“Faithful Service”

Scripture: Isaiah 42:1-9

So what does it mean to be a Christian? What is it all about? Is it simply believing and accepting the words of scripture? Or is there more to it?

James 2:26 would have us know that faith by itself – having a heart knowledge only – is not enough. He tells us that for faith to be true, it must be active. As we discussed last week, the Lord doesn’t just call us to believe in him – Jesus also expects us to respond to his teaching.
Scripture calls those who live in Christ “servants”. As far as I know, there has never been a servant in the last several thousand years who was expected to simply love his or her master! They are expected to give honor to the master, certainly, but they are also expected to do those things that they are told to do.

As Christians, we are called to share the message and teaching of Jesus Christ throughout the world by both word and example – by both word and example! And if we ever become complacent in our faith, thinking that there is sufficiency in the phrase “by grace [we] have been saved through faith” (Ephesians 2:8-10), it is time for us to reevaluate what faith must include.

It is true that salvation comes through faith in Jesus Christ, but our response to the Lord’s saving grace comes in the way we live out our faith. So what is the message and life that we are to introduce to the world?

Read Isaiah 42:1-4

Have you ever heard the expression “fake it ‘til you make it”? It is intended to justify the good things that a person does outside of faith in Jesus Christ. The implication is that our good works are nearly as good as the fullness of faith, and that it will be honored when we finally arrive at Christ’s throne. The truth is, however, that until we have clarified our life through faith in Jesus Christ, and understand how and why and for who we offer our good works, we are only doing them to gain praise for our own lives, and not for God. And that makes us our own false idol! Or maybe even a false god?

Servanthood is established through both God’s covenant with Abraham (Genesis 15), and by the new covenant that is inherent in Christ Jesus (Matthew 26:27-28; John 14:6-7). And we become servants of the Living God when we give our lives to Jesus. And what do these four verses tell us about the task of the Lord’s servants? It appears that it is primarily to bring justice to the earth. (Micah 6:6-8)

But this raises the question as to what God’s justice is all about. In our court system, the term justice can be applied to either the freeing of a person who has been wrongly accused, or to their conviction when they are guilty – “Justice has been served”. Either way, the truth becomes synonymous with justice. I believe that God’s justice is totally different.
Our “just” God is a God of liberation, not conviction. The Lord has no need to be condemning – we already stand condemned by the lives we lead! John 3:17 tells us that Jesus did not come to earth to convict us – he came to save us, to free us, to be the means of forgiveness for our sinful and unworthy lives. But neither have we been freed to live a life of contentment! We are liberated from condemnation and saved to live in a covenantal relationship through Jesus Christ. (Ezekiel 37:26-28) That is what Godly justice is all about.

The Lord’s brand of justice and peace is what we are to proclaim to the world. We don’t need to scream it at the top of our lungs; we don’t need to beat others into submission to Jesus – we are to simply live a faithful and just life and treat others – encourage others – invite others - not so much by our words as by our life, to consider the brand of justice that is offered to us by faith in Jesus.

Read Isaiah 42:5-7

Now it seems that the Lord’s call is to take Israel, and the Church (!), far beyond the four walls that we have set up to surround our faith. God has created all that there is, and has given breath and life to all of humanity, and has called us to walk with him to spread the Good News to all who haven’t received it yet. Israel, and we, are being called to a life of righteousness – that is, a life that brings honor to the Lord.

The prophet even proclaims that we will be the example of “covenant” that others will see and learn from. And not just for those who live a life that is similar to ours, but for all who are still living apart from the Lord. He uses terms like blindness, and imprisonment, and darkness to describe those who have yet to know the grace of our Almighty God. These are the very ones who the servants of God are to be a covenant for. And when others accept us for bringing the message of salvation in Christ, it is the same thing as accepting Christ Himself, and the same thing as accepting our Triune God. (Matthew 10:40-42) It is then that we truly become the servants of the Lord.

We can be part of the means by which another person receives freedom from their own brand of darkness, by offering them an understanding of what Jesus has done on behalf of them. Jesus told us that by faith in him, we will do the same things that he has done, and that we will be able to do even greater things. (John 14:12-14) Believe it!

Read Isaiah 42:8-9

The Lord is a jealous God. He will neither acknowledge, nor accept, nor honor, nor glorify any other god, and his jealousy is, again, different from that of earth. Our version of jealousy is more attuned to a selfish rage over a failure to achieve glory for our self and the things we do. God’s “jealousy” is one of protection for his own, and a watchfulness so those things that are not of him will be exposed and revealed for what they are – false gods and idols. (Exodus 34:12-16)

The past is the past, and those times when our faith weakened or failed are gone. God has put a “New Way” into place that supersedes the old. The old way was the Law, and we will never be able to satisfy its demands. But the truth is that we also fail in the New Way – the way of Jesus Christ. But in this new way, God has created an additional aspect that will help us in our failures.
He has created “forgiveness” in a new way. In the old way, we had to earn forgiveness by our good deeds and sacrifices, but in the new way, Jesus has earned forgiveness for us. Our deeds and sacrifices can never good enough, never perfect enough, but when the forgiveness was achieved by God in Christ, it was good enough, and it is perfection incarnate.

That is what being a Christian entails – it is faith and trust in Jesus Christ, it is an understanding of his gift of salvation - to the extent that we are able to understand, and it is a sharing of God’s message and grace with all who will listen. It’s about going wherever the people may be and not waiting for them to come to us; it is about believing that when the Lord calls us to a particular task that he never expects us to go alone – that the Holy Spirit will be with us and will work through us; it is about a realization that we will never know everything and will never be able to do everything, but we will be given understanding for all that we need to know, and will always be able to do what we are called to do – never by our own abilities, though, but by the Lord’s.

Faithful service through faithful servanthood is about making ourselves joyfully available to God’s working through faith, and sharing that joyful faith with others. And it is as simple as that, if we will only try it! Give it a try today.