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Mystery #3: Submission

     Perhaps no other word offends the modern ear more than the idea of submission. It seems like one of those long-abandoned notions—like indentured servitude or leeching—that was left in the dustbin of history for good reason. 

     Submission offends us because it presents a direct challenge to our philosophy of self-importance.  Yet if you’ve yielded to surrender and finally seen the importance of Scripture in your life, then submission is the next critical step.

     Submission to God is a key principle in the Bible, and it is made most evident in two areas: community compliance to church authority and personal obedience to Scripture. Today, those concepts are all but lost. In cities across America, Christians change church attendance and membership with such frequency that the term “church hopper” is now in our lexicon.  And vast numbers of Christians have moved so far away from obedience to Scripture that they pick and choose doctrine to suit their own whims. This plague is so ubiquitous now in American Christianity that “cafeteria Christian” could describe a significant part of our community.

     But what if we decided to honor God by submitting ourselves to church authority and obedience to Scripture? What if we looked at our local church not through the lens of “how does it serve me,” but rather “how can I serve it”? What if we leaned into the Bible verses that challenge and offend us and through prayer, asked God to help us to understand and obey them? 

     Impossible, you say?

     If we did, we’d be modeling ourselves after the Master. Jesus understood what we have forgotten: that we need submission in our lives to achieve God’s desire to restore humanity—and He calls us to follow His example. But ironically, total submission actually leads to more liberty, not less. John Newton, the reformed slaver and lyricist of “Amazing Grace,” once penned the following verse. It explains the mystery of submission at work:

     To see the Law by Christ fulfilled

     And hear His pardoning voice,

     Transforms the slave into a child

     And duty into choice.

     Could it be that the shackles of addiction and sin are actually loosened by submission?

There’s only one way to know for sure.

PRAYER: Lord, my unwillingness to submit myself to Your Scripture and to Your Church is what I lay at your feet today. We may have pulled out the weed, but the buried roots of unrepentance remain. Help me to discover the freedom that comes with submission to Your Word and Your bride, the Church. I pray for your Holy Spirit to guide me as I step out in faith. Your will, not mine. Amen.