God has given humanity a purpose, and He has provided us insight and a roadmap on how to accomplish His purpose for each of us. Simply put, we are to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ (Romans 8:29). Conformity is the act of matching attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors, in this case, to God the Father and Jesus Christ.
You are to “…put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.” “6 Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin” (Ephesians 4:22-24, Romans 6:6).
Though the “old man” figuratively died at baptism, we are still flesh and blood but raised to a new committed life, allowing God through His Holy Spirit to render inactive the pull of the flesh to sin, “if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus:” (Ephesians 4:21).
These are simple statements. But, it is not simple to execute. How can we effectively do that? What state of mind is essential in us to be able to effectively accomplish putting off the old man and building up the new man?
It is actually a battle against our self, our human nature. Repentance means giving up our way and turning to the Way of God. It means utter voluntary unconditional surrender to the authority of God. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary surrender is a verb that means: 1to agree to stop fighting, hiding and resisting because you know that you will not win or succeed, 2to give the control or use of (something) to someone else, and 3to allow something to influence you. Considering these definitions, have we surrendered ourselves in these three ways to God?
We know we are surrendered to God when we rely on God to work things out instead of trying to manipulate others, force our agenda and control each situation – all of which are works of the old man that’s supposed to be buried. Instead, we are to let go and let God work and prevail in our lives. Instead of trying harder to accomplish something or overcome something, we need to trust more and allow God to prevail for us, to do what only He can do.
Note Jesus Christ’s perfect example: “ [Christ] who though he existed in the form of God did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself by taking on the form of a slave, by looking like other men… 8 He humbled himself, by becoming obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross!” (Philippians 2:6-8 NET).
Christ, who was God before He became a man, was also God in the flesh. But, He did not view His power, and all the rights and prerogatives He had as God, as something that He felt He had to lay claim to and hold on to, to control His life, or to control those around Him. He even shied away from those who wanted to make Him King. Instead, He surrendered Himself to the Father.
Christ did not define Himself by His power and control. He defines Himself as: “…, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, 7 keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin…” (Exodus 34:6-7).
Christ allowed Himself to be subjected to death like every man and willingly surrendered everything to be a complete example of faith and obedience to God the Father, looking to Him for all things: “who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, 8 though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. 9 And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him,” (Hebrews 5:7-9).
If surrendering was essential for Jesus Christ’s perfection, how much more is it for us. If the” new man” is to surrender to God and that surrender is to be easy and peaceful (Matthew 11:28-30), why do we often feel heavy laden and stressed? Quite often, it’s more a question of our not knowing where our responsibility ends, and God’s begins. We think there’s a line between when we carry the burden and when we say, “God, help us.”
Overall God wants His people to be responsible people who strive to do the right things. So, we take responsibility onto ourselves and attempt to carry the weight. Which to us means we try harder. So, naturally, we see ourselves as our first resource. Then sometimes we hit more difficult situations that we realize are outside of our ability. This is normally the situation where we finally turn to God and seek His input.
This is good to do but if we limit our surrendering to just situations, we miss the point. God doesn’t want us surrendering situations. He wants us to surrender ourselves. For in surrendering, the ways of the old man stay buried; it stops influencing our thinking and the new man lives in Christ, as Christ lived.
So, how did Christ surrender to the Father? Christ said to Peter when Judas betrayed Him at Gethsemane, “Do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels? How then could the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must happen thus?” (Matthew 26:53-54). Christ chose to fulfill His role as Savior of all humanity, rather than yield to His desire to avoid crucifixion.
Christ also said: “I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me” (John 5:30). He didn’t say He could do some things. He said, “I can do nothing.” Christ did not make any choice, decision or judgment in His life using His own will, His own thoughts. He surrendered His will to the Father who expressed His will through Christ. Christ understood the weakness of the flesh. He told His disciples, ‘Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41 NKJV). He surrendered not only in any given situation. He surrendered everything.
Christ understood that surrender is the easiest path. The epitome of Christ relinquishing His will for the Father’s is when He brushed His will aside, accepting His Father’s will for Him to die. “He went a little farther, and fell on the ground, and prayed that if it were possible, the hour might pass from Him. 36 And He said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will” (Mark 14:35-36).
