Sit

205. Purchased from Slavery

Just LOOK and see how free I am; no way I’m a slave!

If Jesus had to purchase us, then we must have been slaves to someone or something. But are we totally free yet?

Only a small part of the Old Testament talks about creation, the flood, the captivity of Israel in Egypt, their escape in Exodus and their wandering in the desert on the way to their Promise Land. The bigger part of the Old Testament is a record of the events that happened after the Israelites reached the Promise Land, and how they stayed in slavery to invisible forces.

It can be the same way with us as Christians. We can be saved from the world, be in our promise land and still be held captive and slaves without even knowing it.

Jesus wants us to be really free. Be smart, do not stay a slave in your promise land!

The field and the treasure.

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field” (Matthew 13:44).

Titus 2:14 says, “who [Jesus] gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.” That is His treasure, a people that are His very own. A people who have been purchased out of the world, redeemed from wickedness, purified and made zealous to do what is good. And the price was Himself, all He had, all He was. He laid down His life. He gave Himself to buy that field for the sake of the treasure, His redeemed people.

The Pearl of Great Price.

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it” (Matthew 13:45-46).

“Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Peter 1:18-19).

What did we receive in Christ when He purchased us?

We became heirs, joint heirs and children! Romans 8:15-17 says, “For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs – heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.”

Romans 6:16-18 says, “Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.”

We received freedom from slavery.

You might say, ‘I am no one’s slave!’ That is just what the Jews who believed in Jesus said to Him in John 8.

John 8:31-36 says, “Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, ‘If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.’ They answered Him, ‘We are Abraham’s descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can You say, ‘You will be made free’?’ Jesus answered them, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.’”

Jesus knew that even though they “believed on Him” they were still slaves by the way that they lived their lives. “They answered and said to Him, ‘Abraham is our father.’ Jesus said to them, ‘If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham’” (John 8:39).

Slavery is one of the main topics of the Bible.

Slavery is the quickest way to profit and make a lot of money. Just imagine a large shoe company with 10,000 employees. How much more profit would they make if they did not pay their employees? A LOT! Satan is shown to be a merchandiser, a greedy merchant.

Satan is the author of sin and slavery. The very nature of Satan, according to his description in Ezekiel 28 is that of a merchandiser, a businessperson, a commercial thief and cheat. In Revelation 18, spiritual Babylon is noted as a business trader and commercial system that also trades in the souls of men, or slaves.

How do slaves live; how do they act? A lack of identity is the primary attribute of a slave.

Slaves have to get their identity from someone else. That is why you see people running around trying to get fancy cars, having certain types of friends, dressing a certain way, being part of a movie star’s fan club, etc. They are trying to define who they are by how they look, what they drive and who they hang around with.

How are we supposed to receive our identity? I believe that God has made us to receive our identity through having a relationship with another being. We are designed to become like the person that we become intimate with. God wants us to become intimate with Him, so we receive our identity from Him.

Spiritual Slavery is often invisible; but it is the ultimate slavery.

We need to look at some of the slavery attributes and see if they fit us in any way, and be honest before God about them.

Roman slaves were dragged away from their homes either to be in armies or to do vocational type tasks for the Romans. Families were forever separated, never again to see their parents, children, brothers, sisters or spouses. Most likely, the women were raped and the men were beaten. Perhaps homosexuals raped even the men. They completely lost their identity.

They were not necessarily treated harshly after the capture; they became merchants, housekeepers, gardeners, etc. They were fed and given a place to sleep. The Roman masters kept lists of their possessions. One was found and it listed all of his valuables, then it listed his household furnishings, then his tools and at the end of the list it listed his slaves. They were nothing more than tools, human objects that were to be used. They had no emotions, needs or feelings as far as the master was concerned; they were just like having another garden rake.

From the slave’s point of view, his life was now different. He had no identity of his own; he was a non-person. The only thing that he had left was what he could do in his work. The only scale or measure of who he was now was the way he performed his task. If his master looked at him with some sort of pleasure because his task was done well, he could feel some self-esteem. Even if another slave admired his work, or perhaps someone else up the ladder of authority, if they just gave him one compliment, one measure of “well done”, then he could feel good about himself.

His life was now a formula:

(HOW I PERFORM) + (HOW YOU FEEL ABOUT MY PERFORMANCE) = (MY SELF WORTH).

The human being was created by God to obtain his worth from God’s unconditional love. Now exactly the opposite happened, they felt like all love was totally conditioned upon how they performed, and worse, how their masters would feel about their performance.

