Latest / Pastor John Piper's answers / Are Christians Slaves or Sons of God Titus 1:1–4, Part 2

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Are Christians Slaves or Sons of God Titus 1:1–4, Part 2 · Pastor John Piper's answers

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: This is our second session on Titus one Versus one
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: to four, and I mentioned last time that we focused
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: on the forest and that this time we were begin
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: to look at the trees. And I'm going to keep
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: my word. Here's a tree, a very small part of
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: the text that deserves an entire episode of look at
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: the book. Why is that Paul a slave of God
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: and an apostle of Jesus Christ. Why is it worth
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: lingering over slave of God? And that is the right translation.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: Bond servant and servant do not carry the negative connotations
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: of slave, which are really there in the word, and
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: which create the very problem that I want to deal with.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: It seems to me that if we own up to problems,
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: solving problems becomes a window onto more glory, more truth.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: So we'll look at the problem here and then we'll
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: see the glory. Father, I pray that as we ponder
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: what it means that Paul would identify himself here as
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: a slave of God, not first a son of God,
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: but a slave of God, that you would show us
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  Speaker 1: by comparing it with son of God the glory. I
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  Speaker 1: asked this in Jesus' name. Amen. The first thing that
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  Speaker 1: happens when you look up slave of God elsewhere is
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  Speaker 1: that you realize this is not a designation for Christian
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: leader only like apostle is. There are only a few apostles.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: All Christians are slaves of God. You see that in
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: One Peter to sixteen live as people who are free?
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  Speaker 1: Are you Christians? Not using your freedom as to cover
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  Speaker 1: up for evil? But living as slaves of God? All
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: Christians live as slaves of God the exact same phrase.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: And this isn't the only place where Paul calls himself
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: a slave. He does it regularly. Here's Philippians one, Paul
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: and Timothy slaves of Christ. So what's the issue? Why
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: is that a stumbling block? Why did I gag on
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: this when I read it? Which I did? I said, Oh, Paul,
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: do you really want to call yourself a slave of God?
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  Speaker 1: Because didn't you say? And then you think of other
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: texts like this one Romans eight. For all who are
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit
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  Speaker 1: of adoptionist sons by whom we cry Abba Father, the
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  Speaker 1: spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are
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  Speaker 1: children of God. And if children, then heirs of God
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  Speaker 1: and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with Him
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: in order that we may be glorified with Him. And
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: so the stumbling block is that Paul does not want
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  Speaker 1: Christians to feel burdened by the spirit of slavery, fearful
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: with the spirit of slavery. He wants us to know
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: ourselves as the sons of God, children of God, heirs
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: of God, not slaves out out on the plantation outside. No, no, no,
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  Speaker 1: don't think of yourself that way, dear Christian. Paul is
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: saying same thing. In John fifteen, Jesus says greater love
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: has no one than this, that someone lay down his
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: life for his friends. You are my friends if you
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  Speaker 1: do what I command you. No longer do I call
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: you slaves, for the slave does not know what his
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  Speaker 1: master's doing. But I have called you friends, for all
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: that I have heard from my father I have made
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  Speaker 1: known to you. So you have these two passages Romans
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: eight and fifteen, which say slavery is not what Christians
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: should be a part of. It's not who we are
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  Speaker 1: with children, and we're friends of Christ and of God.
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  Speaker 1: But in the very wrestling with the problem, we begin
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  Speaker 1: to see the distinctions that Paul is making. So what
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: is it about slavery that must go away? Well, here's one.
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  Speaker 1: Don't fall back into fear. You're a child of God.
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  Speaker 1: Don't have the the slavery attitude of fearing punishment from
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: the Master. You're not going to be punished by the Master.
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  Speaker 1: The Master has bought you. You belong to him. You're
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  Speaker 1: the child of God. Here's another one. Slaves had no
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  Speaker 1: inheritance in the family. You get to inherit everything God owns.
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  Speaker 1: All things are yours the First Corinthians three twenty one.
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  Speaker 1: So those are two big changes when we become Christians.
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  Speaker 1: Fear of punishment goes away and loss of inheritance goes away.
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  Speaker 1: We get to inherit the universe. The meek shall inherit
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  Speaker 1: the earth. And here what goes away, Well, what goes
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  Speaker 1: away is being excluded from the counsels of God. The
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: slave does not know what his master is doing. But
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  Speaker 1: I've called you friends. For all that I heard from
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  Speaker 1: my father, I've made known to you. So those are
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  Speaker 1: three things, at least least that have got a change.
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  Speaker 1: No fear much inheritance included in the Councils of God.
