“No Longer Servants”

[Netchaplain]

Among the variations of administration between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant, the primary difference is the position one has in God. Before Christ is was “people of God.” Now, following Christ’s resurrection it is “children of God.” This is the difference between being with God, and being in God; which is a position reserved for those believing in His Son, possible only by the indwelling of the Spirit of God!
NC




“No Longer Servants”


What a contrast between the bondage of the law, and the liberty of son-ship! Yet how slowly souls are to grasp it. One has only to read Acts to see how slow the Jerusalem brethren were to grasp their full deliverance from the law and their new position in the risen Lord Jesus Christ. God bore with a mixed state of things until Jerusalem was destroyed.

“Son” implies position. Thus believers now are placed in full possession of all the title-deeds of their heavenly position, and are admitted also into the Father’s confidence, and know His mind and counsel through the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven.

Being sons, the Spirit is given, a privilege unknown until Christ was glorified. Thus all believers have received from the Father His great “Gift” (Eph 2:8). The Spirit indwells to instruct us as to our position and portion and lead our souls into the enjoyment of it all. He directs our thoughts and hearts to heaven, to the glory into which the Son had gone. Through His gracious ministry we know ourselves to be in the Lord Jesus there, blessed with all His blessings, in the enjoyment of His relationship to the Father (Jhn 14:20).

Our proper cry now is “Abba, Father.” This is very different from the cries of those who believed in previous dispensations. If the Psalms be examined, for instance, Jehovah will be found appealed to, to burn up their enemies, to drive them away like stubble; and the man is praised who would “dash their little ones against the stones” (Psa 137:9). Are these Christian sentiments? Assuredly not. Yet they are all inspired of God and proper in their time and place. The speakers were those who believed under the law; Christians are under grace, free from law (Gal 5:23), and know the Father as fully revealed in the Son (Col 2:9).

Let us rightly divide the Word of Truth. To go back to the book of Psalms for proper Christian experience is to lose the savor of grace and to breathe legalism; it is to climb down from heaven to earth. If the Psalms are really understood, they yield a harvest of blessing to the soul (as does the entirety of the OT); but if misunderstood and misapplied, as alas, is too often done, only loss (of encouragement—NC) can result.

Being sons and having the Spirit, we “are no longer servants.” “Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ” (Gal 4:6, 7). This is comparably higher than angels will ever know (1Pe 1:12). They are servants, ministers who do His pleasure (Heb 1:14), but they cannot say “Father,” nor join in redemption’s song (Heb 1:5). This is reserved for sinners, picked up by the sovereign grace of God.

Men sometimes have sons who are not heirs, because they do not choose to give them a portion. But there are none such in the family of God. All will share with the Only-begotten; when He takes up His rights and administers all things, we shall be with Him as sharers through grace.


—Wm Kelly (1821-1906)