8. Ibid., 145.
Today's Gospel: Good News or Bad?
this leads James to say, not that "God was called the friend of Abraham," but that "he [Abraham] was called the friend of God" (Jas. 2:23). Not, of course, that God or Jesus is unfriendly, but each remains a Lord to be obeyed, not a colleague to be befriended.8
So disciples — while friends, totally devoted to their Master in love — are still slaves, marked by their obedience.
This is true in precisely the same way that Christ, beloved by the Father, became His slave. His total and unqualified submission to the will of the Father is precisely the pattern we are given to follow:
Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a [doulos], and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Phil. 2:5 – 8)
Slavery and True Liberty
So understood correctly, the gospel is an invitation to slavery. When we call people to faith in Christ, we need to stress that fact in the same way Jesus did. On the one hand, the gospel is a proclamation of freedom to sin's captives and liberty to people who are broken by the bondage of sin's power over them. On the other hand, it is a summons to a whole different kind of slavery: "Having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righ teous ness" (Rom. 6:18). As the apostle Peter wrote, "Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bondslaves of God" (1 Peter 2:16).
Both sides of the equation are vital. There is a glorious freedom in being the slaves of Christ, because "if the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed" (John 8:36). On the other hand, being a true follower of Christ means the end of human autonomy. And that is as it should be, because selfdetermination turns out to be nothing more than an illusion anyway. The only kind of liberty it offers is "free[dom] in regard to righ teous ness" (Rom. 6:20) — and that is the very essence of bondage to sin. Its inevitable end is death and destruction. If we want true liberty from sin and all its fruits, it is not autonomy that we need, but a different kind of bondage: complete surrender to the lordship of Christ.
8. Ibid., 145.