Tag Archives: surrender

07/26/22

Doing My Utmost for Surrender and Sanctification

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A pastor of the church I attended preached a sermon many years ago on Romans 12:1-2 and he started off by asking a question: “Do you know what the problem with living sacrifices is?” He answered his question with: “They are always trying to crawl off the altar.” I don’t recall the sermon he preached, but I have always remembered the wisdom of these words; particularly as they apply to surrender in 12 Step recovery.

In a previous article in this series, “Surrender and Sanctification Along the Romans Road,” I reflected on how Romans 12:1 (I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship) applied to recovery. Here we will pick up the discussion by continuing with Romans 12:2.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

What is this living sacrifice supposed to look like? What form does this spiritual worship, this devotion to God take? There are three things to see in how 12:2 responds to these questions. First, the command is set in the negative. Paul is realistic in recognizing the continued presence of sin in the life of believers. In his commentary on the book of Romans, John Murray said that eight of the Ten Commandments were negative because of sin; and that the first evidence of Christian faith is when we turn from sin. We might add that the living sacrifice of progressive sanctification is a persistent struggle against our sin nature, which repeatedly attempts to crawl off of the altar upon which it was sacrificed. “Sanctification is a process of revolutionary change in that which is the centre of consciousness . . . It is the thought of progression and strikes at the stagnation, complacency, pride of achievement so often characterizing Christians.”

The second thing is the term for ‘world’ here–aiōn, means a unit of time within a particular stage of history. In this sense, it should be understood as a contrast between the present age and the age to come. “This age,” its wisdom and its rulers, will pass away (1Co. 2:6). Its wisdom is foolishness before God (1Co. 1:20; 3:18-19). The age to come is the time of the resurrection at Christ’s return, when he will rule over all things; those who are raised in Christ will be equal to the angels and will never die (Matt. 12:32; Eph. 1:21; Luke 20:34-36).

Murray is helpful in his observation that this age is temporal and transient. “Conformity to this age is to be wrapped up in the things that are temporal, to have all our thought oriented to that which is seen and temporal.” The age to come is eternal. So, Paul gives us a warning here, do not be conformed to the things of this world.

Thirdly, there is a contrast between being conformed to this world/age and being transformed by the renewal of our mind. To fully appreciate what Paul is saying here, we need to look at some of his vocabulary in the original Greek. The term rendered ‘conformed’ is used only one other time in the NT (in 1 Peter. 1:14) and has the sense being conformed to a pattern or mold. The term ‘transformed’ means to metamorphose or change the essential nature of something. Again, the term for renewal is rarely used, found only one other time in the NT, in Titus 3:5.

Paul is attempting to communicate the radical change brought about by this living sacrifice. It is not a conformity or alignment with the Logos, the inherent Reason or “god” of the universe as with Stoic philosophy. We are not to accommodate the things of this world; not even the general revelation of God in creation (Romans 1:19). There is to be a metamorphosis of our essential nature into the image of Christ by the renewal of our minds; a transformation only possible through the action of the Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:18).

The radical transformation required in the life of an addict or alcoholic is often one of the biggest stumbling blocks to their ability to establish and then maintain lifelong abstinence. The things of this ‘age’ include wine with dinner; beer and football games; parties and pot. Separation from the People Places and Things of this addictive age can mean losing a life-long friendship; never going to another rock concert; foregoing a raucous ‘pub crawl’ with friends to celebrate turning twenty-one. It can mean giving up a lucrative career as a nurse anesthetist because you have easy access to your drugs of choice. It can mean separation, and even divorce, from a life-long partner who refuses to give up their own drinking or drug use and follow you into an abstinent-based lifestyle.

It requires changes to the essential nature of how you live your life and look at the world around you. 

