By David Ryser
I’ve known Joe for more than 25
years. Since he moved away to California, we don’t see
one another very often, so we visit frequently by phone. We exchange personal pleasantries and talk
about what God is doing in our lives.
Because Joe is an avid reader, he often tells me about the most recent
Christian book he has been reading.
During one such conversation, I
received clarity concerning something I’d been thinking about for a while.
The book Joe had been reading
heavily emphasized the importance of a Christian surrendering to God. As a result, the word “surrender” came up a
lot in this particular conversation.
Every time the word “surrender” was spoken, a thought grew stronger in
me until I asked, “Why does a soldier surrender?”
As I voiced this question, Joe
responded with the first answer that had come to my mind, “He surrenders
because he is beaten.” My thoughts were
becoming more clearly defined, and I expressed them by saying, “No, a soldier
surrenders when he is beaten, but why does he surrender?”
Even a defeated soldier has
options. Surrender is one option, but he
could also continue to fight. He can
continue to fight, with his bare fists if necessary, until he is killed. So why does he choose to surrender? He chooses to surrender in order to preserve
his life.
When we surrender to God, we likely do it
for the same reason.
Nowhere in the Bible are we commanded
to surrender to God. (The word surrender
isn’t even in the Bible). We are told to
submit to God (James 4:7a), but submission is not the same as surrender. There is a difference between the two. Submission is always voluntary. Surrender is always coerced. Big difference.
We are not coerced to submit to God.
Coerced submission is false submission. Coerced submission is no submission at all.
We are told to lose our lives (Luke
17:33) and die to ourselves and our old life (Romans 6:2), but never to
surrender. When a soldier surrenders and
is taken captive, what does he spend every waking moment of every day doing? Plotting how to escape. Our Adamic nature does the same thing if we
are allowed to surrender.
This is why God does not take
prisoners.
I once heard someone say, “God and
the devil have one thing in common: they
are both trying to kill you.” This is a
true statement and totally biblical.
Both God and the devil are trying to kill me, but for different
purposes. The devil wants to kill me in
order to dishonor God (because I am made in the image of God) and to do damage
to the cause of the Kingdom
of God. God wants me dead so He can resurrect me into
a new life as a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17)…a new spiritual species of
humanity.
For as long as I have been a
Christian, I’ve heard fellow believers talking about how we live the
resurrected life. We’ve joyfully
proclaimed our resurrected life even as we continue to live lives (at least on
the inside of us) that are pretty much the same as our old lives. Yes, we’ve cleaned up our language and
modified our behavior (whitewashed the tomb as it were--Matthew 23:27), but on
the inside we are still motivated by the same things as always. We still want to be noticed, appreciated, admired,
and promoted. Our lives are still all
about us, and we continue to pursue the things we have always pursued; only now
we do it in Jesus’ name.
And we pay pastors big money to
tell us how wonderful we are and to comfort us when we know instinctively that
something is still wrong with us.
We continue to talk about the
resurrected life without ever having experienced death. We want resurrection without death. The problem with this is that resurrection
always involves death. Resurrection, by
definition, requires that we be dead first.
No one can be resurrected without having been dead. Resurrection is only for dead people.
If you are not dead, you cannot be
resurrected.
Paul says he dies daily (1
Corinthians 15:31). He tells Christians to consider themselves dead to sin on a
constant basis (Romans 6:2-11), but raised to newness of life in Christ. Paul makes a direct connection between death
and resurrection here in Romans 6 and elsewhere.
Only by losing our life can we find
life (Matthew 16:25).
The process of dying to ourselves
can be a painful process, it takes more time than we’d like; in fact, it never
really ends. Embracing pain and
difficulty is not natural for us.
Putting aside our own interests and ambitions for the sake of Jesus and
the Kingdom of God is hard for us, but we cannot manifest the life of Christ flowing
through us until we have cast our “old man” aside so we can put on the
resurrected “new man” (Ephesians 4:22-24).
Anyone can walk on the wide path;
it is easy for us, but it leads to destruction.
Few choose to walk the narrow path that goes through the valley of death
on its way to resurrection and newness of life.
This battle most of us are fighting
is not with the devil. To paraphrase
Steve Gray, too many Christians want to talk of fighting the devil when we are
not yet finished fighting with God. This
fight with God has only one possible end.
Our battle with God does not end in
surrender. It ends in death. God doesn’t take prisoners.
Responses to this article are
welcomed. You may contact the author at drdave1545@yahoo.com
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