TO WHOM YOU SUBMIT
Speaking of Jesus becoming the sacrificial lamb, David writes in Psalm 40:8, "I delight [come] to do your will, O My God...." The Psalm declares that His will reveals the Lovingkindness of God in the midst of evil. It also proclaims Messiah's confidence in God the Father to deliver Him. The same verse is quoted in Hebrews 10:7 and 9. The context of both books reveals what is acceptable to God. It is not sacrifices and burnt offerings that could not cleanse the conscience, but through the obedience of One, the One Who did the will of the Father, we are made acceptable in the Beloved. "By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.... For by one offering He has perfected for ever them that are sanctified." (Heb. 10:10 and 14; please read 1-14.) As Jesus approached the Cross, in the garden where He was betrayed, He prayed: "Father, if You be willing, remove this cup from Me: nevertheless not My will, but Thine, be done. And there appeared an angel unto Him from heaven, strengthening Him." (Luke 22:42-43) The very knowledge that Jesus needed help, strengthens me. As the refrain from an old hymn goes, "He could have called 10,000 angels," but He didn't. He chose to submit to God, as He "committed Himself to Him that judges righteously...." (1 Peter 2:23) He is our example, as we face our choices in life.
Back in the other Garden, the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve submitted themselves to the temptation, rather than to God. If they had submitted themselves to God, they would have resisted the devil, as Jesus did! What happened to Adam and Eve, after they submitted themselves to the devil? They immediately died, and became like their master. They joined the rebellion against God, and became like the serpent who "was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made." (Gen. 3:1) They immediately knew of their shame and covered up their nakedness. Today, we may think of sexuality when we talk of nakedness, and the Bible also addresses physical nakedness; but the spiritual aspect/representation of their nakedness here speaks of the openness and transparency of an honest relationship that has nothing to hide. "For the Word of God is ... a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is [hidden] not manifest in His sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with Whom we have to do." (Heb. 4:12-13) Believing, as I do, that God's Word is true, why do I allow things in my life that ignore this truth? I need to examine myself thoroughly, in the Light of God's Truth, so that I do not allow anything to remain that does not please Him, and when I find things that don't, I need to rely upon His Lovingkindness to lead me to repentance. This is not being critical of myself, but it is critical that I do it. When I agree with darkness and hide things, I submit to it, and become its servant.
"Submission" is yielding to a thing, or being in agreement with it. At times there may not be a choice, and other times when we willfully rebel; yet our God is "slow to anger, and of great kindness...." (Neh. 9:17, Joel 2:13, and Jonah 4:2) Peter, speaking of the last day, and of "scoffers, walking after their own lusts," who "willingly are ignorant" in their rejection of God, says that God is "not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." (2 Pet. 3:3, 5, and 9) Why? Because our God is "slow to anger, and of great/plenteous in mercy." (Psalms 145:8, 103:8) If our God is this kind and merciful toward those who openly rebel against Him, how much more patient is He with those of us who have chosen to obey him? When we fail, and we do, all too often, we allow darkness to rule our lives, until we come to Him Who is in the Light, seeking restoration through the Blood of Jesus Christ His Son to cleanse us from all sin. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9; please read vs. 4-10.) He restores us to the Light when we repent of our submission to the evil darkness.
When we sin, we join the rebellion and put ourselves outside the Presence of God, "...for what fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion has Light with darkness?" (2 Cor. 6:14) When we repent, we are restored to right standing (righteousness) with God, and the darkness we had chosen is driven away by the Light. The Prodigal son is a great example of this. He deceived himself into thinking life on the outside would be better than life at home. After much riotous living, he came to his senses, and realized that even as a servant in his father's household, he would be better off than in his pigsty living. It was not until he repented and returned to his father's house, that he came to see the generosity of his father's love. No matter how much condemnation you may pick up while living in submission to darkness, the lovingkindness of God is greater than your sin. Only with this vision can you face your sin. No amount of atonement or fig-leaf religion can make you right with God; just the Blood of Jesus Christ, to which you must return after you went a-whoring after other gods, can avail. Does that sound harsh? I see it as liberating, as it gives me the only confidence in which I can stand before God.
