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#2.
"The Slave of Christ."
pp. 126 - 128
What is Paul's own statement as to his relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ? "Paul, a
bond servant (doulos) of Jesus Christ". So opens the epistle to the Romans. After
speaking of the Risen Christ, Paul says:--
"By Whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among
all nations for His name" (Rom. i. 5).
Then towards the close of this wonderful epistle the apostle says:--
"I written the more boldly unto you in some sort, as putting you in mind, because of
the grace that is given me of God, that I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the
Gentiles" (Rom. xv. 15, 16).
In Galatians we have this utterance:--
"From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks (stigmata,
the brand marks upon slaves) of the Lord Jesus" (Gal. vi. 17).
In Ephesians, Paul says:--
"Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should
preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ" (Eph. iii. 8).
Philippians presents a deeper and more loyal love and service to Christ than has ever
been shown by mortal man:--
"With all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body,
whether by life, or by death. For to me to live--CHRIST" (Phil. i. 20, 21).
Writing to Timothy years after the day of his conversion, Paul says:--
"I thank Christ Jesus our Lord Who hath enabled me, for that He counted me faithful,
putting me into the ministry: who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and
injurious" (I Tim. i. 12, 13).
And again:--
"Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner"
(II Tim. i. 8).
Paul rarely refers to the Saviour as "Jesus"; to him "Jesus is LORD" (I Cor. xii. 3).
"To us there is but ONE LORD Jesus Christ" (I Cor. viii. 6). The glory of the sevenfold
unity of the Spirit is the central figure, viz., "One Lord" (Eph. iv. 5) and looking forward
to the day that is coming this slave of the Lord could glory in the thought that then "every
knee should bow . . . . . and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of
God the Father" (Phil. ii. 10, 11). In the same introduction to the Romans where the