ADDRESSES ON ROMANS
selves to an audience, we should name all the good things possible. But Paul says nothing of the fact that he was once a member of the9reat Sanhedrin. 'I:his would have had weight )\Tith the people at Rome, but Paul knew that the Gospel did not need to be carried on the wings of the wicked Sanhedrin. This should be a lesson to us. His simple testimony is that he was a bondslave of the Lord Jesus Christ. This js seen to be significant when we remember that .. ' Paul was writing to people who hated the thought of being slaves, people who loved power. T)!e Romans despised servi- t~Yet to them Paul called himself "a servant." He realized that he had been "bought with a price," and that he was not his own. (See I Cor. 6: 19, 20.) The si nificance of this is seen further in that there are two Gre-ek words meaning "servant." For example, aesar was a servant. Althou h he was the chief ruler of the world, yet he W!!S at the .same time an official servant. But the wor Paul used to describe himself means "bondslave.''-rr-hat is the kind of servant Paul was, a "bondman of Jesus Christ." Dr. John W. Ham tells the following story, which illus- trates what Paul meant when he called himself a "bondslave" of Christ: "An African chief ordered a slave to be killed for a very small offense. An Englishman, overhearing the order, offered costly things to spare the poor man's life. The chief answered. 'I don't want ivory or gold. I want no favors from the white man. All I want is blood.' "The chief ordered one of his men to pull a bowstring and discharge an arrow at the poor slave's heart. The English- 1 man threw himself in front and, holding up his arms, received the arrow into his own flesh. He pulled the arrow out; and handing it to the chief. said, 'Here is blood; I give my blood for this poor slave; and I claim his life.' . "The chief turned the slave over to the white man, say- ing, 'Yes, you have bought him with your own blood.' In a moment the poor slave threw himself at the feet of his [Page 11
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