THE TENSION BETWEEN FREE WILL & SURRENDER...

Today, I met with a young man who had been encouraged to come and see me by his uncle who lives in Arizona. He lightly tapped on the door of our offices and I invited him inside. He was open and honest about his situation. He described himself as functioning alcoholic. His face revealed a deep inner pain. He wanted to be a better man, a better father, those were some of his opening words. His honesty was refreshing to me. As we talked I could feel his pain and identify with his frustration in desiring a better life but unable to make that happen up to this point .

To be honest, it was me talking, most of the time. In retrospect the Holy Spirit did the talking through me. One point of contention for him was the idea of Free Will and Surrender. How is it that you have Free Will yet as a Christian you are required to surrender your life to Jesus and His purpose and mission for your life? That is a really great question. Let’s begin with a bit of honesty: We live with that tension between Free Will and Surrender everyday even if we are not a Christian. I have a Free Will to do anything I want to do, however if what I want to do is illegal I will be subject to the Civil authorities. Simply stated we don’t do certain things because we know there will be consequences to those actions by civli authorities.

I am cruising down the freeway and traffic opens up and I am tempted to go faster to get to my destination but I don’t do that because just a mile back I saw a guy pulled over by the Highway patrol for speeding. I don’t want a ticket so I stay within the speed limit. Free Will is always at tension with Surrender. We exercise restraint to our Free Will because we do not want to risk the consequences. So it is dishonest to pretend that in order to maintain Free Will we need to avoid Surrendering our life to God. Our Free Will is always regulated either by civil authorities, policies at work, cultural boundaries, relational commitments, for all these reasons and more we exercise restraint to our Free Will regularly. We Surrender our Free Will and comply, in order to remain in good standing with societal norms.

When we give control of their lives to God we get an added bonus for our Surrender.

In Christ we keep our Free Will and we get a New Life.

“17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. (2 Cor. 5:17)”

We are still Free to do everything we did when were living in a sinful nature, but our New Life in Christ has changed our desires, our perspective, our will. We are tempted as before but we are not dependent on our own will to overcome temptation now we have a New Life in Christ and we are filled with the Holy Spirit, empowered to resist temptation. We are in no way puppets of God and the fact that we give into temptation from time to time illustrates that point precisely. We are empowered to overcome sin but we are also free to choose to sin.

Our New Life in Christ provides a remarkable clarity for decision making. We no longer are captives or slaves to the sensual or material we look at life in an eternal perspective. Decisions are made in light of eternity more than in the light of time. We understand that our choices determine our destination and we are committed to making choices that keep us close to God and in His mission and plan for our lives. We are finished with laying blame and justifying. We are careful to accept responsibility for our choices and own the outcome. This makes it easy to return to God when we fail and ask Him to forgive us and get us back on His path for our lives.

Surrendering to Christ is a natural response to the Love of God that culminated in the sacrifice made on the Cross. I am not guilted into surrendering my life to God, I am overcome by with gratitude that someone took my place and paid the price that I can spend eternity in the presence of God. It is a natural response to surrender my life to the one who loves me most and is committed to my best interest. I trust Him with my life, because He proves over and over daily He alone is worthy of my complete trust.

There is no true freedom of will outside of a committed relationship with Jesus Christ. What we mistakenly believe is an act of Free Will is often a requirement of our flesh. We are prisoners to the whims of our flesh, seasonal stents of practiced discipline through will power are short lived in the scheme of life. We revert back to submission as prisoners of our own fleshly desires. We justify our behaviors with “life is short and you have to go for it”. We lay blame by saying we are the product of a broken societal system. Lust, greed, bitterness, jealousy, selfishness are too often the primary drivers in decision making.

New Life in Christ Jesus is the result of surrendering our lives to God thereby dealing a death blow to our sinful nature. New Life Frees us from sin. We are no longer slaves to addictions, greed, lusts, our temperaments or desires to please others. Pleasing God is our new focus and it is a more natural way of life. In other words we do it as naturally as we breath. Our New Life in Christ empowered by the Holy Spirit gives us the ability to live a life pleasing to God.

At the risk of making it sound all too easy, I need to point out that no professional athlete automatically gets in and stays in shape to be a winner in their profession. These great athletes work out regularly and press their bodies and minds toward excellence. A disciple of Jesus Christ is committed to growth and maturity. They are ready to sacrifice, learn, obey God and support the body of Christ (the church).

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