Are you content with God? If you are, and I can't say that I really am, then the attractions of this life will have no pull on you. If we were content, the enticements of every kind, both physical and spiritual, would lose their magnetism. Being content is like the clay, being in the Potter's hands. Knowing whose hands you are in, is a safe place to be, when you know they are God's hands! What can this world do or be, to someone who is dead to this world? When I chose (and I mean "chose," not "choose") to submit my life to Jesus Christ, I put myself in His hands. Regardless of what we think or what happens around us, our faith rests in His hands. We may think we know what God wants in our lives, but the foolishness of that thinking would lead us away from Him, as we are deceived into thinking we can make ourselves acceptable by our performances. This would only lead to a false boasting, either in our accomplishments or our failures, both of which deny Christ, as we exalt them above Him. We are the clay, He is the Potter!
Contrary to a false teaching, using Isa. 45:11, that we are to "Command thou the works of My hands," the Word of God says the opposite. In context, God, through Isaiah, is chiding His people for their presumptuous ways, saying that "I am the Lord.... I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.... Woe unto him that strives with his Maker!... Shall the clay say to Him that fashions it, What makest thou?..." (Isa. 45:5,7,9) Then in verse 11, in the same context of chiding them, He says, challenging them (Who are you, created thing?) "Ask Me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of My hands command you Me." (Isa. 45:11) Try looking at that as a challenge, rather than an authorization to direct God to do your bidding (as some report).
Paul writes, in the same manner: "...O man, who are you that reply against God? Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed it, Why have you made me thus? Has not the Potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor?" (Rom. 9:20-21) Have you ever found yourself in this position of rebellion? I have, and when I was there I thought I was doing a good thing; yet when I came to my senses and returned unto Him, I saw the deception that I had been bound in. My Deliverer is faithful, and again, worth repeating, "...not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." (2 Pet. 3:9) Even in my disobedience, as I did things that opposed myself and got myself entangled in the snare of the devil, He worked on me to do His will, not giving up on me (because of Who He is). He brought me to the place of "repentance to the acknowledging of the truth." (2 Tim. 2:25) The deceit that disguises itself as truth is a tangled web that binds us even tighter as we struggle with it, rather than cry out to God. In those lies disguised as truth, we resist even the Holy Spirit, Who speaks against our deception, Whom we often rebuke, thinking He is the devil.
The instruction, "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." does not mean we are to rant and rave against the devil; it means to submit ourselves to God! (James 4:7) Return unto the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls! The temptation is to get us to take matters into our own hands, and resist God's work that is taking place in the situation. The enemy of our souls is trying to get us to rule our own lives, and to be as God (the same as in the Garden of Eden). How do we resist this temptation? By submitting ourselves to God, with the full assurance of faith that knows Whose hands we are in, as did Jesus, when He committed Himself to Him Who judges righteously. We are not to be divided in either our allegiance or our faith. Paul writes: "For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ." (2 Cor. 11:2-3)
When our allegiance is divided, that is, when we walk in the Spirit and walk in the flesh, we are committing a form of spiritual adultery. As Israel went a-whoring after other gods, we in like manner separate ourselves from God, and draw near to another; and we defile ourselves with the pollutions that come from these encounters. While enjoying our sins for a season, we carry the shame of our rebellion, and like Adam and Eve, we seek to cover that guilt with something that we think hides us from it. We learn to justify our bad behavior with theology that allows for it, twisting scripture to our own destruction. This keeps us further from the repentance we so desperately need. While bound in this deceit, we develop a hardness against the truth, resisting the very Spirit of God that would convict us of our sin and lead us Home, much like the Prodigal son, who, while eating with the pigs, "came to his senses" and returned unto his father as a humbled man, seeking only that his father would mercifully hire him as a servant. That is true repentance; it does not demand nor justify. Religiously, in our cover-up, we try to atone for our misdeeds by excessive activities and pious actions, fooling only ourselves and others, but not the Lord. Not only did Jesus say that you cannot serve two masters, He said, " ... if ... your eye be single, your whole body shall be full of light. But if your eye be evil, your whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you be darkness, how great is that darkness! No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other." (Matt. 6:22-24) How great is that darkness when you believe a lie to be true? Even when being brought close to the conviction of your sin, you cannot face it; this is why we justify and condemn and hide ourselves in fig leaves of varying kinds.
