And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. | 1 Corinthians 2:13–14
One Sunday, I preached on a life of humility. One of the points that I made was that our humility looks different than Jesus’ humility. I said:
Jesus’ act of humility was actually taking an inferior position: He emptied Himself and descended to earth. For us to be humble does not require us to actually lower ourselves, but to simply acknowledge what is.
In other words, we do not need to think less of ourselves, we just need to be honest about who we really are. I think that this is an important idea to grasp when it comes to many of the things that the Bible calls us to, including: submission, worship, and trust. These actions can be difficult for us, because we are ignorant of the dynamic that we have with God. We try to convince ourselves to submit, force ourselves to worship, and train ourselves to trust; all of this energy is an attempt to overcome the misunderstanding we have of our relationship with God.
The title of this blog post comes from a conversation that I had after the sermon. Someone came up to me, introduced themselves as a newer Christian, and then described what I was trying to say more eloquently than I did. Part of what led him to this is that he is part of the recovery community. The first 3 steps of AA are all about the link between acceptance and surrender, they state:
1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol — that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
While we could critique this and make the point that not every ‘god as we understand him’ is going to be able to restore someone to sanity, I also think that we should learn from this. AA does not start at commitment, but at acceptance. Before you can give yourself to the steps and to a higher power, you must first look at yourself in the mirror and declare: I need help.
The same is true of the gospel. Far too many people try to take on Christianity, while still believing that they are relatively good. Jesus becomes something to add to an already okay life. This is not what the Bible teaches. It tells us that we are sinful, twisted, and depraved. Until we accept this: that we are powerless in our fight against sin and that our lives have become unmanageable, we will not be able to give power over to God. We will continually be fighting Him for control, even as we try to follow Him.
Part of the reason I love the phrase: acceptance and surrender are the same thing is because we can come up with reasons and excuses not to surrender. Our sinful state fights against giving over power, declaring it weak, or even abusive. Surrender can be a tough sell. Acceptance is something that we would all admit is beneficial (even if we don’t do it very well).
When we pursue acceptance, we end up with humility, surrender, and worship. Seeing our sin makes the righteousness of Jesus necessary; admitting we are twisted makes God’s clear guidance a must. Rather than trying to white-knuckle our sanctification, we need to start with accepting who we really are. When we do, not only does surrender become a natural response, but it also overwhelms us with joy and gratitude. It shows us clearly that we do not deserve any of the good we enjoy. Every good thing becomes a blessing from God.