10 - CHAPTER 8: SURRENDER ALL TO CHRIST

WHAT "ABSOLUTELY SURRENDERED TO GOD" REALLY MEANS, AND THE RESULTS THAT FOLLOW THIS ATTITUDE OF FAITH

We have again and again declared that before anyone can enter into the Victorious Life, two things are necessary-surrender and faith: man’s part and God’s part.

First of all, we must be willing to give up all known sin and all self-will and surrender ourselves entirely into God’s hands. Then we must in faith look to God to sanctify us. So the entrance in may be summed up in two simple mottoes:

LET GO AND LET GOD

Now it is extraordinary how difficult it is to make people understand what "surrender" is. And when they DO understand, it is still more difficult to persuade them that it is for their good! The writer sent a business letter to a Christian friend a week ago and in it put this question: "May I ask if you are entirely surrendered to Christ?" He called round the following day. He had just taken offence because of the conduct of a fellow-Christian (who had been both courteous and right-but firm).

Irritation, censure and divergence from the truth were all exhibited in five minutes. Then as he left the room, he turned and said in a surprised tone, "By the way, what did you mean by that hint in your letter that I am not entirely surrendered to God? I AM entirely surrendered to Him." It was quite obvious that he knew little about surrender. Yet he seemed perfectly satisfied with himself.

WHAT SURRENDER MEANS

Many readers of this paper may be equally satisfied. But many, we know, are yearning for a victory they do not possess, although they have sought it for many years. Will you examine your surrender? What does it mean? If we wish to be entirely yielded up to Christ, we must leave three things with Him: the Past, the Future and the Present. This involves the surrender of SELF not merely of things. "Surrender your very selves unto God" (Romans 6:13, Weymouth). A cleric in the USA once said, "Do you know that Campbell Morgan came to this country and preached one sermon that destroyed 40 years of my sermons? For 40 years I had been preaching on the duty of sacrifice- the denying things to ourselves; giving up this and that. We practised it in our family. We would give up butter one week and try to use the money in some way that God might bless. Another week we would give up something else, and so on. Campbell Morgan said that what we needed to give up, was not things but SELF: and that was the only thing we had not given up in our home. We had given up everything under the sun, but self. We were giving up so many things that we had become proud of our humility!" So let us look at self. Am I willing to surrender it entirely to God, and just "Let go"?

THERE IS THE PAST

1. "But," you exclaim, "the past is dead and gone." Oh, no; far from it! "The sins of the past are forgiven, but oh, what a weight they are about our necks!" said a worker for Christ. This ought not to be. Are we willing to let the past go? A lady missionary, who longed for Victory through Christ and confessed her deep yearning for it, was just broken-hearted over the matter. Why? "Because of the sins of the past," she replied. "But God has forgiven your past sins. They are blotted out. How can they hinder you?" "But you do not know the sort of failures I have made!" she moaned. "No-the past is too awful." When she had surrendered her past, the blessing came. There is a hymn which runs, "When God forgives, He forgets." "For I will be merciful to their iniquities and their sins will I remember no more" (Hebrews 8:12; Hebrews 10:17). Why, then, should I remember my past sins? Surely no good can possibly come of it?

THINGS THAT MAR SERVICE A momentary recollection of what God has saved us from may add to our praise of Him. But haven’t we enough to bless and praise His glorious name for, even without such backward glances? It is bad enough to have sinned in the past: but it is surely a terrible thing to allow past sins to mar present service. When you have forgiven your child some wrong-doing, do you wish him to grieve over it-to be miserable over it for days, weeks, months, years? Yet many children of God are doing this. Self-examination has its place, but to wreck the present by mourning over the past is sin.

Look at Simon Peter. He denied our Lord with oaths and curses. Our Lord forgave him, reinstated him, and used him. The one of the eleven who fell the lowest was the very one chosen to be spokesman on the day of Pentecost. Nor did Peter allow his past fall to hamper him, for he accuses the Jews of the very sin he had himself committed.

"You denied Him," he cried. "You denied the Holy and Righteous One" (Acts 3:14). O let us thank God that the sins of the past are blotted out, and let us never grieve Him by spoiling the present by reproaching ourselves for the sad past. "Looking unto Jesus" must be our attitude. "Forgetting the things that are behind;... I press on toward the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Php 3:13).

