Phil 2:5 Let the same disposition be in you which was in Christ Jesus.
6 Although from the beginning He had the nature of God He did not reckon His equality with God a treasure to be tightly
grasped.
7 Nay, He stripped Himself of His glory, and took on Him the nature of a bond servant by becoming a man like other men.
8 And being recognized as truly human, He humbled Himself and even stooped to die; yes, to die on a cross.
9 It is in consequence of this that God has also so highly exalted Him, and has conferred on Him the Name which is supreme
above every other,
10 in order that in the Name of JESUS every knee should bow, of beings in Heaven, of those on the earth, and of those in
the underworld,
11 and that every tongue should confess that JESUS CHRIST is LORD, to the glory of God the Father.
The word Lord in the new testament is the rendering of basically two Greek words:
Kurios, and Despotes
Kurios means "Supreme master and owner" It expresses the authority and lordship arising from and pertaining
to ownership
Despotes. Like Kurios denotes ownership; but it includes absolute, unlimited and despotic authority and power
in heaven and on earth. It is derived from deo = to bind and pous = the foot
Bond slave is 2 words Deo = bind or bond and Doulos = slave
Sometimes we Christians have a tendency to forget who is who in our relationship with God.
We know that God is our father and Jesus is our savior and friend.
We know that God so loved us that he gave Jesus to die for us and that as our Father he will never leave us or forsake
us,And because of Jesus' sacrifice there is therefore now no condemnation towards us. But one thing we often forget, is that
Jesus Christ is also our Lord and as such He is the owner of everything including us.
1Cor 6:19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and
ye are not your own?
20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.
"Bought with a price" was a term very familiar to these 1st century Christians. The term has to do with slavery. Back
then the buying and selling of human beings was big business. It is said that in Rome slaves outnumbered Roman citizens 4
to 1. In fact many of the people to whom Paul was writing his letters to were slaves.
Ephesians 6:5 Slaves be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in
singleness of your heart, as unto Christ;
These people understood the marketplace concept of buying and selling people, it was a way of life.
Poor people or prisoners were brought up on the block and others would bid on them.
The highest bidder became the person's owner. When purchased you were no longer your own, you were "bought with a price"
If your new owner was nice, you could consider yourself lucky, but if he was cruel, you were now caught in a bad situation.
You had little or no rights, you were now property.
But if you did unfortunately happen to become a slave there was still a chance you could be set free. This was called
redemption or being redeemed
The term "redemption" in the New Testament is one that speaks of deliverance from slavery to freedom. Redemption means
- -liberation procured by the payment of a ransom
It means to buy something back to set it free
Under Greek law a slave could gain his freedom if he or someone else could gather together the price his master would ask
for him. That would be hard, of course - very few slaves could ever do it. But he might manage it.
Then, with money in hand, he and his owner would go to the temple god and the slave would give the money to the officials.
They in turn would use it - less their fee, no doubt - to 'buy' him from his master for the temple god.
He would then be set free. And he would have a document to prove it with a phrase such as
'for freedom' or 'on the condition that he be set free' as part of its text. In that way, no one could claim that he had
been bought to do chores around the temple.
There might also be a record of his being set free carved into the wall of the temple. In that case, he could return and
look at it at any time, And he could use it as proof of his freedom if someone ever questioned it.
'See,' he could say, 'the god, Apollo, bought me in his temple so that I could be free'
Students of Greece have found quite a few inscriptions of this type on temple walls of that day.
When we were saved we were 'redeemed out of slavery'
Before we were saved we were slaves to sin and to satan, lost and separated from God, under Gods judgement and anger.
But God in His mercy redeemed us by the death of his Son Jesus Christ
Romans 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
Acts 20:28 Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers,
to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.
1 Peter 1:18 Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your
vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without
blemish and without spot:
Seeing that we have been redeemed we now have a choice.
God redeems us to set us free, so that we might live for Him in righteousness. But he does not control us like robots.
We have a choice as to how we should live.
When we walk out into the street we can go left or right. It's up to us.
1 Cor 7:22 For a Christian, if he was a slave when called, is the Lord's freed man, and in the same way a
free man, if called, becomes the slave of Christ. You have all been redeemed at infinite cost: do not become slaves to men.
Galatians 5:13, "For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh,
but through love serve one another."
Seeing then that we have been redeemed, how should we then live?
Some Christians get involved in terribly destructive situations and suffer with many personal problems, Sometimes these
struggles are the result of us not yielding our lives to the authority and ownership of God.
Gods word says that we are His, He has a plan for us, and his plan is always for our good
Jeremiah 29:11 For, I, know the plans which I am planning for you Declares the Lord, Plans of welfare and not of calamity,
To give you a future and a hope.
God is a God who wants the very best for our lives. His plans are always for our welfare, protection and hope. By endeavoring
to follow the plan and direction God has laid out for us in His word, We are acknowledging in a practical way that
Jesus is the Lord over our lives. By our willingness to submit to the instructions he has given us in the Bible we are saying
'Lord I realize that I am not my own,
I realize that you know best,
I put my trust in you and choose to live my life for you'
When we really begin to see that Jesus is our Lord and that he loves us, Change will begin to happen in our lives. We will
begin to realize for ourselves that some of the things we used to do, we can do no longer. And some of the places we used
to go, we can go to no longer. As we seek to follow after God's ways, His power and love will bring change within our hearts
and lives.
The Lord has newness of life for us, We are no longer our own we are His, We are His temple, He lives in us and we belong
to Him, We are His property and His spirit yearns jealously for us.
James 4:5 Or do you suppose that it is to no purpose that the Scripture says,
"The Spirit which He has caused to dwell in our hearts yearns jealously over us"?
We as human beings often get offended if someone tries to correct us, We think
"what right do you have" or "mind your own business". But if there is anyone who has a right to instruct and correct our
lives, it is the Lord. He is the one who created us and He is the one who redeemed us . He is Lord of all -- He has
earned and deserves our respect--
How do we then conduct our lives?
We live to praise and glorify The Lord
1Corinthians 6:19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have
of God, and ye are not your own?
20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.
1 Corinthians 10:31 Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.
Romans 6:19 I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members
servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.
Romans 12:1 ¶ I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice,
holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
1 Peter 2:9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew
forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light:
