The blessedness of surrender by the power of the Almighty

“Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you.” (John 15:16).

No one can of themselves surrender. The blessedness of surrender and  liberty can come only by a work that preceded it. That work is a specific science and that science is specified in the Bible, the whole counsel of God. We must go to the Bible to understand the divine examples of surrender and incomprehensible healing and peace. Otherwise, to disdain the counsel of God, without heeding His warning us away from idolatrous food and habits of life, and without living in self-denial, is to find it illusive to have surrender and peace with God. Jesus must strongly rule over us instead of the Satan’s rulership before we can be justified by God and victorious over the devil.

“Unto the woman [the Lord God] said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.” (Gen. 3:16).

If we want God’s gifts of surrender and peace we must invest in it. We have a part to play in His blessed surrender. And then when the conditions are right and the time arrives for God to give it, we must receive it. We can still, at that point, turn it down.

But, we are the weaker vessels compared to God. We, in our rebellious, belligerent state, need a lot of His help us give Him love and honor. We need to be converted; our lives need a desperate change like women who are desperately trapped in the delivery of a child.

After Eve and all her daughters have submitted to love and honor their husbands; after their husbands have worked together with them in the women’s natural desire to please and be accepted by their spouses, then the women have prepared themselves for that biggest test of surrender—childbirth. In the pangs of delivering a child, which simulate the pangs of death, each woman learns surrender of her will because the situation of bringing a child into the world inescapably demands surrender. Either be subject to the simulated pangs of death, and strive to give birth; or die under the true pangs of death.

No one prefers to die than to surrender and live. Thus women have the high privilege of learning the most precious lesson of life. And they have a strong incentive to surrender many more times to that overmastering pain—they will hold the blessed child of their dreams. A blessed baby through blessed surrender.

Jesus, too, for the love that He had for us and the strong desire for our redemption, passed through a mother’s pangs of death, not simulated death but literal. Yet His was not only a literal death, but a literal eternal death. Passing through infinite death the Son of God was “made an high priest for ever.” (Heb. 6:20). He must be made qualified by His Father. Thus having passed through the second death for our second birth, as the infinite “Mother of all living” (Gen. 3:20) He was qualified to raise up a redeemed race that would satisfy His Father. The Father must qualify His only begotten Help-meet to raise us up in His image. Our redemption was ultimately the Father’s doing, and the Son’s response was to be infinitely humbled into the dust for our eternal sake.

In the Father’s making for Himself a satisfactory High Priest, Jesus found no glory for Himself. It was a most egregious experience that He suffered, rather than a self-exalting one. But, it has resulted in our surrender to the whole will of God. Through His surrender under the almighty condemnation of God, we can surrender under similar almighty condemnation.

“So also Christ glorified not Himself to be made an High Priest; but He that said unto Him, Thou art My Son, to day have I begotten Thee.

As He saith also in another place, Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.

Who in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from death, and was heard in that He feared;

Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered;

And being made perfect, He became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him;

Called of God an High Priest after the order of Melchisedec.” (Heb. 5:5-10).

The responsibilities of High Priest brought no self-exalted glory to Christ. All the glory was the Father’s. God gloried in His Son’s infinite surrender to shame and rejection. The Son’s infinite abasement, accepted and treasured, pleased the Father beyond measure, as the perfect example for all of Their children. Therefore, by His faultless sacrifice, He could present Him a faultless High Priest between man and God.

“And it is yet far more evident: for that after the similitude of Melchisedec there ariseth another Priest, who is made [a High Priest], not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life.” (Heb. 7:15,16).