THERE IS THE FUTURE

2. Are we willing to leave that entirely in God’s hands? Many people seem to think that God will take advantage of them! That if they agree to obey all God’s wishes, God will make them miserable. They cannot trust God to fill their lives with joy-so they seek their pleasures from the world, and sometimes from deliberate sin. The Lord Jesus said to His disciples, "These things have I spoken unto you that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full" (John 15:11). What things had He been speaking about? Why, just abiding in Christ and keeping His commandments. His joy-the very joy of God! Could we desire anything more than that-better than that? Of course, if He dwells in us, and lives His life in us, we have His joy. FROM TONIGHT, LORD A wayward little boy climbed onto his father’s knees one evening and said, "Father, from tonight I’m going to do all you ask of me." How did the father act? Did he think to himself, "Now I have that boy in my power. Now I have the chance of making his life miserable!" It is unthinkable. He drew the laddie closer to him and silently vowed he would do everything in his power to make that boy happy. Is a God of Love going to take advantage of us, if we surrender our all to Him? Will He deign to remain in our debt? Remember, God has not only the will, but the power to make us supremely happy. There are our future plans. Does not God know what is best for us? Yet how unwilling believers often are to trust Him to do what is best. When addressing a party of missionary’s home on furlough last summer, the writer was struck by the miserable face of an elderly man. "Why is he so miserable?" "Oh," replied the chairman, "he longs to return to China to die in harness, but the committee refused to allow him to go back." A devoted servant of God-yet unwilling to leave his future in God’s hands. The result was not fullness of joy-but misery. We might well pray, as one dear saint did, "Oh, God! do not let anyone here be afraid of Thee." Are you afraid of God? Yes-if you know of anything you are not willing to give up, should God show you that it was His will you should do so.

God knows, He loves, He cares;

Nothing this truth can dim;

He does the very best for those Who leave the choice to Him.

THEN THERE IS THE PRESENT

3. How will this be affected? All unlove, bitterness, irritability, pride, jealousy, resentment, censoriousness- all must go, really go. An active lady worker said to the writer, "That’s easy enough for me, for I haven’t an enemy in the world!" The next day she was limping. "I’ve fallen down," she explained. "I saw that horrid Miss K--- coming along and I didn’t want to acknowledge her, and in looking the other way, I slipped off the curb and fell in the gutter!"

Now we may be sure that if there is anyone against whom we harbour any ill feeling or resentment, or "owe a grudge" -- anyone to whom we could not show Christian love and kindliness-we are not living the Victorious Life. Dr. Schofield once said, "If you have a sin in your life which you cannot let go, bring it to Jesus and let Him kill it." It may be some habit which others regard as harmless.

"Whenever you talk of surrender," said a man to the writer, "I always think of my pipe." Not a word had been said about smoking-but the pipe went. Forgive this remark-it is true or it would not be recorded here: You will find very few fully surrendered Christians whose consciences allow them to smoke.

One word of warning: Do not allow any fear of the future to rob you of present victory. "I’ve surrendered all to Christ," said a missionary at Keswick last summer, "And I am so happy. But I’m fearful what will happen when I get home." Do you see, the future was not really surrendered.

Dr. A. T. Pierson in his last address at Mildmay said, "Believe me as a dying man, no one ever obtained as much as he might have obtained from God." Why? Because God cannot give all He would until we surrender all we have -- and are. If you find any difficulty in this matter-then just surrender your surrender to the Lord Jesus.

NOW IS THE DAY OF VICTORY The present is the time for Victory. Let your aim ever be to glorify the Lord Jesus now. So many Christians let present opportunities slip by unused, because their minds are fixed upon something they are going to do TOMORROW or next Sunday. School yourself to live in the present. How can Christ Jesus manifest forth His glory-Himself through me today-now, this very moment?

Perhaps the secret of Victory in Christ lies just here. God gives needed grace just when it is needed.

"Have you dying grace?" a lady, asked Charles Spurgeon. "No, madam, and I do not want it now-but praise God, I have living grace," was his reply. Surrender. Let go. Then look to Christ in faith. Let GOD ---.

Ask the Lord Jesus Christ to crucify you and to give you His Resurrection Life. In that delightful little book, The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life", there is a chapter on "HOW TO ENTER IN". The way suggested is to pray, "Lord Jesus, I believe that You are able and willing to deliver me from all the care and unrest and sin of my Christian life. You died to set me free, not only in the future, but here and now. I believe that You are stronger than sin and can keep me from yielding to it. Lord, I am going to trust You to keep me. I have tried keeping myself and have failed grievously. I am also helpless. So now I will trust You. I give myself to You. I keep nothing back. ... And now ...I AM YOURS.

"I believe that YOU will accept this poor, weak, foolish heart; and that it has been taken possession of by You; and that You have at this moment begun to work in me to will and to do of Your good pleasure. I trust You utterly, I trust You now." But be careful to remember that surrender is not simply making a promise to God to forsake sin and always to do His will. That would be living under the Law. Surrender is just turning over to God all that we are and have, FOR HIM TO DO WITH US whatever He wishes. Surrendered Christians are often defeated, because they think they can carry out their good resolutions by God’s help. No! Just hand yourself over to God, and then trust Christ to do His part. "He is able to keep."

It is not our surrender that gives us the victory. It is not even our faith! It is CHRIST HIMSELF-the Faithful One. Surrender and trust, and Christ will never fail you.