IX. OUR SURRENDER TO JESUS
`They gave their own selves to the Lord.'
-- Cor. 8:5
In the surrender of Jesus for me, I have the
chief element of what He has done and always does for me. In my surrender to
Him I have the chief element of what He would have me to do. For young
Christians who have given themselves to Jesus, it is a matter of great moment
always to hold fast, to confirm and renew this surrender. This is the special
life of faith, to say anew every day: I have given myself to Him, to follow Him
and to serve Him; (Matt. 4:22; 10:24,25,37,38; Luke 18:22; John 12:25,26; 2
Cor. 5:15) He has taken me: I am His, and entirely at His service. (Matt.
28:20)
Young Christian, hold firm your surrender, and
make it always firmer. When there recurs a stumbling or a sin after you have
surrendered yourself, think not the surrender was not sincere. No; the
surrender to Jesus does not make us perfect at once. You have sinned, because
you were not thoroughly or firmly enough in His arms. Adhere to this, although
it be with shame: Lord, Thou knowest it, I have given myself to Thee: I am
Thine. (John 21:17; Gal. 6:1; 1 Thess. 5:24; 2 Tim. 2:13; 1 John 5:16)
Confirm this surrender anew. Say to Him that you now begin to see better how
complete the surrender to Him must be, and renew every day the voluntary,
entire, and undivided offering up of yourselves to Him. (Luke 28:28; Phil.
3:7,8)
The longer we continue Christians, the deeper
will be our insight into that word: surrender to Jesus. We shall always see
more clearly that we do not yet fully understand or contemplate it. The
surrender must become, especially, more undivided and trustful. The language
which Ahab once used must be ours: `According to thy saying, my lord, O king, I
am thine, and all that I have' (1 Kings 20:4). This is the language of
undivided dedication: I am thine, and all that I have. Keep nothing back.
Keep back no single sin that you do not confess and leave off. Without
conversion there can be no surrender. (Matt. 7:21,27; John 3:20,21; 2 Tim.
2:19,21) Keep back no single power. Let your head with all its thinking, your
mouth with all its speaking, your heart with all its feeling, your hand with
all its working -- let your time, your name, your influence, your property, let
all be laid upon the altar. (Rom. 6:13,22; 12:1; 2 Cor. 5:15; Heb. 8:15; 1
Pet. 2:5) Jesus has a right to all: He demands the whole. Give yourself, with
all that you have, to be guided and used and kept, sanctified and blessed.
`According to Thy word, my Lord, O King, I am Thine, and all that I have.'
That is the language of trustful dedication. It
is on the word of the Lord, which calls upon you to surrender yourself, that
you have done this. That word is your warrant that He will take and guide and
keep you. As surely as you give yourself, does He take you; and what He takes
He can keep. Only, we must not take it again out of His hand. Let it remain
fixed with you that your surrender is in the highest degree pleasing to Him: be
certain of it, your offering is a sweet-smelling savour. Not on what you are,
or what you experience or discover in yourselves, do you say this, but on His
word. According to His word, you are able to take a stand on this: what you
give, that He takes; and what He takes, that He keeps. (John 10:28; 2 Thess.
3:3; 2 Tim. 1:12) Therefore every day anew, let this be the childlike joyful
activity of your life of faith: you surrender yourselves without ceasing to
Jesus, and you are safe in the certitude that He in His love takes and holds
you fast, and that His answer to your giving is the renewed and always deeper
surrender of Himself to you.
According to Thy word, my Lord and King, I am Thine, and all that I
have. Every day, this day, will I confirm it, that I am not mine own, but am
my Lord's. Fervently do I beseech Thee to take full possession of Thy
property, so that no one may doubt whose I am. Amen.
1. Ponder now once again the
words giving and taking and having. What I give to Jesus,
He take with a divine taking. And what He takes, he has and thereafter cares
for. Now it is absolutely no longer mine. I must not take thought for it; I
may not dispose of it. O pray, let your faith find expression in adoration:
Jesus takes me: Jesus has me.
2. Should there overtake you a time of doubting
or darkness whereby your assurance that the Lord has received you has come to
be lost, suffer not yourself thereby to be dispirited. Come simply as a
sinner, confess your sins: believe in His promises that He will by no means
cast out those that come to Him and begin simply on the ground of the promises
to say: I know that He has received me.
3. Forget not what the chief element in
surrender is: it is a surrender to Jesus and to His love. Fix your eye, not
upon your activity in surrender, but upon Jesus, who calls you, who takes you,
who can do all for you. This it is that makes faith strong.
4. Faith is always a surrender. Faith is the
eye for seeing the invisible. When I look at something, I surrender myself to
the impression which it make upon me. Faith is the ear that hearkens to the
voice of God. When I believe a message, I surrender myself to the influence,
cheering or saddening, which the tidings exercises upon me. When I believe in
Jesus, I surrender myself to Him, in reflection, in desire, in expectation, in
order that He may be in me and do that for which He has been given to me by
God.