Oh, the danger we place ourselves in, when we keep ourselves away from God Who is in the Light, Who is the very Light Himself! Only by our exposure, in our nakedness that is transparent for all to see, are we able to be healed from the wounding of sin. The Prodigal son's father longed for the day his son would return. Of Jerusalem it is written, that Jesus, "when He had come near, He beheld the city, and wept over it, Saying, If you had known ... in this your day, the things which belong unto your peace! but now they are hid from your eyes." (Luke 19:41-42) And in another place, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you that kill the prophets, and stone them which are sent unto you, how often would I have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and you would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate." (Matt. 23:37-38) Do you see the goodness and the severity of God? He desires that all men would be saved, yet not all will return unto Him. At what point does He give up on us or let us go on squandering our inheritance? Jerusalem "would not" draw near to Him. And He grieved over their stubborn refusal, after showing them His love. There is a danger in saying "No" once too often. God is merciful, slow to anger, and He goes many extra miles to save those who are lost. The evidence of this truth is that He sent His Son to atone for our sins. "For God, Who commanded the Light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts, to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." (2 Cor. 4:6)
Jesus said, "If you've seen Me, you've seen the Father." What does that mean? To me it means that when you have seen the meekness and gentleness of Christ, His disposition toward us, you have seen the Father's. Jesus represented the Father's view toward His creation. God has revealed Himself at different times, in various ways, caring for His creation. A gardener cares for his garden, like the dresser cared for the fig tree. What happens when the fig tree does not bear fruit? When does he give up on it? When we reject the mercifully patient work God is doing in our lives, we should not be surprised if our outcome is weeping and gnashing of teeth. "God, Who ... spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, ... Who [is] the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person...." (Heb. 1:1-3) Jesus came to reveal the heart of God and warn of the consequences of remaining dead in our sins. His warnings are an expression of His love, not a threat of His wrath. He warns of the wrath, and He has made a way of escape from the wrath, desiring that all men might be saved, or spared from that wrath that comes upon the sinner who remains in his sin. That sin can be removed by the Blood of the lamb; you either receive it or reject it as your covering (atonement). The many forms of fig leaves cannot do it. In the same book of Hebrews we have a warning about this rejection: "See that you refuse not Him that speaks. For if they escaped not who refused Him that spoke on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from Him Who speaks from heaven...." (Heb. 12:25) This refusal or rejection is a choice that brings judgment; choose ye this day whom you will serve.
"Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams." (1 Sam. 15:22) To obey, or to submit to what God requires, and to hearken (give heed) is better than all your efforts of atonement for sin. There is no other way than God's way, regardless of whether we understand it or think it is fair. There is only one way to God, and it is the way God has provided, a way of escape from the condemnation of sin: the Blood of Jesus Christ, that represents the mercy of God. Run to that Mercy-seat! With all this care, and all this provision, there will be many who refuse in one way or another, and we may be surprised at how they arrived at their conclusions. The deceitfulness of sin that leads to unbelief, is a powerful deception that is imposed upon the hearts and minds of men by the god of this world, who blinds them, hiding the gospel of our salvation. (See 2 Cor. 4:3-4.) The message in Malachi concerning God's desire for them to "Return Unto Me," fell on the deaf ears of those who thought they were serving God, and they could not understand why God was rebuking them. Were they to repent of their wrongful ways (which they thought were good, though they had departed out of the way) He would have forgiven them and restored them to the right way. This unbelief is a sin that easily besets us, especially when it disguises itself in religious clothing that causes us to reject the clothing of righteousness that is provided for us. Clothe yourself with Christ, put on Christ, receive the wedding garment, put on the garment of praise. Don't be found wearing anything else, boasting in anything else. All else is rebellion!