Christ’s surrender was driven by two godly (not fleshly) purposes. The first, His life was to reveal the Father to mankind. Second, Christ wanted to ensure that the Father received the glory, that the choices He made, the words He spoke and miracles He performed were inspired by and accomplish through His Father (John 14:8-10). Christ’s surrendering of His will was so that man would know the mind of the Father. Our surrender is no different than Christ’s. The old fleshly man wants to glorify itself, while the surrendered new man should only desire to glorify the Father by revealing Him as Christ did.
So when we find ourselves still heavy laden and tired, we need to stop and think, “Am I surrendering situations to God or am I surrendering myself.” We, like Christ, must strive to do nothing apart from seeking God’s will and the fruits of the Spirit of God throughout our lives. Without surrender those fruits will not be seen.
When we take control of situations that we feel we can handle, we run the risk of fulfilling our will instead of the Father’s which can result in our taking upon ourselves the honor and praise that belongs to God. It can result in our seeking our own accolades.
There is another reason why we can find ourselves heavy laden and struggling with surrendering. It stems from fear and guilt. When we do not have the correct perspective about surrendering, we rely too much on our own strength to overcome and change. When we do that, we fail because the old man is not dead. We all think we should be stronger than we really are. We are told we should worship our Father in sincerity and truth. Part of that is being sincerely truthful with who we are and what we are. For when we are sincere and truthful about who we are with God, He sees someone who is willing to surrender (Psalms 34:18). When we know our state, that is when our Father draws us into His fellowship and then He is moved to save us and to prevail for us.
And we must realize that our condition is terminal. We don’t get out of this life alive. Without our Father’s continual healing of our fallible state, we will fail. We do not and never will have the strength to overcome sin without His willingness to direct us in everything and our willingness to surrender to His care. It is His strength which overcomes our sins, not our strength. It’s our desire to surrender that enables Him to help us to overcome sins. We often don’t stop and realize that God knows exactly who He called (1 Corinthians 1:26-31).
It is only through the recognition of our weaknesses that we can surrender to God. Then He is able to live His life powerfully through us. Paul stated, “And He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore most gladly I will rather [rejoice] in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).
Paul was strong with Christ’s strength when he was weak in the flesh. Being human is not something that should cause guilt, rather it should be something that drives us to our knees to ask God to help us surrender to Him, through Christ, who has already won the battle over the flesh without sin.
“If God is with us, who can be against us? Who can separate us from the love of Christ?” (Romans 8:31, 35,36-39). In all things we are more than conquerors (vs 37). The Greek there means the battle has already been won, that before that enemy begins, he’s already lost. That’s what that word hupernikao means. It’s powerful. Christ said, “Rejoice. I’ve already overcome the world.”
If we unconditionally surrender, God will embrace us. Ultimately, we need to come to realize that we are not capable of obeying Him and that the obedience which we do gain is totally through His power, His Spirit, so that the old man is continually buried and the new man grows. If we could do it on our own, would we not glorify ourselves? But flesh and blood has no glory (Mark 10:18). Somehow, we think we are responsible for our salvation.
But, we can be encouraged by those who have successfully come before us through the Old and New Testament. “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God:” (Hebrews 12:1-2).
We need to come to admit without exception that God is our only salvation. When we are finally led to this point, instead of giving up, we surrender ourselves wholly to God, so He may accomplish whatever it is that He has for us do. We submit to whatever trial He allows, so that we might mortify the deeds of the flesh and from that death, bring forth a life in Christ that pleases Him. This is Christ living His life “in us” that goes into the presence of God the Father.
An unconditional surrender to God is not merely a promise to obey Him no matter what. Rather, it is relinquishing our entire being into His hands that He might do whatever is necessary to reveal Himself, through Christ in us. The result isn’t going to be us as spiritual giants. It is going to be Christ seen in and through each one of us. By this they shall know you, that you have love for one another through that surrender:
“and [Christ] died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again. 16 Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:15-17).
God’s people do desire to grow. And if we are not growing, we feel we are failing. Rightfully so. If we want to see and feel the miracles that God has promised, let’s challenge ourselves to put surrender to the test. Go to God and surrender. Tell Him. He can give the understanding through His Spirit of what it is you need to see in yourselves so that you can surrender to Him. Ask Him to make your sins and transgression vivid and how they get in the way of your relationship with Him and others. Then, moment to moment surrender them to Him acknowledging to Him how powerless you are to remove them yourself and how very much you need Him to crucify them through the power of His Spirit. And in that is the total fruition of the gospel.
Bill Hutchison