In the exhortation to be transformed by the renewal of our mind, we see a further application of Romans 6:17, where Paul said that we were to become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which we are committed. Faith without works is dead (James 2:26) was a favorite saying of Bill W. There is a necessary correspondence between what we do and what we believe. The faith we have in Christ is inexorably related to the metamorphosis of our will and lives into the will of God. The preceptive will of God for us, found in God’s law, should be progressively evident in our lives. This is also called progressive sanctification.

Inevitably in our lives, the question arises about which potential option before us is God’s will? Guidelines for many such decisions are clearly indicated in Scripture. Regardless of the allure of another person, do not commit adultery. Despite the enormity of the hurt done to us by another, do not murder. But many others are less readily discernible.

Do I marry this person or not? Do I accept this job or not? Do I comply with seemingly unethical directions from my boss? If God has a good, acceptable, perfect plan for my life, what is it here and now in this immediate situation? What do I decide? How do I respond? Am I reading the situation correctly?

Paul’s answer is to ‘test’ your choice. Make a decision and give it a trial run; formulate a hypothesis and see if your ‘experiment’ confirms or rejects the hypothesis. The testing process will determine if a certain decision is genuinely God’s will. We learn by experience what the will of God is; and in the process of testing, confirm the goodness and perfection of that will.

In the AA Grapevine article, “A Life Without Problems,” a man with twenty-three years of abstinence from alcohol remarked at a meeting that by turning his will and life over to the care of God, he had no problems that day. He readily admitted that hadn’t always been true, having “four marriages, three divorces, nine jobs, fourteen addresses (across four different states), dozens of home groups, and a countless number of meetings” in his twenty-three years since joining A.A. Even into double-digit years of sobriety he clung to his problems, making them his identity. He resisted anyone who might offer a solution and fought “to stay in my comfortable zone of unhappy competence that I had established with my problems.”

After the meeting, he was asked how he did it. The answer he gave was that the Third Step swept them away. “I turned my will and my life over to the care of God, as I understand him (or don’t understand him, her, it or them). Now I have only one task, laid out in AA’s Eleventh Step: ‘praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.’” Even if there was only “the Random God of the Cosmic Dice Game,” that “god” would get better results than what he had achieved through self-will.

Quoting the closing words to Bill Wilson’s Step Three essay in Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, he said that to turn your will and life over to the care of God, “we can pause, ask for quiet, and in the stillness simply say [the Serenity Prayer], ‘God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.’” In this moment, regardless of what happened before or what may happen tomorrow, what is the very best thing you can possibly do right now? Either do God’s will forcefully or be willing to be proved wrong–even if it means experiencing temporarily painful consequences. “Do what you think is God’s will at each particular moment, and you will have no problems. At least, that’s the best I can explain it today.”

Although you don’t see this mentioned in A.A. approved literature, AAs and its founders read the Oswald Chambers devotional My Utmost for His Highest in the early pre-Big Book years. Early Akron A.A. meetings opened with prayer and a reading from the Bible or a devotional such as My Utmost for His Highest. Dr. Bob, his wife Anne, Bill W. and his wife Lois used it. Chambers regularly returned to the topic of surrender and being a living sacrifice in his devotional comments. Here are a few selections.

It is of no value to God to give Him your life for death. He wants you to be a “living sacrifice,” to let Him have all your powers that have been saved and sanctified through Jesus. This is the thing that is acceptable to God. (January 8th)

The natural must be turned into the spiritual by sacrifice, otherwise a tremendous divorce will be produced in the natural life . . . The only way we can offer a spiritual sacrifice to God is by presenting our bodies a living sacrifice. (December 10th)

Surrender is not the surrender of the external life, but of the Will; when that is done, all is done. There are very few crises in life; the great crisis is the surrender of the will. God never crushes a man’s will into surrender, He never beseeches him, He waits until the man yields up his will to Him. That battle never needs to be re-fought. (September 13th)

Notice the parallel themes to the following exhortation by Bill W. in his final words to chapter eleven of the Big Book, “A Vision for You”: “Abandon yourself to God as You understand God. Admit your faults to Him and to your fellows. Clear away the wreckage of your past. Give freely of what you find and join us.”