"For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He has also rejected you...." (1 Sam. 15:23) Oh, there's so much in this, that we need to understand! Oh, God, please give us understanding, so on That Day we will boast of nothing else but your Son! Key words: rebellion, stubbornness, iniquity and idolatry. I've discussed rebellion and stubbornness quite a bit, but what is idolatry? Simply put, an idol is a false image of God that we make with our hands or our minds. It comes from evil, right there at the beginning, in the garden of Eden. "Iniquity" is evil, a perverse evil. The perpetrator of that evil is a worker of iniquity, who rejects God and replaces Him with an idol of his own fashioning, placing it above God and assuming it is God. In the same way that the Spirit of Antichrist has already come, and is to come, there is a son of perdition, a man of sin who shall be revealed at the time of Christ's return. This man "...opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God." (2 Thes. 2:4) This deception, which I have already stated is going to be physically manifested at the time of Christ's return, already sits there in the spirit, falsely representing God with a gospel that is no gospel at all, leading people to destruction, as they wrongly and stubbornly reject God's provision and substitute another form of righteousness. Jesus calls them workers of iniquity! Their very testimony declares their rejection of Him, as they boast of what they've done. And because they have rejected Him, He also has rejected them.
In Matthew 7, Jesus says this: "Not every one that says unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; but he that does the will of My Father which is in Heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your Name? and in Your Name have cast out devils? and in Your Name done many wonderful works? And then I will profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from Me, you that work iniquity." (Matt. 7:21-23) "Many will say" refers to those who boast in something other than in Him. They deny Christ by relying upon their own accomplishments in Jesus' Name. These workers of iniquity were blinded from the Truth, did not KNOW Him, and were rejected, because their words rejected Him! it is no different from the leaders of Israel who rejected Him as Messiah. Paul, the "chief" of sinners, who also rejected Him, and later came to repentance, writes this: "Brethren, my heart's desire for Israel is, that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believes." (Rom. 10:1-4) This is another example of workers of iniquity, that have rejected the way of God and substituted their own way. They had a zeal for God, but did not receive the knowledge (intimacy) of a relationship with God, so they remained ignorant (unaware) of God's (provision of) righteousness. It does not matter what the form of ignorance, blind followers of blind leaders all fall into the ditch.
Where does this leave us? Who can know the mind of God? When I read the Word, I am sometimes confused about just what His will is. Good-sounding arguments tell me I must do this, or do that, touch not this, etc. What do I do? Where do I stand? Where's my security, my blessed assurance?
I have to do an inventory of all that I believe, and I need to lay it all down at the foot of the Cross. I can't trust my own interpretation of these wonderful scriptures that are able to make me wise concerning salvation, nor can I trust yours. I can't look to man, not even myself; I must repent of my false confidences. Put yourself in that Matthew passage of scripture: what is your testimony? Where do you place your trust? I don't want to be rejected; how can I be accepted? By submitting myself to Him Who judges righteously, falling upon the Rock of my Salvation, crying out to Him, "Jesus, Thou son of David, have mercy on me." (Luke 18:38) Lay aside all your doubts, and reject all the well-meaning religious rebukes that would keep you from Him, like the blind beggar who kept pleading, "Jesus, Thou son of David, have mercy on me." When he finally made it to Jesus, past those who would stop him, his sight was restored: "And Jesus said unto him, Receive your sight: your faith has saved you." ("... made you whole," in Mark 10:52) "And immediately he received his sight, and followed Him, glorifying God...." (Luke 18:42-43; see 35-43)
Cast off everything that entangles you, praise God in wild abandonment for His graciousness. Forget about what the spectators say, when you testify of Jesus Christ as being your only hope. Be merciful to those who treat you wrong, for the mercy you have received is far greater than any you can give. "Father, forgive them that have caused me harm, for they know not what they have done! Forgive me for choosing evil, and for erecting idols and exalting imaginations that have blinded me to the truth." God "made Him to be sin for us, Who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." (2 Cor. 5:21) Jesus "humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also has highly exalted Him, and given Him a Name which is above every name: That at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, ... and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." (Phil. 2:8-11) This bowing and confessing will be a final submission to this truth! It is agreement with it. The good and the evil, the saved and unsaved, will all do this, at last. It is only Jesus, not "Jesus and what I've done in His Name." Just Jesus. His obedience, not mine. " ... by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous." (Rom. 5:19) To the Truth I must submit, trusting God with all things, whether I understand them or not. Lord, please give me Grace.
With much love, Joe (with Mercy)