Did you know that how you view your relationship with Christ determines your walk?  As I was reading Paul’s introduction in his letter to the Romans, it stood out to me.  It made me stop and assess how I view the Lord.

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God – the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David…

Romans 1:1-3

There’s so much here that caught my attention. In my last post, I talked about how Paul viewed himself as a slave of Christ.

The next thing I noticed was that Paul talked about Christ’s human nature as being descended form David.  I wondered about that.  As a Jew; why not call Jesus a descendant of Abraham?

I started to look deeper into it and found that this was a big part of Paul’s message.

Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel…

2 Timothy 2:8

The fact that Jesus was in King David’s family was a major piece of Paul’s message.  It seems to me that Paul placed this on even par with Christ’s resurrection from the dead.  The two go hand in hand in the Apostle’s preaching.

This truth is the key to Paul’s attitude toward the Lord.  It’s something that we need to return to in our generation.  Jesus Christ is King, Lord, and Sovereign.  There’s no authority higher than Him in the entire universe.

We like to refer to the Lord in a number of different ways.  We call Him Savior, Redeemer, and Friend of sinners.  These titles are all true of Christ and speak to us of what He’s done for us.  But I refer to them as “safe” titles.  They carry with them no inconvenience to us.

When we begin to look to Christ as our King, things start to change.  Now there’s a responsibility of obedience placed upon us.  Calling Him, Lord, means that my life is no longer my own.

Remember how Paul introduces himself in relation to Christ in that first verse.  He doesn’t call himself a follower of Christ.  He doesn’t say he’s a believer, a minister, or even a disciple.  He refers to himself as a servant of Christ Jesus.

This means that above all, Paul’s mission in life was to please his King. It wasn’t about doing something for the Lord “when he finds the time.”  His life was devoted to serving Jesus.

This is the attitude we need to return to in this generation of the church.  We need to once again discover the place of servanthood to Christ.  Yes, He is our Redeemer, our Savior, our best Friend, and a whole lot more.  But we live to please Him as our King.

As we live the life of a servant of Christ, this is one of the fastest ways to receive His power and authority in our lives.  We must pick up this attitude – “Lord, not my will, but yours be done in my life.”

Question: What role does servanthood play in your walk with the Lord?

© 2020 Nick Zaccardi