The simplicity of entering into this New Life has been a stumbling
block to many. For there are but two conditions for victory, and every
Christian has been given grace to meet these two conditions. The first
is surrender. For that resurrection life of Jesus can only operate when
our self effort ceases. “Yield yourselves unto God” (Rom. 6:13). Or as
Weymouth translates it: “Surrender your very selves unto God.” And this
was spoken to Christians. This surrender of the Christian to God is
positive, not negative. It is not as a surrender of things, nor of an
evil self life, but a yielding of self with all its powers to God, as
alive from the dead. With this positive surrender everything contrary
to God’s will goes out of the life.
Surrender a Definite Matter
Failure frequently comes in the life of Victory because there has not
been a complete surrender. Something has been held back. Or we have
been too superficial in our understanding of what crucifixion of the
old self life means. Now our Lord is lovingly ready to meet us when
we come eager for full salvation and willing to make full surrender
to him. He will show us if we ask him, _and wait for his answer_,
whether there is anything that is not wholly surrendered to him. Some
Christians say this matter of surrender is very vague, and they cannot
tell whether they have really surrendered completely. As a matter
of fact, the Holy Spirit is always very definite when we deal with
him earnestly. One woman who said the surrender matter was entirely
too vague for her to know whether she had surrendered, after some
questioning remarked: “Well, of course, I would not be willing to have
my two sons go to Africa as missionaries.” The matter of surrender was
very definite for her and until this Christian mother lays her two boys
on the altar for Christ she will not know complete victory.
Young people sometimes stumble over surrendering such things as
worldly amusements, the theatre, dramatic moving pictures, dancing,
card-playing, smoking. They argue that they do not regard these things
as sins, though others may believe them to be. But surely if we are
facing the question of getting such a great Gift as Christ as our
Victory and very Life, these things are small matters to yield. But if
they are not sins, are they “weights” in the Christian race? “Let us
... lay aside _every weight_, and the sin which doth so easily beset
us” (Heb. 12:1).
When A Christian Robs Christ
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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