Bought with a Price

 

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore, glorify God in your body.                          1 Corinthians 6:19-20 

For he who was called in the Lord while a slave, is the Lord's freedman [emancipated slave]; likewise, he who was called while free [unconstrained, unfettered, independent], is Christ's slave [doulos]. You were bought with a price; do not become slaves [doulos] of men. Brethren, each one is to remain [meno – continue, abide] with God in that condition in which he was called.             1 Corinthians 7:22-24

The Bible has much to say about slaves and free men and their treatment since slavery throughout Old Testament times and during the Apostles’ day was a reality in most societies. In the passages above, Paul is using the principles of slavery and freedom to teach believers how to live as a slave of Christ and yet be free. Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness (Romans 6:16)? The underlying principle is that the moment anyone places his faith in Jesus as Savior, he has been bought with the blood of Christ. How should he now live?

The man who is a slave and converted to the Christian faith is the Lord's freeman. His condition as a slave does not eliminate or diminish any of the privileges to which he is entitled as a Christian, On the other hand, all free men who receive the grace of Christ must consider themselves the slaves of the Lord, (His real property), to be employed and disposed of according to the Lord’s will, finding the service of his Master to be perfect freedom. In Leviticus 25, the Torah addresses the subject of slavery in light of the year of jubilee (debts forgiven). In Leviticus 25:54-55, Even if he is not redeemed by these means, he shall still go out in the year of jubilee, he and his sons with him. ‘For the sons of Israel are My servants; they are My servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God. Jesus is the believer’s jubilee.

Delight to do His Will

“If you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve for six years; but on the seventh he shall go out as a free man without payment. “If he comes alone, he shall go out alone; if he is the husband of a wife, then his wife shall go out with him. “If his master gives him a wife, and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall belong to her master, and he shall go out alone. “But if the slave plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife and my children; I will not go out as a free man,’ then his master shall bring him to God, then he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost. And his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him permanently.                        Exodus 21:2-6

The subject of the verses above is regulations governing the rights of male and female Hebrew slaves. Among the Israelites, a person could sell himself and his wife into slavery due to poverty or debt, but the servitude was to be limited to six years. It was indentured service. A master was obligated to provide for his servant on his release. If a male servant wanted to remain in permanent servitude, his request was to be validated by the judges, and then one of his ears was to be pierced with an awl, to symbolize willing service. David communicates this principle in Psalm 40: Sacrifice and meal offering You have not desired; my ears You have opened; burnt offering and sin offering You have not required. Then I said, “Behold, I come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me. I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your Law is within my heart” (Psalm 40:6-8).

The Lord’s Portion

“For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.           Deuteronomy 7:6

For the Lord's portion is His people; Jacob is the place of His inheritance.                Deuteronomy 32:9

You are my portion, O Lord; I have said that I would keep Your words.                Psalm 119:57

I cried out to You, O Lord: I said, "You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.                                          Psalm 142:5

Then the Lord said to Aaron, “You shall have no inheritance in their land nor own any portion among them; I am your portion and your inheritance among the sons of Israel.                Numbers 18:20

The above verses are spoken by those who willfully and willingly accept the reality that they are bought with a price. In Numbers 18, the Lord told Aaron that his future was totally consumed by the Lord as his present reality and his inheritance. It is the means by which God represents Himself to the world, by setting apart His people for His purposes. Full appreciation of this conviction is tied to the believer’s consumption of and meditation on God’s Words.

I Will not be Shaken

The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and my cup; You support my lot [goral – lot or portion, a lot was cast to decide questions or appoint persons for various reasons]. The lines [hebel – ropes or cords] have fallen to me in pleasant places; Indeed, my heritage [nahlah – possession, property, inheritance] is beautiful to me. I will bless the Lord who has counseled me; indeed, my mind [kilyah – innermost part, heart] instructs me [yasar – instruct, discipline] in the night. I have set the Lord continually before me; because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken [mot – removed, fallen]. Therefore, my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices; my flesh also will dwell securely [betah – in calm assurance].                  Psalm 16:5-9

This psalm, a Psalm of David, expresses a confident expectation of eternal life and happiness, founded on the evidence of true attachment and relationship to God. It expresses the deep conviction that one who loves God will not be left in the grave, and will not see permanent corruption, or perish in the grave forever. Instead, a personal relationship with God would blossom, culminating in a sense of security and calm assurance.

