One who serves God often asks, “How can I become one who is useful to the Lord? How can I become one who is useful in the Lord’s hand, one who truly serves the Lord?” First, we must see that the Lord’s life in us is a serving life. To see this characteristic requires revelation. Many Christians probably know that the Lord’s life is holy, good, meek, bright, and so forth, but they do not know that the Lord’s life in them is a serving life. Why is it that they do not know this? It is because their spiritual knowledge is often limited by their natural concept. In our natural concept we may have thoughts only concerning holiness, goodness, and meekness. We seldom have any thoughts about how to serve God. Actually, God’s life comes into us that we may serve God.
Revelation 21 and 22 show us that, on the one hand, the entire situation of the New Jerusalem is holy and bright (21:11, 18, 21, 23-25) and that, on the other hand, in the New Jerusalem, the final destination, there is eternal service to God (22:3-5). This clearly indicates that all those who are in the New Jerusalem are holy so that they may serve God. They are full of light so that they may serve God. They are good so that they may serve God. The life of the new creation, which they possess, is for them to serve God. All the characteristics inherent in the Lord’s life, which is in us, are for service. Love is for service, light is for service, holiness is for service, righteousness is for service, goodness is for service, and spirituality is for service. All the special qualities inherent in the Lord’s life are for service.
We may say that service is the goal while the special qualities inherent in the Lord’s life are the qualifications and requirements for attaining to the goal-service. A life that is not holy cannot serve God. A life that is not bright cannot serve God. A life that is not righteous cannot serve God. A life that is not spiritual cannot serve God. The characteristics of life are not the goal. They are for us to attain to the unique goal-service to God.
Many Christians long to be holy, spiritual, and victorious. However, we must ask why we long for these things. Why do we aspire to be holy? Why do we aspire to be spiritual? Why do we aspire to overcome? We should aspire to these things for only one purpose-serving God. The life in the Gospels is a life that is holy, bright, good, spiritual, heavenly, strong, and victorious. We must remember, however, that the purpose of such a life is service. The Lord Jesus’ being holy was for service, His being righteous was for service, and His being strong and overcoming was for service. The Gospels show us that the life in Jesus the Nazarene was a serving life.
Romans is a book that gives us the outline of God’s salvation, the outline of the spiritual experience of a Christian, and the outline of the spiritual life of a Christian. In the beginning Romans shows us how we are saved and how we can have the Lord’s life. Then it shows us how we should pursue holiness and victory. After having the experiences of sanctification and victory, chapter twelve tells us that we should offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, well pleasing to God, and that this kind of service is reasonable (v. 1). This means that in our consecration we should experience a crisis, in which we leave the realm of not serving God and enter into the realm of serving God. However, many people do not see this matter. They do not realize that life is for service, salvation is for service, sanctification is for service, and overcoming is for service. All of our spiritual virtues are for service.
Furthermore, service is not merely an outward behavior. Instead, service is the growth of the life in us. At the opening of Romans 12 Paul exhorted us to pass through the crisis of consecration, turning from the realm of not serving God to the realm of serving God. It seems that service is an outward act according to verse 1, but actually service is a story of the life that is within us. I believe we all have this kind of experience. As we kneel down to pray, giving ourselves to the Lord to love Him a little more, to draw near to Him a little more, and to allow His life to have a little more ground in us, immediately we have a desire to serve God. Within us is something inexplicable that urges us to serve God, to preach the gospel, to help the brothers and sisters, and to serve in the church. If we do not serve, we feel uncomfortable and uneasy, as if something is missing. If we serve, we feel comfortable, relaxed, at ease, and joyful. What does this mean? This means that the life within us is a serving life.
Many times we hear people praising, “O Lord, praise You that Your life is holy, powerful, bright, and spiritual.” However, we seldom hear people saying, “O Lord, praise You that Your life is a serving life.” Very few of us have seen that the Christian life is a ministering life, a life of service to God. We need to pray that the Lord would give us this light and this revelation, because it is a great and important revelation in the New Testament. The life in the Gospels is for service, and the life in Romans is also for service. The same is also true in the books of Corinthians and Ephesians. In Ephesians chapter four Paul tells us that as this life grows unto maturity, “all the Body, being joined together and being knit together through every joint of the rich supply and through the operation in the measure of each one part, causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love” (v. 16). What is this? This is ministry, and this is service.
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