizes discipline of life, this is not the thrust of the New Covenant. That is an Old Testament approach, emanating from Mount Sinai, producing bondage of the worst sort.

The religious world has been inundated with literature and programs designed to teach people a procedural approach to living for God. Philosophies have been developed and perpetrated that address life in an impersonal way. These include everything from elaborate "shepherding" programs to extensive views of "accountability." All of them presuppose basic deficiencies in believers that require disciplinary structures external to them.

The issue in all such religion is control; managing people that would otherwise go astray. Such assumptions are a reproach to the Lord Jesus Christ, an insult to those who have been redeemed, and evidence of a fundamental ignorance of the freedom for which Christ has made us free (Gal 5:1).

Newness of life

In Christ, we become new creations. The Holy Spirit elucidates upon this extensively. "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" (2 Cor 5:17). Procedures and disciplines, as valuable as they may be, are not what really counts in the kingdom of God. "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature" (Gal 6:15). The "new man" "is created in righteousness and true holiness" (Eph 4:24). He is not basically wayward and ignorant, although he must contend with these degenerative qualities from "the flesh."

The source of life within

The person in Christ puts on "the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him" (Col 3:10). Individual perspectives have been changed. Life is perceived differently, and is lived unto the Lord. Believers are motivated from within, where the source of their spiritual life has been placed.

Jesus said it this way to the Samaritan woman: "But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life" (John 4:14). This condition--the well of water within--results in a different approach to both life and death. Under the first covenant, the people remained in practical alienation from God. Their necks remained stiff, the hearts and ears remained uncircumcised, and their spirits were not in accord with the living God.

This "well" is nothing less than the Holy Spirit. The words of Christ concerning this matter are provided by John the Beloved, as well as an inspired interpretation of them. "In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink. He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living waters. But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive: for the Holy Spirit was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified" (John 7:37-39).

This is a description of an experience unknown before the glorification of Christ. Until He had "put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself" (Heb 9:26), God was not free to bestow this gracious Gift. What is more, Jesus had to return to heaven to administrate the bestowment of the Gift. The source of life would be placed within the very citadel of man's person. Now, the stage is set for considering the unique privilege of being called "friends" instead of "servants."

PRAYER POINT: Father, in the name of Christ Jesus, I ask for understanding to see more clearly what I have become by Your grace.

-- Tomorrow: THE WHOLE ARMOR --