“He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.” (Heb. 7:25). His endless ministry for our upbringing into permanent perfection creates the fountain of His Spirit upon all who have accepted God’s election for grace. Their children see the overwhelming spiritual trauma by which God assisted His only Begotten, their Mother of all living, to give in to the eternal plan of salvation by the Son’s self-sacrifice. The supernal love of Christ was obedience to the Father’s Law, and the ultimate self-sacrifice was the eternal loss of His Father’s acceptance. It took three attempts to surrender to eternally losing His Father and two failures of it for Jesus to finally accept the eternal plan to forever lose His Father and His infinite excellence. But the juggernaut justice of God against rebellion and debilitating, defiling sin, which chastised Christ’s peace, helped Him surrender the third time.

Like mothers caught in childbirth and learning surrender to it, the Son of God found Himself caught in infinite justice upon sin and sinners. This meant that the Son must surrender to the Almighty’s juggernaut justice, suffering infinite damnation from His Father and an apparent eternal separation from His beloved God of Law. Or, the Son must be left literally eternally put away and cut off by failing in the Father’s plan of saving Their most precious race. Jesus surrendered to the assistance that came from His Father’s juggernaut power that so strongly ruled over Him. For His sake His Father brought all power to bear against Him. And the Son ultimately gave in to the agonies of damnation for our child-birth and our child-rearing that would so infinitely please the Father. “Being made perfect, [Jesus] became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him.” (Heb. 5:9).

Oh, the unspeakable greatness of that exchange, — the Sinless One is condemned, and he who is guilty goes free; the Blessing bears the curse, and the cursed is brought into blessing; the Life dies, and the dead live; the Glory is whelmed in darkness, and he who knew nothing but confusion of face is clothed with glory. ― D’Aubigne, London ed., b. 12, ch. 2. The Great Controversy, p. 212.

Will we look at Their day and be convinced of our hard-heartedness? Will we also accept the Father’s chastisement of our peace and submit to our Mother’s example of submission to His Father’s overwhelming chastisement? Will we also surrender to the juggernaut will of God and know “the glorious liberty of the children of God.” (Rom. 8:21)? Will His “Law of liberty” (Jas. 1:25; 2:12) result in His Spirit of liberty? Will we also surrender to God’s will by the help of His almighty juggernaut of terrible anxiety through Christ’s burnt-to-ash, immaculate will?

“Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” (2Cor. 3:17,18).

“Under the influence of the Spirit of God, man is left free to choose whom he will serve. In the change that takes place when the soul surrenders to Christ, there is the highest sense of freedom. The expulsion of sin is the act of the soul itself. True, we have no power to free ourselves from Satan’s control; but when we desire to be set free from sin, and in our great need cry out for a power out of and above ourselves, the powers of the soul are imbued with the divine energy of the Holy Spirit, and they obey the dictates of the will in fulfilling the will of God.

     The only condition upon which the freedom of man is possible is that of becoming one with Christ. ‘The truth shall make you free;’ and Christ is the truth. Sin can triumph only by enfeebling the mind, and destroying the liberty of the soul. Subjection to God is restoration to one’s self,--to the true glory and dignity of man. The divine law, to which we are brought into subjection, is ‘the law of liberty.’ James 2:12.” Desire of Ages, p. 466.

“Humble [surrender] yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.” (1Pet. 5:6).

“Submit [surrender] yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.… Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up.” (Jas. 4:7,9,10).

Thus as we “draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to [us].” (Jas. 4:8). Admitting that we are sinners as Christ accepted our infinite blame, while we “cleanse [our] hands”, we “purify [our] hearts]”, and we cease to be “double minded” (Jas. 4:8) toward God’s inviolable justice and Christ’s merciful kindness.

By the power of the Most High God over-shadowing her Mary received surrender even before suffering child-birth. She surrendered to that terrible holiness, and in the fear of God found power to accept the long lifetime of humiliation associated with apparent illegitimacy. “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.” (Luke 1:38). “For God my Saviour, I will become pregnant with the Messiah before marriage and live my whole life under the condemnation of society? Bring it on!” Her self-will was swallowed up in God’s will. By the mighty power of God He inspired her to surrender to His will, and His powerful Spirit qualified her with the needed spirit to cooperate with Him in raising up His Holy Child in love and cheerful happiness.