To possess great wealth but not have the Lord is poverty, and to enjoy the gifts but ignore the Giver is bankruptcy. If Jesus is the Lord of our lives, then the possessions we have and the circumstances we are in represent the inheritance He gives us. The measuring lines marked off the inheritance of the tribes, clans, and families in Israel, and then each lot was marked with a landmark that was not to be moved. David rejoiced that God had caused the lines of his inheritance to fall in pleasant places and that it was a beautiful inheritance. He wanted to be a good steward of all that the Lord had given him.

David's personal fellowship with the Lord was his greatest joy. This joy was experienced when God instructed and counseled David, telling him what to do and how to do it. David even went to "night school" to learn the will of God. "Night" is plural, suggesting "dark nights" or "night after night" learning from God. The word "instruct" carries the idea of discipline, for David learned many lessons when God's loving hand disciplined him. The Lord at his right hand suggests God as his advocate and defender. With the Lord as his guide and guard, he had nothing to fear; he would not be moved. The future is your friend when Jesus is your Lord.

Belonging

So then let no one boast in men. For all things belong to you, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come; all things belong to you, and you belong to Christ; and Christ belongs to God.             1 Corinthians 3:21-23

And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's descendants, heirs according to promise.

                   Galatians 3:29

Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.    

            Galatians 5:24

My flesh and my heart fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.        Psalm 73:26

According to the Cambridge Dictionary, belonging is a feeling of being happy or comfortable as part of a particular group, having a good relationship with the other members of the group because they welcome you and accept you. A sense of belonging is one of humanity's most basic needs. Belonging binds us to places and to each other. 

The gospel tells each believer that the avenue to God is Jesus, as Jesus says in John 14:6: “I am the way, and the truth and the life; no man comes to the Father except through Me.” When the believer has assurance that he belongs to Jesus, then he is confident that he has access to the Father. This belonging also confirms his inheritance in the saints, a future secured not by his having earned anything, but because of who he belongs to. It provides the spiritual strength to overcome the passions and desires of the flesh.

In Him all the Fullness of Deity Dwells

See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. For in Him all the fullness of Deity [theotes – the Divine Personality, Godhead] dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete [pleroo – fully accomplished], and He is the head over all rule and authority; and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.                      Colossians 2:8-11

Paul was concerned that no false teacher would take the Colossian believers captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy. He wrote not against all philosophy but against false philosophy, as the Bible also speaks against false religion. Philosophy is the love of wisdom, but if one loves wisdom that is not from above, he loves an empty idol. Such a one will always be learning but never be able to acknowledge the truth. 

Only in Christ can one have fullness. Apart from Him is emptiness. As philosopher Jean Paul Sartre put it, "Life is an empty bubble on the sea of nothingness". The word for "Deity" is a strong word for Christ's essence as God. The full deity of Christ is nonetheless in bodily form - a full humanity. This early Gnostic-like heresy challenged both Christ's deity and humanity. The warfare the believer faces is for his mind, through deceptions, and for authority, namely, whose authority are we controlled by?

Living for God

Know that the Lord Himself is God; it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him, bless His name. For the Lord is good; His lovingkindness is everlasting and His faithfulness to all generations.                     Psalm 100:3-5

For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself; for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.         Romans 14:7-9

and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.                          2 Corinthians 5:15

who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.                     Titus 2:14

“I am my beloved’s, and his desire is for me. “Come, my beloved, let us go out into the country, let us spend the night in the villages. “Let us rise early and go to the vineyards; let us see whether the vine has budded and its blossoms have opened, and whether the pomegranates have bloomed. There, I will give you my love.                      Song 7:10-12

Christianity is not a spectator sport, but it requires participation. To rise early and go to the vineyards with the bridegroom is where the relationship, the belonging, and the sense of completeness are experienced. Jesus challenged believers to be blessed by the quality of their inward heart condition in Romans 5:8: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” That purity of heart is honest, transparent, and genuine; it keeps the relationship with God at the forefront of everything that the believer does in life. According to the Shulamite Bride, There, I will give you my love.

Lord of Eternity

Consider the words of this wonderful song written by Fernando Ortega, “Lord of Eternity”.

 

Blessed is the man who walks in Your favor

Who loves all Your words, and hides them like treasure

In the darkest place of his desperate heart

They are a light, a strong, sure light

 

Sometimes I call out Your name but I cannot find You

I look for Your face but You are not there

By my sorrows, Lord lift me to You

Lift me to Your side

 

Chorus:

Lord of Eternity, Father of mercy

Look on my fainting soul

Keeper of all the stars, friend of the poorest heart

Touch me and make me whole

 

If You are my defender who is against me?

No one can trouble or harm me if You are my strength

All I ask, all I desire is to live in Your house

All my days