If you’re interested, more articles from this series can be found under the link for “The Romans Road of Recovery.” “A Common Spiritual Path” (01) and “The Romans Road of Recovery” (02) will introduce this series of articles. If you began by reading one that came from the middle or the end of the series, try reading them before reading others. Follow the numerical listing of the articles (i.e., 01, 02, or 1st, 2nd, etc.), if you want to read them in the order they were originally intended. This article is the 15th in the series. Enjoy.

07/5/22

Surrender and Sanctification Along the Romans Road

Roman Road in Pompeii; © bloodua | 123rf.com

In chapter 12 of Romans Paul shifts from his discussion of the theological basis for faith in Christ, to a more practical discussion of how this faith should be applied in daily living. The ‘therefore’ in verse 1 suggests that what is to follow is based upon what came before. But not only does this verse refer back to the mercy discussed in Romans 11, of God bringing salvation to both Jews and Gentiles, but also to all the mercies throughout the first eleven chapters of Romans. These mercies include those we’ve looked at along the Romans Road: the mercy of God’s redemptive work Christ (Romans 3:23-25); the resulting mercy of the free gift of eternal life (Ro. 6:22-23); the mercy that this gift is available for all who believe in the person and work of Christ (Ro. 10:9-11); and the great mercy of being at peace with God (Romans 5:1).

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. (Romans 12:1)

In his commentary on the book of Romans, Robert Mounce said, “These ‘mercies’ provide not only the basis, but also the incentive for all moral effort on the part of the Christian.” So, we are to consider ourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ. Sin should not have dominion over us (Romans 6:1-14). We are to walk according to the Spirit; not according to the flesh (Romans 8:4).

Greek philosophy often devalued the body. According to John Murray, “The ethical ideal was to be free from the body and its influences.” But this belief runs counter to a Biblical understanding of the importance of our physical nature. The degeneration of the body is the consequence of sin (cf. Genesis 2:17; 3:19; Romans 5:12), but the consummation of redemption anticipates the resurrection of the body (cf. Romans 8:23; 1 Corinthians 15:54-56). So, the renewal of our physical being is an integral part of the redemptive work of Christ. What was Paul trying to say here in Romans 12:1?

In First Corinthians (1 Corinthians 9:24-27), Paul urged Christians to discipline their bodies by self-control in all things. Here in Romans, he said we are to consider ourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ. Sin should not have dominion over us (Romans 6:1-14). We are to walk according to the Spirit; not according to the flesh (Romans 8:4). Therefore, we are to present ourselves “to God as instruments of righteousness” (Romans 6:13); or as he said in Romans 12:1, as a living sacrifice.

Paul uses ritual sacrifice here, common in both Jewish and Roman culture, as a conceptual metaphor to introduce how the Christian should live out their faith in Christ. An offering in Old Testament, Jewish ritual or Roman cultic practice was killed; its blood was shed. Paul turns the usual understanding on its head by saying that believers are called to a living sacrifice of their bodies.

Similar to our own time, in Roman culture there was a tendency to minimize or justify certain physical appetites as ‘normal.’ Coupled with the tendency to diminish the importance of the physical body, there was a real danger that some within the Roman church would seek to live a sinful lifestyle because they were under grace (Rom. 6:15ff). Paul was aware that if sanctification did not include the physical aspect of our being, it would be impossible to achieve. So here in chapter 12, he calls for the alignment and renewal of bodily appetites according to the will of God, and declares it to be an act of spiritual worship.

This living sacrifice is clearly voluntary, and suggests that free will has a role to play in sanctification. Surrendering our bodies as living sacrifices is a decision and we could choose to not do. As Robert Mounce noted, “Holiness of life rarely progresses apart from deliberative acts of the will. While sanctification is gradual in the sense that it continues throughout life, each advance depends upon a decision of the will.”

