We don’t like admitting we’re WRONG…
The difference between a loving, sacrificial relationship and religiosity
I’ve had an ongoing discussion with Christ-crucified believers and those of other worldviews, regarding the lifestyle of surrender these past years 2018 – 2020.
It’s been a subject of interest, since recognising that surrender—a Christian’s calling—is very different from upholding religiosity, law/legalism, or morality.
The superficial perspective of Christianity is that it’s a religion that constitutes obedience to an out-dated, lofty moral code of laws, that were potentially given by a supernatural being, or a group of highly intelligent thinkers and story-tellers.
This perception doesn’t incorporate surrender, but rather a human’s attempt by their strength to live a life of good works, according to the ancient Scriptures.
‘Surrender’ is one of the founding lifestyle behaviours that comprise a follower of Jesus. It’s a continuous motion that very few outside the Christian faith will realise.
In fact, it’s very possible that there are a scarce amount of people in the Christian faith that are aware of this dynamic; many will have automatically subscribed to legalism, whether consciously or unconsciously.
The raw truth of the matter is, we as Christians don’t actually follow the commandments of God in the way one might think.
Instead of living to uphold the law, our mantra or constant declaration is something more akin to this:
“We surrender God, because we can’t uphold these laws. We’re not good. We’re drawn to bad things. Teach, guide, and show us how to live.”
As the apostle Paul said, “through the law, we become conscious of our sin.” (Romans 3:20).
The perfect law of God–whether taking the 10 commandments of the OT, or the two commandments of Jesus in the NT–expose how weak and incapable we are of keeping to its perfection.
In turn, it shows us that every single one of us needs a saviour.
Subsequently, we’re led on a daily basis by the Holy Spirit–the gift of an intimately personal guide as a result of Jesus’ sacrifice–rather than the fixed laws of the commandments.
Although the Word of God is a command on our lives, it also operates as a physical guide for us to recognise whether our thoughts and actions are Holy Spirit inspired, or not.
Overall, our surrender—quite surprisingly—roots us in the firmest foundation possible for living.
We’re admitting we’re wrong about everything, we need divine help, and we’re willing to start life anew, reborn.
With this sincere confession of weakness, we take on teachability and humility, becoming an open bridge with which to learn–by faith–incredible wisdom from the Creator of Heaven and Earth; the only Being who holds objective TRUTH within a world riddled with half truths and outright deceptions.
My Awakening
When I speak to pre-believers, I find myself reminding them repeatedly that I didn’t choose the worldview of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit out of a pick n’ mix.
It wasn’t some spontaneous declaration of:
“Yes, this worldview suits all my values and beliefs. I think I’ll go with this.”
Or…
“I like this faith of Christianity because it’s about being good and loving to all. Yeah, I think this will work for me.”
My decision wasn’t like this at all.
I had to surrender, because many of the Bible’s teachings didn’t fit my personal construct of morality.
Some of its perceptions were 180 degrees in the opposite direction to my thoughts, provoking discomfort and a clear realisation that I couldn’t uphold this advocated law/moral code.
Sunday Pew Warmer VS Surrender
To help distinguish the term surrender, jumping back to January 2015, this was the winter when I learnt that the Bible was the objective Truth of this world.
I had commenced reading the Bible from cover to cover, ignoring all the Christians who’d advised me to read the Gospel of John first. I wanted to know about God the Father in the Old Testament, so I started at the beginning with Genesis.
I’d only reached part way through Genesis before my brain subconsciously fired off a firm conviction, that the Book I held in my hand was all the Truth I would ever need.
To this day, it remains a mystery how this happened and I believe it will stay an enigma until the next life.
I also think it would be presumptuous and arrogant of me to try to rationalise how this happened.
The revelation just occurred, and it was at a time when my mind wasn’t seeking God at all.
I was reading the Bible because like my study of Harry Potter and Twilight, I wanted to know why it was still the world’s reigning best-seller to the point where it had to be removed from lists.
This epiphany that the Bible was the Truth, didn’t stop me trying to live my life how I saw fit alongside my newfound worldview of faith, because I was not surrendered.
I attended church, read the Bible, joined a Bible study home-group, got baptised, went to courses to help me understand this new faith, and prayed.
I’d even erased my huge terabyte collection of pirate films and TV series—which I’d downloaded over many years—because a conviction came over me that said “it’s theft.”
But I wasn’t surrendered.
I was beginning the journey of faith; I helped warm the pews on Sundays, but I hadn’t commenced the school of understanding and living out the love of God that ‘surrender’ delivers.
The true life of a Christ-crucified, grace-abiding, Christian–who has surrendered, knowing they are broken and need to live by faith as opposed to circumstance–was coming, but my heart was still dead.
My heart wouldn’t start beating with new life and purpose until June 2016 when the journey of surrender really began…but that’s a story for another time…
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