“Millions call themselves by His Name, it is true, and pay some token respect to Him, but a simple test will show how little He is really honored among them. Let the average man be put to the proof on the question of who is above, and his true position will be exposed. Let him be forced into making a choice between God and money, between God and men, between God and personal ambition, God and self, God and human love, and God will take second place every time. Those other things will be exalted above.”
Tozer, A. W. (2013). The pursuit of God: The definitive classic (J. L. Snyder, Ed., p. 94). Gospel Light Publications. (Original work published 1948).
Do we truly surrender? Talk is cheap. Romans 10:9 didn’t just tell us to profess that we’re Christians. To just attend church weekly. To just give ten percent of our income. What Paul tells us is to believe that God raised Jesus from the dead. Believe in our hearts. A belief that changes everything about us. What we think and do. How we feel and react. So, do we truly surrender?
There is nothing we should exalt above God. Not even the Bible. Yahweh was Lord of All before a single word was written in the Bible. This problem is what the Jewish people faced in the first century. They started exalting the Torah and the Temple above God. Jesus didn’t flip tables because people were doing everything according to God’s will.
From then on Jesus began to tell his disciples plainly that it was necessary for him to go to Jerusalem, and that he would suffer many terrible things at the hands of the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but on the third day he would be raised from the dead.
But Peter took him aside and began to reprimand him for saying such things. “Heaven forbid, Lord,” he said. “This will never happen to you!”
Jesus turned to Peter and said, “Get away from me, Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.”
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?
New Living Translation Bible. (2015). Tyndale House Publishers. (Original work published 1996)
Many of us probably think we would never reprimand Jesus. We would. Every single time we cling to something inferior to Him over His direct commands in the Bible, we are just like Peter. We think we know better. We want to be our own messiah. We think that we can save ourselves. We dare assume we understand more about this life than the One who existed before it and gifted us with it.
We arrive at the most important thing. Even when we try to tell God what is best for ourselves, we cannot derail His plans for us as long as we continue to abide in Him
“I tell you the truth, when you were young, you were able to do as you liked; you dressed yourself and went wherever you wanted to go. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and others will dress you and take you where you don’t want to go.” Jesus said this to let him know by what kind of death he would glorify God. Then Jesus told him, “Follow me.”
Peter turned around and saw behind them the disciple Jesus loved—the one who had leaned over to Jesus during supper and asked, “Lord, who will betray you?” Peter asked Jesus, “What about him, Lord?”
Jesus replied, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? As for you, follow me.”
New Living Translation Bible. (2015). Tyndale House Publishers. (Original work published 1996).
Peter’s road from his calling to Acts 2 is certainly long and winding. He continually struggles to accept Jesus as a suffering servant. Yet God was still going to use him as an early leader in the Church. The authority of Christ is ultimate and if we allow ourselves to be conformed, the Spirit will help shape us for the will of God.
Now, this isn’t a passive or apathetic act. Would Jesus have waited years while watching Peter make these mistakes if God wanted it to be easy and instantaneous for us? No! The act of surrendering to Christ is a uniquely active surrender. A constant surrendering of what is new. We are not permitted to say, “I’ve noticed this anger coming out but I already surrendered my fear so this can be mine.” In Christ, we are invited to the table. There isn’t a DoorDash option. We must continue to come to the table.
Don’t you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win! All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadowboxing. I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.
New Living Translation Bible. (2015). Tyndale House Publishers. (Original work published 1996).
A surrender that we have to train for. Most of us probably miss how radical this is. The burnt offerings in the Old Testament give us a good example of the commitment we are training for. Once you light something on fire—you’re not getting it back. If this is the case, why do we struggle to lay what might hold us back on that same altar without picking it back up? What we give to the Lord must be allowed to be burned to a crisp. We no longer serve that bond because it has been defeated by the Risen Savior.
We must train daily to surrender to the Father. Whatever keeps us from Him must be surrendered. Often the thing that most keeps us from Him is ourselves. Are you ready to truly surrender?
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