One of the upside-down or right-side-up realities of Christianity is that complete and total surrender to Jesus, and His purpose and plan is always more effective than my personal attempts at control and command.
Surrender isn’t apathy or passivity. It’s more than just throwing up our hands and quitting or giving in. It’s the realizing and admitting the truth that there is a God, and it’s not me. His purposes, plans, and ways are always better than mine.
Furthermore, surrender isn’t a one-time event. It’s not something we do once to get it over with. It’s something that we will find ourselves doing again and again and again throughout the course of our lives.
Jesus said it this way:
“If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me,
you will find it.” —Matthew 10:39 NLT
The Word Come Alive paraphrase renders the last portion of that verse, “…if you give up the right to control your own life and put me first, you will know true life.”
In Matthew 16:24, Jesus was very direct.
“Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead.
You’re not in the driver’s seat; I am.” —Matthew 16:24 MSG
Once again, the Word Come Alive paraphrase emphasizes the importance of being willing to give up our attempts at control and command.
“You must give up the right to control your own life and deliberately choose to remain committed to me.” —Matthew 16:24 WCA [1]
Finally, John 12:24 contains a graphic description of what surrender will often involve.
“Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” —John 12:24 NIV
That hurts. It’s painful.
Sometimes, surrender involves a kind of “dying” to our own desires, dreams, preferences, wants, lusts, and way of living. But according to Jesus, it’s only this willing surrender, submission, and “dying” that brings with it the possibility of resurrection, harvest, multiplication, and a new and better life than we ever dreamt possible.
The Lizard of Lust
In his book The Great Divorce, C.S. Lewis paints a memorable picture of an individual who had settled for substitutes—doing life his way, on his terms—over the life God offered.
In this spiritual allegory, Lewis and his teacher or mentor are watching another story unfold before them. It’s the story of a man who has attempted to call his own shots in the pursuit of personal pleasure, only to become controlled, ruled, and manipulated by lust.
Lust is pictured as a lizard sitting on the man's shoulder. It so dominates the man's life that he's no longer a man at all; he has become a ghost—a shell of man. He has become the walking dead.
But in this allegory, the man receives the same invitation God offers to all of us. It’s an invitation to life—to REAL LIFE.
An Invitation to Real Life
This life is pictured with incredible mountains and staggering beauty. It's the land of this man’s dreams. Unfortunately, this ghost or shell of a man understands that he can’t experience the promise of the life offered while holding onto the lust that has so overwhelmed his life.
Stressed and shaken by personal shame, the man starts to walk out on God’s invitation. He can't imagine life without the cheap and inferior substitute that has so consumed and dictated his life.
The lizard of lust is still sitting on the man’s shoulder, whispering deceit and lies in his ears. When, all of a sudden, this ghost-of-a-man and his “personal demon” are confronted by the relentless grace of God. The man is met by an angel.
Here’s a lengthy section from Lewis’s masterpiece.
The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis
“Off so soon?” said a voice [the angel].
The speaker was more or less human in shape but larger than a man, and so bright that I could hardly look at him. His presence smote on my eyes and on my body too (for there was heat coming from him as well as light) like the morning sun at the beginning of a tyrannous summer day.
“Yes. I’m off,” said the Ghost. “Thanks for all your hospitality. But it’s no good, you see. I told this little chap,” (here he indicated the lizard), “that he’d have to be quiet if he came – which he insisted on doing. Of course his stuff won’t do here: I realize that. But he won’t stop. I shall just have to go home.”
“Would you like me to make him quiet?” said the flaming Spirit – an angel, as I now understood.
“Of course I would,” said the Ghost.
“Then I will kill him,” said the Angel, taking a step forward.
“Oh – ah – look out! You’re burning me. Keep away,” said the Ghost, retreating.
“Don’t you want him killed?”
“Don’t you want him killed?”
“You didn’t say anything about killing him at first. I hardly meant to bother you with anything so drastic as that.”
“It’s the only way,” said the Angel, whose burning hands were now very close to the lizard. “Shall I kill it?”
“Well, that’s a further question. I’m quite open to consider it, but it’s a new point, isn’t it? I mean, for the moment I was only thinking about silencing it because up here – well, it’s so damned embarrassing.”
“May I kill it?”
“May I kill it?”
“Well, there is time to discuss that later.”
“There is no time. May I kill it?”
“Please, I never meant to be such a nuisance. Please – really – don’t bother. Look! It’s gone to sleep of its own accord. I’m sure it’ll be all right now. Thanks ever so much.”
“May I kill it?”
“May I kill it?”
“Honestly, I don’t think there’s the slightest necessity for that. I’m sure I shall be able to keep it in order now. I think the gradual process would be far better than killing it.”
“The gradual process is of no use at all.”
“Don’t you think so? Well, I’ll think over what you’ve said very carefully. I honestly will. In fact I’d let you kill it now, but as a matter of fact I’m not feeling frightfully well today. It would be silly to do it now. I’d need to be in good health for the operation. Some other day, perhaps.”
“There is no other day. All days are present now.”
“There is no other day. All days are present now.”
“Get back! You’re burning me. How can I tell you to kill it? You’d kill me if you did.”
