The Root of Man

Man is like a tree. His heart, not his will alone, is the root. There is no possible way by which the will can choose to produce fruit contrary to the character of the root. If the root is bad, the tree is bound by its very nature to produce evil fruit. Man is like a person standing alongside his treasure chest. There is no possibility of bringing pure gold out of a box filled only with rusty steel. The contents of the heart determine what words and deeds may be brought out. Far from being neutral, the will must reach into the heart for its choices. Every thought, word and deed will partake of the nature of the treasure within. Man is like a stream which cannot rise above its source. If the fountain is polluted, the outflow will be evil. If the source be sweet, the stream will not be bitter and cannot choose to be so.

– From Man’s Will Free Yet Bound by Walter Chantry

Self-Promotion or Self-Denial

Last night I downloaded and watched a sermon entitled The Greatness of Being a Slave by John MacArthur.  What brought my watching this sermon about was several discussions I saw on twitter yesterday about Pastor MacArthurs’ book entitled Slave. It may have also had to do with something I read in John Owen’s The Death of Death in the Death of Christ where Owen made a reference to Christ being equipped for the office he was appointed to and the scriptural reference was Philippians 2:7 which reads as follows:

“but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.”

The Greek word for servant is δοῦλος (doulos), which can be translated as “someone who belongs to another, the property of another; a bond-slave, without any ownership rights of their own.”  That made me wonder if Christ actually became a slave, which has much lower connotations in our present world,