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  Speaker 1: Here's the interesting thing. What five verses later, after saying
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: no longer do I call you slaves? We read this
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: here's John fifteen twenty. Remember the word that I said
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  Speaker 1: to you, a slave is not greater than his master.
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  Speaker 1: If they persecuted me, they will persecute you. If they
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  Speaker 1: kept my word, they will also keep yours. So he
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  Speaker 1: reverts to calling them slaves. In other words, unless we
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  Speaker 1: think Jesus is badly confused, which he isn't. He's making
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  Speaker 1: distinctions between aspects of slavery which are true of Christians,
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  Speaker 1: in aspects of slavery which are absolutely not true of Christians.
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  Speaker 1: And here's one that's still true. Jesus is over you,
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  Speaker 1: is greater than you. Or at the end of Matthew,
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: we find Jesus using slave positively of his people. His
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  Speaker 1: master said to him, well done, good and faithful slave.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: Sometimes translated servant, but it's the same word, well done,
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  Speaker 1: good and faithful slave, A good slave, a faithfulled slave.
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  Speaker 1: You have been faithful over little. I will set you
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  Speaker 1: over much. Indeed, he will we inherit the world because
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  Speaker 1: we are the children of God. What else is true
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  Speaker 1: of the Christian as a slave? Here's one Corinthians six
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  Speaker 1: point nineteen. Do you not know that your body is
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  Speaker 1: the temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you
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  Speaker 1: have from God. You are not your own. You were
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  Speaker 1: bought with a price, So glorify God with your bodies.
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  Speaker 1: We are slaves of God in the sense that we
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  Speaker 1: don't belong to ourselves. He bought us at the price
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  Speaker 1: of his son's blood. We are to live for His glory,
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: So that still remains true. We are not our own.
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  Speaker 1: But then, just a few verses later, in chapter seven
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  Speaker 1: of First Corinthians, he who is called in the Lord
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  Speaker 1: as a slave is a freedman of the Lord. So
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  Speaker 1: if you were a slave and you got saved and
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  Speaker 1: were grafted into Christ, you are now not a slave
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  Speaker 1: of the Lord, but a freedman of the Lord. Likewise,
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  Speaker 1: he who was free when called is a slave of Christ.
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  Speaker 1: You were bought with the price. Implication, don't become slaves
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  Speaker 1: of men. There's the glorious freedom. If you want to
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: be free on earth, be a slave of Jesus. We
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: skipped over real quickly that same thing in One Peter
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  Speaker 1: two sixteen, where it said, live as people who are free,
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: not using your freedom as a cover up for evil,
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: but living as slaves of God. In other words, if
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: you're a slave of God, you're free with regard to
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  Speaker 1: people being God's property, which we are. He made us,
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  Speaker 1: he bought us. We are God's property, but also God's children,
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  Speaker 1: God's heirs, God's friends, God's confidants. So how should we
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  Speaker 1: summon up. Let's put a yes column for what is
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  Speaker 1: true about being slaves and a butt calm Yes, But
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  Speaker 1: of what is not true or is true in a
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  Speaker 1: different way. Yes, we are owned, purchased. Yes, we are commanding.
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  Speaker 1: We are not our own law. God and Christ have
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  Speaker 1: a right to command us, and they do. And God
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  Speaker 1: and Christ own us. They bought us. So we are yes,
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  Speaker 1: slaves of God of Christ. But we are sons heirs
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  Speaker 1: of all that God owns, fellow heirs with Christ. We
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  Speaker 1: are fearless of punishment. It's over. Judgment is behind us
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  Speaker 1: because Christ bore our punishment. We are not in the dark.
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  Speaker 1: We are taken into the counsels of God as He
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  Speaker 1: reveals his glorious purposes to us. So if we focus
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  Speaker 1: on these things, we should say, I'm not a slave.
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  Speaker 1: I'm not a slave, And if we focus on these things,
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  Speaker 1: we should say I am a slave. And that's what
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  Speaker 1: I meant when I said, if we will just own
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  Speaker 1: the problem, if we will own up to the fact
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  Speaker 1: that there are quote problem texts that turn out not
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  Speaker 1: to be problems, we will gain much richer deeper insight
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  Speaker 1: into the meaning of scripture than if we just blow
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  Speaker 1: over a text like this and say, oh, no problem,
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  Speaker 1: I'm a slave of God, when there are two or
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  Speaker 1: three four other texts that say, don't call yourself that.
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  Speaker 1: And so Christians have to read their Bibles with discernment.
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  Speaker 1: We have to make distinctions, and the inspired writ writers
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  Speaker 1: expect us to make those distinctions so that we can
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  Speaker 1: see the glory of being sons and yet owned, being
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  Speaker 1: fearless and not in the dark, and yet totally under
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  Speaker 1: the authority of God. Oh