SERVANTS AND SONS by Ellet Joseph Waggoner

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Nov 19, 1902

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 28, No. 47.

SERVANTS AND SONS.

By Ellet Joseph Waggoner

Enslaved in Order to Be Freed.

God has bought us in order to make us free; for His service is the only real freedom. The more firmly we are bound to Him, the freer we are. “He that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord’s freeman; likewise also he that is called, being free, is Christ’s servant. Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men.” 1 Cor. 7:22, 23. He has “delivered us from the power of darkness,” and He assures us that sin shall not have dominion over us. That which He has purchased with His blood, He will guard with His life.

“Servant of God” is the highest title that any creature in the universe can bear; for it is borne by Him in whom all things were created. God refers to Christ again and again as “My Servant.” When Christ came to this earth He “took on Him the form of a servant” (Phil. 2:7); the reality He already had in heaven. To His disciples, even while justly claiming to be their Lord, He said “I am among you as he that serveth” (Luke 22:27); and His greatness is due to the fact that He willingly performs the greatest, or as men would regard it, the lowest, service. So He says to us, “Whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant.” Matt. 20:27.

The highest place any being, whether man or angel, can occupy is that of servant of the Most High God.

Yet God calls us sons. “When the fulness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, that He might redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. So that thou art no longer a bondservant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.” Or, “an heir of God through Christ.” Gal. 4:4-7.

Recall the parable of the prodigal son, which was given to show us how God receives repentant sinners. The son when his father met him, began to repeat the words that he had before decided to say: “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son; make me as one of thy hired servants.” Luke 15:18, 19. But the father did not give him time to finish. As soon as he acknowledged himself unworthy, and before he had time to beg to be taken as a servant, the father gave orders for the best robe and a feast, saying, “This my son was dead, and is alive again.”

Thus God in His great love receives us. “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God!” It is marvelous; and yet, if God is to receive men at all, that is the only ground on which He could receive them. We must either be sons or nothing. Why?—Because we should be utterly unprofitable as hired servants. What could we do that would be worth paying for? What wages could God set that we could earn? When we ourselves are “less than nothing, and vanity,” what could our best work be? Who would dare mention wages in connection with anything he could do for the Lord? “Who hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things; to whom be glory for ever.” Rom. 11:35, 36.

“Behold, what manner of love!” We are not worthy to be servants, and therefore the Lord makes us sons! The servant must have wages, and we are not capable of earning wages; but the son gets no wages; he receives everything that the father has, as his by birthright; and such is our relation to God. Marvelous love! Unspeakable gift! Boundless grace! Our worthlessness recommends us to His highest favor! He buys us as servants; but we are not worth anything in that capacity; so the purchase price—the life of Christ—is transferred to us, and, lo, His worthiness becomes ours, and makes us sons.

E. J. Waggoner.