Ephesians 6:5-8 (Amplified Bible) says, “Servants (slaves), be obedient to those who are your physical masters, having respect for them and eager concern to please them, in singleness of motive and with all your heart, as [service] to Christ [Himself] – Not in the way of eye-service [as if they were watching you] (men-pleasers) and only to please men, but as servants (slaves) of Christ, doing the will of God heartily and with your whole soul: Rendering service readily with goodwill, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that for whatever good anyone does, he will receive his reward from the Lord, whether he is slave or free.”

Slaves are “men-pleasers”. They are constantly trying to get the applause and approval of other people. Their work has no other meaning. If their boss, their parents or teachers are pleased with their work, they feel good about their self worth, if not, they feel like “nothings”. They are always attempting to get friends who will give them their identity and self-worth.

Slaves work for “eye-service”. While they are being watched, they work hard, but as soon as their authority turns their back, they goof off. They complain about their work, always looking forward to Friday because they have the weekend off (actually, Roman slaves did not have that luxury). They hold in their resentment against their authority. They criticize them; bring them down all the time.

Slaves Complain. They always blame their problems on other people. In their mind, their horrible state of being is always somebody else’s fault. They say, “If just this was that way, or if this was changed, or if we moved to another city, or if we changed jobs, or if we changed schools, or if my parents were like their parents, or etc., etc., my life would be better.” “I have to do this, or I have to do that, grumble, grumble, complain, complain. I have to go to school, I have to go to work, I have to clean the house, I do not have a choice.” So many people complain about our public schools, our government, and the fact that our laws don’t line up exactly with the Bible. Maybe they don’t. God did not say that life would be easy, but that with Him free people can live above circumstances. Slaves are the ones that complain and the more they complain the deeper into slavery they get.

Some slaves become very good at manipulation. They learn how to please and even “love” others, so that they will be “loved back.” They do all these good things for other people and make sure that they realize “how much they did for them” and make sure they know “how much they owe them back.” Slaves do not like obeying authority. They have learned that authority is bad; they hate their authorities.

Slaves have no authority, so they are always manipulating others in order to serve their own needs. Some slaves use their sheer brute force, like shouting and screaming in order to get others to conform. So many men today use their force to get women to submit to them. These men are slaves.

Slaves have no self-esteem so they use other people, religion, amusement, and immorality, some of the same things the Israelites used in the Wilderness, to achieve some sense of self worth.

Satan tempts us with The Lie and many lies so that he can keep us as spiritual slaves.

In Luke 4 Jesus announced freedom to the people in spiritual slavery and they tried to kill Him.

So how do we get free?

The Truth will set us free... IF...

John 8:35 (Amplified Bible) says, “Now a slave does not remain in a household permanently (forever); the son [of the house] does remain forever.” A slave can be freed, but a son is always a son. So if Jesus makes you free from slavery, not only you are free from sin, but now you are also a son of God, an heir of freedom, and no one can take that away from you.

1. Be Honest and Repent!

The Jews in John 8 denied that they had EVER been slaves to anybody. “They answered Him, ‘We are Abraham’s descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can You say, ‘You will be made free’?’” (John 8:33).

I suppose that no one likes to admit that they are slaves. The Jews began to call Jesus “insane,” a “Samaritan,” “demon possessed.” So many people today do the same thing in hidden ways. We don’t want to admit that we are manipulators, men-pleasers, working for eye-service, obtaining our self worth by what our friends think of us, by what our parents think about our schoolwork, etc.

2. We must become His disciples, stay in His Word and let Jesus change our character into His character.

“Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, ‘If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free’” (John 8:31-32).

Then Jesus really got them mad. He told them that if they stayed in His Word, not only would they no longer be slaves, but that they would never die! They said, “Now we know you are demon possessed, Abraham and all the prophets died, yet You say that if someone keeps Your Word he will never die” (John 8:52). Jesus told them that He had given this message to Abraham and that Abraham was delighted. They said, “You are not even 50 years old and you have seen Abraham, who died thousands of years ago?” Jesus replied, “I assure you, before Abraham was I AM!” (John 8:57-58). They tried to kill Jesus, but He escaped. Remember, these are the Jews “that believed in Him”.

We are supposed to become voluntary slaves to God.

Romans 6:20-22 says, “For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.”

Exodus 21:5-6 says, “But if the servant plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,’ then his master shall bring him to the judges. He shall also bring him to the door, or to the doorpost, and his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him forever.”

Whose earring are you wearing?

This lesson is the sole property of ISOB. It may not be altered or edited in any way. It may be reproduced only in its entirety for circulation as "freeware," without charge. All reproductions of this lesson must contain the copyright notice (i.e., "Copyright (C) 1999 by ISOB."). This lesson may not be used without the permission of ISOB for resale or the enhancement of any other product sold.