Set Free to Serve

MEMORY SELECTION: “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” —Galatians 5:25

SELECTED SCRIPTURE: Galatians 5:13-15, 25 through 6:10

THE Apostle Paul, in Hebrews 9:13,14 states, “For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”

In this text the apostle is pointing out that the Law produced dead works, but that the blood of Christ, by providing the means of justification to life, made it possible for the footstep followers of Jesus to serve the living God. But what is God’s will with respect to acceptable service?

Again the Apostle Paul, in Hebrews 10:7-10, gives us the answer to our question. He quotes a portion of the 40th Psalm, which prophetically speaks for Jesus: “Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the Book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God. Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the Law; then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”

In our text the Apostle Paul has interpreted for us the meaning of the 40th Psalm, verses 6-8, which he had quoted in part in the verses preceding. He states that God was not pleased with the sacrifices offered under the Law Covenant, but that Jesus recognized that those sacrifices represented him, and that he was to be the real sacrifice for sins. Psalm 40:6 represents Jesus as saying, “Mine ears halt thou opened.” And Jesus was willing to comply with the Lord’s will in this matter. So he gave himself as the real sacrifice for sins, which did away with the first arrangement under which the sacrifice of animals was made, and established the second, or the reality, where Christ became the offering for sins.

Then the apostle continues, and explains that the same will which directed that Jesus should die has directed that the footstep followers of Jesus be sanctified for the same cause and be made an acceptable sacrifice through the merit of Christ. These are accounted as body members of the Christ.

This then is the will of God for the footstep followers of Jesus, that they like Jesus lay down their lives as Jesus laid his down, serving the interests of the kingdom, witnessing to the truth, and serving the brethren. The sacrifice of Jesus was the meritorious sacrifice, and the sacrificial death of his footstep followers adds nothing to the merit provided by Jesus; but it pleased God that they should be counted in as part of the sacrifice of Jesus.

Again the Apostle Paul, in Romans 12:1 states, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present [yield] your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” And in Romans 6:5 we read, “For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection.”

To be planted together in the likeness of his death means that:

(a) The Christian must be figuratively beheaded; that is, renounce his own will completely and recognize and do only the will of the Heavenly Father. (Rev. 20:4) This includes renouncing the things of the world.

(b) Jesus was anointed to preach the Gospel (Isa. 61:1-3), and since the Christian shares the same anointing (II Cor. 1:21,22), he too must preach the Gospel. (I Cor. 9:16-19) It was the preaching of the Gospel that brought about the majority of our Lord’s difficult trials and experiences, and it was by these that he learned obedience by the things which he suffered. (Heb. 5:8) It is by this same kind of trials and experiences that the footstep followers of Jesus receive their development and testing.—I Pet. 4:12-17; 2:19-23

(c) Not the least important aspect of walking in the footsteps of Jesus is the requirement that Christians serve one another.

Thus the footstep followers of Jesus are set free to serve, but in accordance with the divine will and purpose.

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