“It is not so.”
“Why, you’re hurting me now.”
“I never said it wouldn’t hurt you, I said it wouldn’t kill you.”
“I never said it wouldn’t hurt you, I said it wouldn’t kill you.”
“Oh, I know. You think I’m a coward. But it isn’t that. Really it isn’t. I say! Let me run back by tonight’s bus and get an opinion from my own doctor. I’ll come again the first moment I can.”
“This moment contains all moments.”
“Why are you torturing me? You are jeering at me. How can I let you tear me to pieces? If you wanted to help me, why didn’t you kill the damned thing without asking me – before I knew? It would be all over by now if you had.”
“Do I have your permission?”
“I cannot kill it against your will. It is impossible. Have I your permission?”
The Angel’s hands were almost closed on the Lizard, but not quite. Then the Lizard began chattering to the Ghost so loud that even I could hear what it was saying.
“Be careful,” it said. “He can do what he says. He can kill me. One fatal word from you and he will! Then you’ll be without me forever and ever. It’s not natural. How could you live? You’d only be a sort of ghost, not a real man as you are now. He doesn’t understand. It may be natural for him, but it isn’t for us. Yes, yes. I know there are no real pleasures now, only dreams. But aren’t they better than nothing? And I’ll be so good. I admit I’ve sometimes gone too far in the past, but I promise I won’t do it again. I’ll give you nothing but really nice dreams – all sweet and fresh and almost innocent…”
Do I have your permission?
“Have I your permission?” said the Angel to the Ghost.
“I know it will kill me.”
“It won’t. But supposing it did?”
“You’re right. It would be better to be dead than to live with this creature.”
“Then I may?”
“Get It Over With!”
“Damn and blast you! Go on, can’t you? Get it over. Do what you like,” bellowed the Ghost: but ended, whimpering, “God help me. God help me.”
Next moment the Ghost gave a scream of agony such as I never heard on Earth. The Burning One closed his crimson grip on the reptile: twisted it, while it bit and writhed, and then flung it, broken backed, on the turf.
“Ow! That’s done for me,” gasped the Ghost, reeling backwards.
Becoming REAL Again
For a moment I could make out nothing distinctly. Then I saw, between me and the nearest bush, unmistakably solid but growing every moment solider, the upper arm and the shoulder of a man. Then, brighter and still stronger, the legs and hands. The neck and golden head materialized while I watched, and if my attention had not wavered I should have seen the actual completing of a man — an immense man, naked, not much smaller than the Angel.
A Great Stallion
What distracted me was the fact that at the same moment something seemed to be happening to the Lizard. At first I thought the operation had failed. So far from dying, the creature was still struggling and even growing bigger as it struggled. And as it grew it changed. Its hinder parts grew rounder. The tail, still flickering, became a tail of hair that flickered between huge and glossy buttocks. Suddenly I started back, rubbing my eyes. What stood before me was the greatest stallion I have ever seen, silvery white but with mane and tail of gold. It was smooth and shining, rippled with swells of flesh and muscle, whinneying and stamping with its hoofs. At each stamp the land shook and the trees dindled [trembled].
The Transformation of Lust into Holy Desire
In Lewis’s short story, the “ghost” doesn’t die. He becomes a man. A real man — a man of immense strength, goodness, and glory. Incredibly, the lizard, which at first appears to die, doesn’t die either. But is transformed into a magnificent horse or stallion. The man jumps on the stallion, and they ride with energy, joy, beauty, strength, and power into the mountains.
This scene is packed with the transformational truth that lust, when submitted and surrendered to Christ, can be transformed into pure and holy desire that can bring glory and honor to God.
Death Always Precedes Resurrection
At the end of this section, the man watching this entire scene unfold looks to his teacher or mentor and asks: “Am I right in thinking that the lizard really turned into a horse?“
His teacher responds, “Aye [yes]. But it was killed first. Ye’ll not forget that part of the story?”
“I'll try not to, Sir. But does it mean that everything—everything—that is in us can go on to the Mountains?“
What a question.
The Hope of Transformation
The teacher responds with one of the most life-altering truths ever. He says:
“Nothing, not even the best and noblest, can go on as it now is. Nothing, not even what is lowest and most bestial [fallen], will not be raised again if it submits to death. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. Flesh and blood cannot come to the Mountains. Not because they are too rank, but because they are too weak. What is a lizard compared with a stallion? Lust is a poor, weak, whimpering, whispering thing compared with that richness and energy of desire which will arrive when lust has been killed…” (C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce, pgs 106-112, Kindle Edition)
This is the beauty and power of SURRENDER.
What gets SURRENDERED to God can be radically and redemptively TRANSFORMED.
What do you need to SURRENDER to HIM today?
To learn more about surrendering to God’s purpose and plan, check out the ISOW course “The Book of Nehemiah,” in which Evangelist Jay Boyd describes Nehemiah’s complete surrender to God’s purpose and how God was able to use him as truly extraordinary leader.
To view courses in Spanish, click here.
[1] Martin Manser, ed., Word Come Alive (Martin Manser, 2016–2021), Mt 16:24.