John MacArthur’s latest, Slave: The Hidden Truth About Your Identity in Christ , is an intriguing, historically informed meditation on a central biblical concept that has been obscured by translators who soften up the image by translation ebed and doulos as “servant” rather than as “slave.” MacArthur shows that the harsher translation captures more completely what it means to be a Christian.

To be a slave is to have a single aim in life, to please the Master. MacArthur notes that for the New Testament, Jesus “is the Master and Owner. We are His possession. He is the King, the Lord, and the Son of Go. We are His subjects and His subordinates.”

To become a slave of Jesus means being dislodged from networks of identity and placed into a new defining relation. MacArthur quotes a historian who says “Like a slave, the convert experienced the violent psychological force of personal upheaval, the social dishonor of turning away from one’s family and traditional culture, and the natal alienation of losing one’s whole past identity - getting a new name, having to learn a new language and worldview, and forming new kinship relations.”

To be a slave is to be confident that you will have all you need from the Master. He quotes another historian:

“The material life of the slave in the Roman world, as in later slave societies, was determined . . . by the degree of responsibility with which the master met his (or her) material obligations to the slave . . . . In comparison with the free poor, therefore, slaves may often have been a something of a material advantage: given that they were to some degree provided for, they must in many cases have enjoyed a security in their lives that the free poor could never have known.”

To be a slave of a great Master was to be in a place of privilege.

Though MacArthur doesn’t develop it much, the notion that “Christians” ( Christianoi ) were those who belonged to Christ contained a political theology, contrasting with the members of Caesar’s household who considered themselves Kaisarianoi .

Despite two chapters on “from slaves to sons,” I wonder if MacArthur gives enough attention to the “no longer slaves but friends” thread of Jesus’ teaching. Even when he talks about sonship, it is more in terms of the blessing of being in God’s family (which is great, of course) and less on the fact that the King’s sons are princes who share in His rule, sons whom the Father consults and relies upon. Further, his discussion of sonship turns into a brief on perseverance that ignores the apostasy passages of the New Testament.

All in all, Slave is a punchy books that resurrects an important biblical theme.