“The infant will also be affected by the condition of the mother’s mind. If she is unhappy, easily agitated, irritable, giving vent to outbursts of passion, the nourishment the infant receives from its mother will be inflamed, often producing colic, spasms, and in some instances causing convulsions and fits.  

     The character also of the child is more or less affected by the nature of the nourishment received from the mother. How important then that the mother, while nursing her infant, should preserve a happy state of mind, having the perfect control of her own spirit. By thus doing, the food of the child is not injured, and the calm, self-possessed course the mother pursues in the treatment of her child has very much to do in molding the mind of the infant. If it is nervous and easily agitated, the mother’s careful, unhurried manner will have a soothing and correcting influence, and the health of the infant can be very much improved.

     The more quiet and simple the life of the child, the more favorable it will be to both physical and mental development. At all times the mother should endeavor to be quiet, calm, and self-possessed.” Adventist Home, p. 260, 261.

“Women Should Be Qualified to Become Mothers.-- Women have need of great patience before they are qualified to become mothers. God has ordained that they shall be fitted for this work. The work of the mother becomes infinite through her connection with Christ. It is beyond understanding. Woman’s office is sacred. The presence of Jesus is needed in the home; for the mother’s ministries of love may shape the home into a Bethel. The husband and the wife are to co-operate. What a world we would have if all mothers would consecrate themselves on the altar of God, and would consecrate their offspring to God, both before and after its birth!  

     Importance of Prenatal Influences.--The effect of prenatal influences is by many parents looked upon as a matter of little moment; but heaven does not so regard it. The message sent by an angel of God, and twice given in the most solemn manner, shows it to be deserving of our most careful thought.

     In the words spoken to the Hebrew mother [the wife of Manoah], God speaks to all mothers in every age. ‘Let her beware,’ the angel said; ‘all that I commanded her let her observe.’ The well-being of the child will be affected by the habits of the mother. Her appetites and passions are to be controlled by principle. There is something for her to shun, something for her to work against, if she fulfills God’s purpose for her in giving her a child.

     The world is full of snares for the feet of the young. Multitudes are attracted by a life of selfish and sensual pleasure. They cannot discern the hidden dangers or the fearful ending of the path that seems to them the way of happiness. Through the indulgence of appetite and passion, their energies are wasted, and millions are ruined for this world and for the world to come. Parents should remember that their children must encounter these temptations. Even before the birth of the child, the preparation should begin that will enable it to fight successfully the battle against evil.  

     If before the birth of her child she is self-indulgent, if she is selfish, impatient, and exacting, these traits will be reflected in the disposition of the child. Thus many children have received as a birthright almost unconquerable tendencies to evil.

     But if the mother unswervingly adheres to right principles, if she is temperate and self-denying, if she is kind, gentle, and unselfish, she may give her child these same precious traits of character.” Adventist Home, p. 255, 256.

Mary’s rare, cheerful surrender that God developed in her by His the overwhelming will transmitted humbled surrender and cheerfulness into her egg. The Father’s perfect love of the infinite righteousness combining with Mary’s willing surrender to humiliation, even cheerful surrender, her holy Babe inherited, to give Him the same happy surrender of His earthly forefather, David.

“I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holyday.” (Ps. 42:4).

“He hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD.” (Ps. 40:3).

“A Psalm of David. Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless His holy name.

Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits:

Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;

Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;

Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” (Ps. 103:1-5).

“Praise ye the LORD. Praise God in His sanctuary: praise Him in the firmament of His power.

Praise Him for His mighty acts: praise Him according to His excellent greatness.

Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet: praise Him with the psaltery and harp.

Praise Him with the timbrel and dance: praise Him with stringed instruments and organs.

Praise Him upon the loud cymbals: praise Him upon the high sounding cymbals.

Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD.” (Ps. 150).