Awaken The Sleeper!
Digging Deeper
Surrender
In a world obsessed with defining one’s own “truth”, the idea that you can accept Jesus as your Savior and surrender to His Lordship later sounds good. It’s easy. It’s painless. It’s also unbiblical! You do not get to negotiate the terms of your surrender – even though you are the victor in Christ Jesus.
It is because you are the victor in Christ Jesus that true surrender has life-giving meaning to a Holy God. He set the terms for your surrender. As Jesus knelt and prayed in Gethsemane, on the western slope of the Mount of Olives, He asked the Father “If you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” Luke 22:42 With that prayer, Jesus accepted the Father’s will to be slain as the spotless Lamb of God, for the redemption of mankind.
Yet His submission to the Father meant so much more than just his death. He became sin so He could bear the just punishment, the wrath of God, and pay the penalty of death – separation from the Father. But death could not hold Him. Christ defeated death and resurrected on the third day, becoming “the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” 1 Corinthians 15:20
Just as Jesus exemplified, surrender is the rejection of your right to yourself and identifying completely with the work of God in the redemption of others. While Christ is without sin, mankind is not. Our surrender first requires repentance. A change of mind about sin and your powerlessness over it allows you to submit to his Lordship. “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Romans 10:9
Note that the above passage said “Jesus is Lord” – not “Jesus is Savior”. Though He is Savior as “no one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6), the ultimate confession He is Lord comes in Philippians 2:9-11 “God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
With His Lordship established as a part of acknowledging He is Savior, the question then becomes “What does true surrender entail?”. Certainly repentance and surrender are intertwined. The Apostle Peter, speaking after Pentecost, declared "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." So repentance and baptism are required for the forgiveness of sin; but also the receiving of the Holy Spirit.
Receiving the Holy Spirit becomes critical as the cycle of repentance and surrender is ongoing. The continuous act of yielding your will, your desires and your plans to God has the purpose of transforming you into the image of Christ. This cannot be done under human power; it is the work of the Holy Spirit. Only the Spirit can reshape your thoughts, your perspective and your desires to align with God’s Will.
Your continuous death to self and giving your life to Christ daily is best described in Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God.” Your daily surrender should place you heart with that of Christ in Gethsemane – “Not my will, but thy will be done.”
“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant … he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” Philippians 2:5-8
While you may not be called to be obedient to the point of death, you are called to be broken bread and poured out wine. Living in Christ Jesus means surrendered obedience to His Great Commission to “Go and make disciples.” As you spend your lifetime growing into the image of Christ, let your words and deeds declare the Gospel, “for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” Philippians 2:13
Are you surrendered today?
Someone’s eternity depends on it!
Awaken the sleeper!