Then the voice whispers again...
"Jesus Himself considered Himself of no accord. He abandoned Himself to the will of the Father…even if it meant to face death."
John 6:38, "For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.
Philippians
2:6-8 “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God
something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by
taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being
found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to
death-even death on a cross!
Luke
9:23 “Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny
themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.”
It was a death he ultimately faced. It was undeserved and it
was not right. Jesus in His obedience to the will of the Father ditched His own
will…and His rights. What is this telling us? What does this tell me as a
Christian…an American?
When one believes they have rights…they will end up
demanding them and if they do not get what they deserve they will often become
vindictive or worse - angry. Did God grant all humans inalienable
rights or is that a man-made concept? God indeed gives humanity their value - but
rights? When we die to self as Christians does this concept still apply?
God made man as the pinnacle of His creation and gave man dominion over the earth but does this equate to rights? We indeed are created in the image of God and Jesus
did come as a man. But rights? In truth the more I read the Bible the more I start to realize that in this life the Christian has no “rights” of his
own, because he has surrendered his life to Christ. Christ “owns” the believer.
He is our Master and we are His δοῦλοι /slaves.
“...You
are not your own; you were bought at a price...” 1 Corinthians 6:19-20
A slave as commonly understood in the time of 1
Corinthians had little or no rights. They were at the will of their master. What does
this tell us as Christians? What does this tell me as an American if I am a
Christian…a δοῦλος /slave of Christ? We have no righteousness nor do we have rights in
the eyes of God as we are sinners saved by grace. We need a Savior and it is
through Him we have any righteousness, rights or value whatsoever. We are in Him. If
we are in Him we need to ask ourselves, what type of life did He live? Did He demand His rights? If we
are in Him, what does this tell us? What can we expect? I suspect we can expect suffering and violation of our so-called rights. Look what Jesus ended up telling Peter in John 21 about following in His footsteps:
John 21:17-19 ~ "Jesus said, “Feed my
sheep.Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and
went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands,
and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” Jesus
said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then
he said to him, “Follow me!"
Yet, ironically...because of the One we represent we
are not to be complete doormats to the system of the world / κόσμος …because we are told to
resist evil (Titus 2:12). But I can hear the dissenters already quoting Matthew 5:39, "But I
tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right
cheek, turn to him the other also.” Sorry folks, this does not mean to lie down
and be a doormat. It means you are not to set yourself against one who wrongs
you and seek vengeance against that person/people. In other words don't resist evil with evil. Matthew 5:39 does not mean to make
yourself defenseless. If we take the wrong interpretation of Matthew 5:39 to its absurd ends it leads to chaos and evil completely reigning.
On the flip side to this, it is not mean you have rights
either.
We are to resist sin. Sin might be personal to us
but in reality it is first and foremost an offense against God, not against a
man. Yes, we’re made in the image of God but this does not necessarily equate to
rights in this world for us. As a matter of fact, like Christ, what we
will get in this world is just the opposite. If they crucified the Savior, what
will they do to us?
I’ll be quite honest, everything in me fights
against this concept. If someone asks me to go one mile, my reaction is not to go two it
is to tell the person to get bent and carry his own gear. If someone bad mouths
me my reaction is not to just accept it, it is to write a blog article on why
that person is an imbecile. If someone strikes me on the cheek, I want to
pulverize them and drive them into the ground like a sledgehammer on a tent
peg. But I am a slave of the Most High who allowed Himself to be crucified for
my sins. I have no rights as He is my Master and my Master does not want me
driving people into the ground like tent pegs. He could easily do that but He
does not. This should tell me something also.
If we have died to self and submitted to Christ, the implications for us in this life are startling.
We have freedom but it has been bought for a price.
We have freedom but not everything is beneficial to do in our "freedom". We have liberty but the truth
is that we should gladly lay it down to serve others in self-sacrificial giving
whenever necessary. Our freedom was gained for us from sin but in return we
must repent and submit to the One who bought us out of our old slavery. In
reality we are His slave now. We don’t necessarily have rights. We do have
rewards in heaven though. Sometimes we need to be the anvil that takes the
blows of the hammers in bad people’s hands. We should get used to this as this
is the life of one who dies daily. In truth…you have no rights.
Instead of wanting our rights we should want
righteousness. Instead of expecting our rights we should be thankful for our blessings.
Instead of always demanding our rights and expecting
things to be certain ways, shouldn’t we be looking to do right things as told
in Scripture? God never promised us “right” or rights in this life, He rightly
promised us eternal life in the next. That eternal life only comes when we repent and
submit to Him and trust in Him. When we do this, our supposed rights we think
we have now end up pale by comparison.
2 Corinthians 4:17-18 “For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”
Romans 8:18 “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”
2 Corinthians 4:17-18 “For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”
Romans 8:18 “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”
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