Archives at Zinester: [Morning by Morning] Romans 8:15. Morning by Morning. Religion

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Good morning! We're continuing to feed on this verse about the Spirit that takes us from fear and bondage into adoption by the One who loves us.

15For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!"

For once, I don't think our friends at the English Standard Version got it quite right. You notice that they put a capital on Spirit of adoption, whereas they left a lower case s on spirit of slavery. (Actually the manuscripts have no punctuation, so the translators have to use their own judgment on all such issues.) You see the translators' point? They believe the contrast is between the spirit who enslaves to fear and the Holy Spirit who convinces us that we are adopted. But that isn't the contrast Paul is making. I appreciate that the translator is a fine Christian anxious to help the reader, but Paul isn't saying that. The same Holy Spirit gives bondage as gives adoption. The tip is that Paul describes himself as the "bondslave of Jesus."

His point is that being a slave of Jesus isn't given to us to drive us back into fear. Isn't that exactly what he actually says? "You did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear." Yes, Jesus is Savior. He has indeed saved me from destruction and sin's destruction and therefore I need not fear. And He is Lord. That means Master. That means I am His servant. But this servitude isn't degrading and humiliating and full of fear. Quite the opposite! And you know what? It's such a relief not to be the Lord of my little miniverse. Everyone around me gets happy when I get that I am not in charge of some minor world I control called my life.

Let's take a look at a few episodes of the disciples, the learners, being servants or slaves of Jesus. Sometimes, He tells them what to do and they do it and it works and they come back thrilled and He rejoices. That happens for instance when He instructs the 70 to go out two by two and proclaim the Kingdom and heal. Doing what He says to do in the way He says to do it brings unlikely but very satisying results.

Sometimes His teaching is really hard to understand at first. In that episode of the boat during the terrible storm at sea, He says something that they don't get for a time. He's been sleeping and the boat has been in terrible danger and they can't battle the storm any longer, so they come to wake Him. "Teacher, don't you care that we are perishing?" He gets up and speaks to the storm and the wind, saying "be still!" Then He says to them, "Where's your faith?" They didn't get it. Most preachers don't get it. After all, doesn't it show faith to go to Jesus when things are bad and ask Him to help out? Well, yes. That shows stage one faith. But what they forgot what He had said. He had said, "Let us go to the other side." And He is the same One who had said "Let there be light." And just as there was light, because He had given that word, they would get to the other side, because He had given that word. So when He asked, "Where was your faith?" He was asking, "Why did you wake me up to do what you could have done?" For the faith that empowered Jesus to do His deeds is what He is struggling to impart into us. He meant, they could have stood up and faced the storm and told it to be still, and it would have obeyed them, for He was with them and had given His instructions and His will must prevail. Servants keep learning the will of the Leader.

Sometimes we try to obey but don't seem to get anywhere, and He has to come alongside and teach more. While He, James, Peter, and John were up on the Mountain envoloped in the glory of the transfiguration, the others were involved in some Kingdom ministry of their own, trying to help a family whose boy had terrible seizures. They had laid hands on the boy and prayed but the convulsions continued. When Jesus comes back to them from the mountain, He finds them confused and disappointed, and the father near despair. He says, with a certain exasperation, "Bring the boy to me," lays hands on him and heals him. Later they ask Him why they couldn't help the child. He says, "With this kind, it takes a lot of prayer." Who knew? Some conditions take more preparation than others for healing ministry. Discples, servants, slaves, get that the Teacher knows more than we do.

Sometimes what He proposes to do is, well, counterintuitive. One time they had escaped from the Jerusalem authorities and were relaxing in the resort-ish Ein Geddi area when word came that Lazarus was sick. Since He said that Lazarus would be all right, they weren't surprised that He chose not to go back to Jerusalem. Then word came that Lazarus had died. When Jesus said that they were to go to Jerusalem now, most of them objected, for they would be facing their own deaths to go where they couldn't possibly do any good anyway. But the wonderful Thomas showed what being a disciple of Jesus is about. He said, "Let us go there and die with Him." He didn't get it either, but he knew that being Jesus' servant means that obedience trumps explanation.

In all these and many other episodes we could study, what's the point Paul is making about us not receiving the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear? What are the disciples never afraid of? I note that they are afraid of the storm, though they need not have been; they are afraid of failure, though He coaches them how to succeed next time; and they are afraid of the powers that be in Jerusalem, though the Jerusalem trip ends in Easter glory and Pentecostal power. As we hang out with Jesus, gradually our various fears subside. But what they are never afraid of is rejection or abandonment by Jesus. They are secure in His love, all the way through. Their enthusiasm may evaporate as their incompetence is made manifest, but He stays with them and keeps teaching until He knows that they are ready to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Then He tells them, "No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what the master is doing. I have taught you what the Father has showed me. Now I call you friends." That one, I'm sure, they had seen coming. They knew He loved them. That's what we really need to know, for with that knowledge we never fall back ino the fear that keeps us from trusting in our place in His Kingdom.