Victory Through Surrender

No one wins a national basketball tournament by giving up. No one wins an election by refusing to seek votes. No one wins a race by walking when everyone else is running. You just cannot win by giving up.

Yet that is what we as believers are called to do. This is nothing original or new. It follows the example given to us by Jesus himself. Is it easy? No, it isn’t. It is diametrically opposite to what we sinful human beings tend to do or want to do.

As we approach Easter, Resurrection Sunday, we must first go through Good Friday, the goodness being recognized in the willingness of Jesus to surrender his life and his relationship with his heavenly Father for the sake of the redemption of mankind. For six hours Jesus suffered the agony of a Roman crucifixion. Those six hours on the cross included three hours we humans experienced as darkness.

Jesus experienced something else. Our only hint as to what was happening to the Son of God was the cry of dereliction, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” During those hours of darkness the union that had existed for all eternity was broken. Jesus had surrendered to curse of the cross and the burden of the sins of all humanity. The result in that moment was he faced it all alone.

Two actions followed to indicate that was not the end. The first were in the last words of Jesus from the cross, “Into your hands I commit my spirit.” Even in the moment Jesus felt the weight of our guilt and the absence of his Father, he found victory.

The second confirmation of this victory would come later. An empty grave on the first day of the week proved the power of redeeming love over the curse of death and the grave. In surrendering to the will of the Father and the suffering of the cross and abandonment, Jesus found the ultimate victory.

Resurrection Sunday is a believer’s confirmation of victory through surrender. Such victory never comes without a price. For Jesus there was the Gethsemane experience in which his own humanity was so clearly revealed. That was followed by the betrayal and desertion of his disciples. Then came the Jewish and Roman trials and the condemnation to a crucifixion. Yet through it all, he never lost faith in his Father to bring about the final victory.

For the Apostle Paul the lesson of victory through surrender came in a different way. Surrender did not come easily. It was not automatic. Through the process, however, Paul did learn the believer is at his strongest and victory is most assured when surrender is complete.

2Co 12:7-10 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

When Paul recognized his strength came from a surrender to the power of God within him, then he was able to know power never before experienced. Victory had come through surrender.

So it is with every believer. To die with Christ, to surrender to Christ, is to be raised to a new life which only he can provide. Jesus’ surrender to the will of the Father was the victory God needed to bring salvation to man. Our surrender to the will of the Father makes that victory personal to each of us. Good Friday is the surrender we will never have to face. Resurrection Sunday is the victory which is now our guarantee.

When Freedom Comes

This Independence Day our United States will mark 238 years of struggle to find freedom, define freedom, and provide freedom for all people across our land. Obvious to all, we have not reached our goal. We have thrown around the word equality as a benchmark for this idea of freedom, but we realize quickly even that word is subject to a thousand interpretations and applications.

What will it take to make all men free (mankind, personkind – how do you avoid the gender issue as we seek equality)? How can we reshape society so as to allow everyone to be equal? Is this truly a dream, an ideal that is humanly impossible? Is it even a good thing? How close is close enough to the ideal before the solutions cause more problems than they solve?

What prevents freedom in our land, or more so around the world, and keeps it just beyond our grasp? What stands in the way of equality being the natural law of society instead of another series of manmade laws that perpetually fall short of their goal?

First perhaps we need to see freedom does not “equal” equality. To be free does not lead automatically to equality. In fact to be free may even give one the power to reject equality as an undesirable status in life.

Freedom offers one the opportunity both to move toward and to move away from. Freedom offers the opportunity to make decisions without being answerable to the influence of others. Freedom in its extreme offers the opportunity to think and act without repercussions for one’s actions. That is a freedom society rejects and will not allow. No one can exist as a part of society and be free in every sense of the word.

The life of the follower of Jesus Christ is founded on and guided by the paradox that to be free one must surrender everything. John’s Gospel records,

Joh 8:31-32  So Jesus said to those who believed in him, "If you obey my teaching, you are really my disciples; you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." (CEV)

Neither the power of the sword nor the laws of man will ever bring about the freedom God intended for his creation. Only insofar as we know the Truth will we become free. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me.” (John 14:6) The Truth is not a philosophical postulate or treatise. Truth is a Person. That Person brings real and eternal freedom.

Freedom does not come from a release from all restrictions. Freedom comes as we choose to follow the path designed for our nature as children of God. Only as we seek, find, and give ourselves over to the way that matches our divinely intended nature can our freedom find its fullest expression.

The author of the biblical book of Hebrews writes:

Heb 12:1  As for us, we have this large crowd of (faithful) witnesses around us. So then, let us rid ourselves of everything that gets in the way, and of the sin which holds on to us so tightly, and let us run with determination the race that lies before us.

Heb 12:2  Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from beginning to end. He did not give up because of the cross! On the contrary, because of the joy that was waiting for him, he thought nothing of the disgrace of dying on the cross, and he is now seated at the right side of God's throne.

Heb 12:3  Think of what he went through; how he put up with so much hatred from sinners! So do not let yourselves become discouraged and give up.

Using our freedom to place self above all else leads only to the chains which can only hold us down.

We live with the paradox. Only as we surrender our wills to the Spirit of God can we know true freedom. Life finds its fulfillment as we find our freedom in obedience and surrender.