Absolute Surrender

Absolute Surrender

Romans 12:1 (New International Version)
1Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.

Absolute surrender: These are two words that I struggle with and yet they are exactly what God wants for me and you. In the passage of scripture above Paul is writing to the Romans to inform them that in light of what they have heard and seen absolute surrender is the next step in their relationship with Christ.

In essence here is what Paul is saying:

Therefore, in view of God’s mercy- There are 11 chapters that precede chapter 12. That is the obvious and easiest thing to notice. If you were to take time to read the 11 chapters first you would see and understand the sinful condition of man met with the redeeming grace of God. This is what Paul wants us to understand today. In view of God’s mercy towards you remember all that God has given to you through Jesus Christ. If nothing else, He has saved you from sin, restored you to Himself, and He has given you every spiritual blessing in Christ. The motivation for surrender comes from our understanding of God’s mercy towards us.

Paul then charges the Roman believers and us today to present our bodies to God as a living sacrifice. This is really what God wants. He is not interested in our church attendance, our service, our morality as a means to earn spiritual brownie points. He is not interested in just the parts of our lives that we want to surrender. He is interested in having a whole relationship with us. After all, He gave the supreme sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ to restore our broken relationship with Him. The question is: Are we willing to absolutely trust God with every aspect of our lives and surrender to Him completely? When we finally resolve to absolutely surrender to God, He, in turn begins to reveal to us what abundant life in Him really is. The presentation of our lives to God is the act of absolute surrender.

In conclusion, we see that the act of absolute surrender to God is received by Him as something holy and acceptable. This act, in view of what God has richly provided for us, is our reasonable, or the most logical response to God and this is worship. So, if we are really hungry and seeking an intimate relationship with Jesus the step to take and the doorway to walk through is absolute surrender.