Christian Living Blog

After more than fifty years of translating, studying, teaching, preaching, and writing through the New Testament, I thought I had its truths pretty well identified and understood—especially in the realm of the New Testament theology of the gospel. In fact, clarifying the gospel was the most important and constant emphasis of my writing—from The Gospel According to Jesus, Ashamed of the Gospel, Hard to Believe, and The Truth War to countless sermons and articles through the years. But through all those efforts, a profound and comprehensive perspective, one that dominates the New Testament and is crucial to the gospel, escaped me and almost everyone else.

It wasn’t until the spring of 2007, on an all-night flight to London while reading Slave of Christ by Murray J. Harris, that I realized there had been a centuries-long cover up by English New Testament translators which had obscured a precious, powerful and clarifying revelation by the Holy Spirit. Undoubtedly, the cover up was not intentional—at least not initially. Yet its results have been dramatically serious.

A cover up in the English New Testament translations? Was that true? Why? And with what consequences? Had no one uncovered this before Harris in 1999?

It didn’t take long to find one who had—Edwin Yamauchi in his 1966 Bulletin of the Evangelical Theological Society article entitled “Slaves of God.” Why had there been no response to his work? And how could a truth related so essentially to translation integrity, as well as NT teaching about our relation to Christ be purposely hidden and the cover-up ignored?

I also discovered in my trips around the world that there are many other major language translators who have followed the lead of the English versions and maintained the cover up. Yet there are some who do translate the word correctly. Thus this revelation is not hidden to my fellow believers in places like Russia, Romania, Indonesia and the Philippines. Why in English?

I have no doubt that this perpetual hiding of an essential element of New Testament revelation has contributed to much of the confusion in evangelical teaching and practice. In fact, I wonder if it wasn’t the reason I felt the need to write so many books to clarify the gospel. If this one reality had been known, would any of those books have been necessary?

As I began to dig down on this buried jewel of the gospel, its pervasive splendor began to dominate my thinking and preaching. Every time and everywhere I addressed the subject, the response was the same—startled wonder.

During the same period I was asked to write a book on the “doctrines of grace” that was faithful to the Reformers. Was another one really necessary? Who could improve on Calvin, Luther, the English Puritans, Edwards, or Spurgeon? Certainly not me. I couldn’t hope to add to the clear, complete and enduring works of past and present theologians on gospel themes. So I struggled to find a reason to write something new considering what had already been written.

Until I saw the cover-up.

Though all those noble theologians in the rich reformation tradition of gospel truth touched on this matter—no one pulled the hidden jewel all the way into the sunlight.

Thus this book, Slave. For those who read it, my prayer is that they will see the riches of their salvation in a radically new way.

What does it mean to be a Christian?

Nearly a hundred years ago, the famed Princeton theologian B. B. Warfield asked that same question. Writing in the Princeton Theological Review in 1916, Warfield decried the confused state of Christianity in his day. He asked:

Does anybody in the world know what ‘Evangelical’ means, in our current religious speech?  . . . Take an even greater word. Does the word ‘Christianity’ any longer bear a definite meaning? Men are debating on all sides of us what Christianity really is.  . . . If everything that is called Christianity in these days is Christianity, then there is no such thing as Christianity. A name applied indiscriminately to everything designates nothing.[i]

If Warfield could survey the current evangelical landscape, it’s doubtful he would be encouraged. The term Christianity has only become more ambiguous in the last century. In fact, ask what it means today and you’re likely to get a hopelessly convoluted assortment of answers, even from those who identify themselves with the label.

For some, being “Christian” is primarily cultural and traditional, a nominal title inherited from a previous generation, the net effect of which involves avoiding certain behaviors and occasionally attending church. For others, being a Christian is largely political, a quest to defend moral values in the public square, or perhaps to preserve those values by withdrawing from the public square altogether. Still more define their Christian experience in terms of a past religious experience, a general belief in Jesus, or a desire to be a good person. Yet all of these fall woefully short of what it truly means to be a Christian from a biblical perspective.

To be a Christian, in the true sense of the term, is to be a wholehearted follower of Jesus Christ. As the Lord Himself said in John 10:27, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me” (emphasis added). The name suggests much more than a superficial association with Christ. Rather, it demands a deep affection for Him, allegiance to Him, and submission to His Word. “You are My friends if you do what I command you,” Jesus told His disciples in the Upper Room (John 15:14). Earlier He told the crowds who flocked to hear Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine” (John 8:31); and elsewhere: “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me” (Luke 9:23; cf. John 12:26).

When we call ourselves Christians, we proclaim to the world that everything about us, including our very self-identity, is found in Jesus Christ because we have denied ourselves in order to follow and obey Him. He is both our Savior and our Sovereign, and our lives center on pleasing Him. To claim the title is to say with the apostle Paul, “To live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21).

Since its first appearance in Antioch (in Acts 11:26), the term Christian has become the predominant label for those who follow Jesus. It is an appropriate designation, because it rightly focuses on the centerpiece of our faith: Jesus Christ. Yet ironically, the word itself appears only three times in the New Testament—twice in the book of Acts and once in 1 Peter 4:16.

In addition to the name Christian, the Bible uses a host of other terms to identify the followers of Jesus. Scripture describes us as aliens and strangers, citizens of heaven, and lights to the world. We are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, members of His body, sheep in His flock, ambassadors in His service, and friends around His table. We are called to compete like athletes, to fight like soldiers, to abide like branches in a vine, and even to desire His Word as newborn babies long for milk. All of these descriptions—each in its own unique way—help us understand what it means to be a Christian.

Yet, the Bible uses one metaphor more frequently than any of these. It is a word picture you might not expect, yet it is absolutely critical for understanding what it means to follow Jesus.

It is the image of a slave.

Time and time again throughout the pages of Scripture, believers are referred to as slaves of God and slaves of Christ. In fact, whereas the outside world called them “Christians,” the earliest believers repeatedly referred to themselves in the New Testament as the Lord’s slaves. For them, the two ideas were synonymous.

Though it sounds shocking to our modern ears, the biblical understanding of the believer’s relationship to Christ could not be more clear. He is the Master and Owner. We are His possession. He is the King, the Lord, and the Son of God. We are His subjects and His subordinates.

In a word, we are His slaves. That is what it means to be a Christian.

This article is adapted from John MacArthur’s new book Slave: The Hidden Truth about Your Identity in Christ.

[i] B. B. Warfield, “‘Redeemer’ and ‘Redemption’,” pp. 177–201 in the Princeton Theological Review, 14/2 (April, 1916), 199; online at: http://scdc.library.ptsem.edu/mets/mets.aspx?src=BR1916142&div=1&img=1.