Grace Note #96 "From Servants to Friends"

Grace Note #96 “From Servants to Friends”

Adapted excerpt from Ty Gibson’s book An Endless Falling in Love, pages 121-126.

I am absolutely certain that people who are in love should not relate to each other as masters and slaves. To do so would suggest that the relationship is not founded in love.

“And it shall be in that day,”

Says the Lord,

“That you will call Me ‘My Husband,’

And no longer call me ‘My Master’” (Hosea 2:16).

Here is presented a sharp contrast between two very distinct pictures of God, and two very distinct ways of relating to Him. One is true and the other is a false conception.

Satan led the Eden couple into sin by misrepresenting God’s character. Such was the distorted picture painted on the inner canvas of the human heart by the fallen angel, a portrait that made God out to be an arbitrary, restrictive, self-centered slave master.

Once the false image was embraced, the situation became even more complicated. The severe sense of guilt that rightfully attended Adam and Eve’s transgression served to reinforce the lie now residing in their darkened perception—that their guilt was being arbitrarily imposed on them by God—and they now believed Him to be a self-serving master ruling over them as slaves.

Then came the long and sordid history of human beings attempting to appease the anger and earn the favor of the God they believed to be an arbitrary dominator. Believing God to be a master ruling over humanity as slaves, men have developed various systems of worship that cannot help but reflect that misconception.

With this belief system, it is thought, or at least felt, that our happiness is to be found in disobedience to God’s rules, for those rules restrict our pleasure and prevent our elevation. So, obedience means bondage. God doesn’t want us doing whatever He has forbidden, not because those actions will cause us harm, but merely in order to control us.

In sharp contrast, from a Biblical perspective God’s law is a matter of altruistic principle rather than arbitrary requirement. Altruism is the “unselfish concern for the welfare of others”. In harmony with His true character, God’s law is based on selfless, other-centered love (Matthew 22:36-40, Romans 13:10). He designed all of creation for life and happiness and has, therefore, made no law that is not truly meant for our well-being and pleasure. To violate these benevolent principles brings negative consequences upon us that derive directly from sin itself.

The difference between these two pictures is dominance versus love.

Jesus called for the same kind of radical change in our perception of God: “No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends….” (John 15:15) For Christ to say such a thing clearly indicates that His followers were, in fact, viewing their relationship with God as a master-servant arrangement.

We must ask the logical question: “What could possibly be wrong in relating to the Monarch of the universe as servants in subjection to a master?” Yes, the fact that we are sinners drives us to that humble position. But the astounding truth is that God refuses to accept that kind of arrangement.

Like the prodigal son, we say, “I am no longer worthy ... make me like one of your hired servants” (Luke 15:19). But like the “prodigal father,” apparently as “wasteful” with His love as the prodigal son was with his money, God responds by ignoring our plea for a servant’s position and says, “This my child was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found” (Luke 15:24).

In a remarkable display of mercy, God allows us to approach Him as a Master, our hearts filled with misconceptions about His character, while He endeavors to allure us into a love relationship with Himself.

He allows us to relate to him as a Master, all the while desiring in His heart that we would grow up in our understanding to see Him as bridegroom and a friend.

God longs to hear from our lips, “Yes, He is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend (Song of Songs 5:16). Here is the high and beautiful end to which our spiritual experience is tending.

We begin our journey as children. We hear God saying to us, “No! No! No!” “Don’t touch that!” “Get that out of your mouth!” “Thou shalt not!” “Sit right there and don’t move!” “Why?” we ask. But we are incapable at this point of understanding the answer. So we hear Him say, “Because I said so!”

In the child stage of our spiritual journey, God looks like a master and His law feels like restrictive rules that must be kept in order to avoid punishment and to earn rewards.

But, notice what Paul says of his and our spiritual growth, “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I am known” (I Corinthians 13:11-12).

God is eager for us to “grow up in all things” (Ephesians 4:15, 13). There comes a time in every spiritual journey when one must put away childish thoughts and understandings about God. We either continue to serve God as slaves or we mature to love Him as His faithful bride. Ezekiel 16:8 calls this juncture “the time … for you to fall in love” (TEV). This is when we move from being governed by the external rule of authority to the internal rule of love.

If we continue attempting to serve God with a slave-master mentality, moved merely by fear of being lost and desire for the rewards of Heaven, we will find the love-relationship language of the Bible to be foreign, mysterious, perhaps even offensive.

The most radical thing you will ever do is allow your heart to see God as He really is. Hosea’s prophecy clearly calls for a revolutionary paradigm shift in our perception of God and our manner of relating to Him. The Creator looks forward to “that day” when His people, you and me included, will no longer call Him “Master,” but rather “Husband.”