Living Sacrifice in the Third Step

Paul’s appeal to present our lives as living sacrifices to God in Romans 12:1 has a clear recovery parallel within the Third Step of Alcoholics Anonymous, which reads: “Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.” Here we see the same dynamic of a call or decision to turn over the living sacrifice of our will and lives to the care of God, albeit to God as we understood Him. This god is not necessarily the God of Scripture, but the language of surrender in Step Three has an echo of familiarity to the Christian. In an essay he wrote on the Third Step, Bill Wilson said, “It is when we try to make our will conform with God’s that we begin to use it rightly.” If Bill had been referring to the God of Scripture, his comment could have been appropriately applied to the Biblical call to surrender in Romans 12:1.

Using the metaphor of a closed and locked door which opens only to the key of ‘willingness,’ Wilson said that looking through it, we see an inscription beside a pathway which reads: “This is the way to a faith that works.” Faith of some kind, even if it was only in A.A. itself, was possible to anyone. “But faith alone can avail nothing. We can have faith, yet keep God out of our lives.” Wilson added that the effectiveness of the whole A.A. program rested upon “how well and earnestly” the alcoholic worked the Third Step. Even the smallest beginning of willingness was enough. Once the key of willingness was placed in the lock and the door was even slightly open, “we find that we can always open it some more.” Self-will may slam it shut, but “it will always respond the moment we again pick up the key of willingness.”

The program of Narcotics Anonymous believes “Recovery begins with surrender.” It’s Third Step Prayer says, “Take my will and my life. Guide me in my recovery. Show me how to live.” The relief of letting go and letting God helps an addict to develop a life worth living. This surrender gets easier with daily practice. “When we honestly try, it works.” But there is a caution that recognizes this is a living sacrifice: “Although we know that ‘turning it over’ works, we may still take our will and life back.”

Bill Wilson observed that simply by joining A.A., the person had made a beginning on Step Three. “Already a willingness has been achieved to cast out one’s own will and one’s own ideas about the alcohol problem in favor of those suggested by A.A.” But suppose that instinct of self-determination attempts to limit the surrender only to things involving alcohol?

“How persistently we claim the right to decide all by ourselves just what we shall think and just how we shall act.” We are confident that intelligence and willpower can control our inner lives and give us success. This philosophy of playing God sounds good, but it has to meet the acid test: “how well does it actually work?” The alcoholic learned through experience that self-sufficiency did not pay off. “Each of us had his own near-fatal encounter with the juggernaut of self-will, and has suffered enough under its weight to be willing to look for something better.” Circumstances drove them to A.A. where they admitted defeat, acquired the rudiments of faith and are now faced with the decision to turn their will and life over to a Higher Power.

As the Third Step says, we make a decision to turn our will and life over to the care of God; we become a living sacrifice. Sanctification must include our body. Our sacrifice encompasses our whole being: body and soul. For the addict or alcoholic, this alignment and renewal of their bodily appetites with the will of God includes abstinence from all mind altering and mood changing drugs. They must make this surrender.

In his daily devotional, Oswald Chambers said surrender is not the surrender of the external life, but of the will. He said one of a few great crises in life is the surrender of our will to God, who neither crushes it into submission nor pleads with us to surrender it. He waits until we yield our will to Him. According to Chambers, “That battle never needs to be re-fought.” (My Utmost for His Highest, September 13th).

If you’re interested, more articles from this series can be found under the link for “The Romans Road of Recovery.” “A Common Spiritual Path” (01) and “The Romans Road of Recovery” (02) will introduce this series of articles. If you began by reading one that came from the middle or the end of the series, try reading them before reading others. Follow the numerical listing of the articles (i.e., 01, 02, or 1st, 2nd, etc.), if you want to read them in the order they were originally intended. This article is the 14th in the series. Enjoy.