I just don't like it when people use the term "surrender" when talking about God but I keep running into people using it.
The word "surrender" is not used once in the New Testament. I've never heard it used positively in the secular world unless evil surrenders to good in a battle. We Christians are not evil! We are the loved, righteous, holy, perfected children of God! The first definition of surrender on Google is "Cease resistance to an enemy or opponent and submit to their authority." We are not at war with God! He is our friend, not our enemy!
Some use the word "surrender" instead of the word "submit" but that still doesn't sit right with me. Look how this phrase changes. "Wives submit to your husbands" turns into "Wives surrender to your husbands." Sounds sick and violent to me. Side note: The word "submit" in the bible is best translated as cooperate. It does not mean "utterly obey," as so often taught. If it did then "Submit to one another" would be senseless.
The great myth of performance based religion is that we are supposed to give our lives to God but the fact of grace is that God gives His life to us. We live by Him & with Him, not for Him. We always have His power and presence.
I hate that religion turns our loving Father into a competing force who blasts us until we give up. It teaches that God's bullets are conviction. Convict is a synonym for condemn and there is no condemnation in Christ! Scripture never says God will convict His children of sin. It only says He will convince them of righteousness. God will never guilt trip you. Don't feel righteous? It is ungodly for a Christian to feel unrighteous. God never causes you to feel that way. Empathy and compassion are godly, conviction is not.
We are in Christ. In Christ there is no sin (1 John 3:5). Stop identifying yourself by the flesh. Christ didn't bear the guilt of your sin just to have a reason to get revenge on you and make your life miserable by guilt tripping you every day. He took your sin away forever. He won't charge you with it. He doesn't even remember it. You aren't a bag of bones. You are God's everlasting & ever-loved spirit child! God is your Father not your foe. I will never surrender to God because I am on His side & Christ has already won the war.
I've come to the very same conclusions on the issue you have expressed here in this post ! It's very liberating and refreshing - and what's interesting, this grace foundation results in me being a lot more effective for Christ without even trying to focus on doing - I simply live out what I believe in! Now, that's freedom!
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