For example, in the Desert Storm War of several years back the Iraqi nation made a conditional surrender to the UN forces that were lead by the United States. Conditional surrender meant that in exchange for stopping the war, the Iraqis would agree to certain terms; to repay damages, to withdraw their troops, to give back prisoners of war, so on and so forth. They were not able to win the war, but in order to save lives in continued fighting, they agreed to surrender with conditions from their victors.
An example of this, on September the second, 1945, the country of Japan signed an unconditional treaty of surrender with the United States, thereby ending World War II. Japan was utterly defeated with no hope of military progress after the United States dropped two atomic bombs, one on Hiroshima, one on Nagasaki, on these cities, and of course killing hundreds of thousands of people because of that, because of those bombs.
The Surrender Call 720p
Terrible devastation. Now unlike the Iraqis, the Japanese had no bargaining or threatening power after the United States unleashed the power of atomic weapons against them. Their only recourse was to give up or to surrender without conditions, without special clauses, without delay, or risk losing their nation altogether.
Now for a people like the Japanese who believed that they were descended from the gods and that their destiny was to rule the world, this was the greatest humiliation and shock of their history. As a matter of fact, part of the terms set only by the Americans, the Japanese had no say, it was after all an unconditional surrender, so part of the terms was that they had to change part of their religious teaching which promoted the idea of their world sovereignty and they also had to change their flag which promoted this idea. They went from a sun centered in the flag with rays emanating from it suggesting their dominance over the world to simply a sun on a white background.
Our unconditional surrender to God is very much like the wartime unconditional surrender of the Japanese. We have been at war with God through disobedience and ignorance, lack of faith, no response to His gospel, no service to the kingdom. Paul the apostle writes,
So the Law is God's tool, if you wish, to demonstrate that we are sinners, that we are lost, and what the consequences are for that. So through the law, God reveals to sinful man that he's a sinner and that because of this, he will die physically and then will suffer eternally in Hell because of it.
Very serious business. After all, this is a war. This is God's atom bomb, if you wish, that brings us, hopefully, to unconditional surrender. You see, we cannot win the war. We cannot change the results of the law.
If we go on resisting the gospel, we will die and we will be destroyed forever. Now the surrender that we offer to God is unconditional, and as such, all the terms are set by the winner. In our case with God, these are the terms of His unconditional surrender agreement with us as explained by Jesus Christ.
Belief and baptism are the ways that a person express their unconditional surrender to God. We call this conversion. For example, belief in this process. Belief in Jesus is not simply the acknowledgement that He is the divine Son of God, although that's part of it. Many scholars talk about this and they say that they believe this. However, belief in Jesus implies everything that comes before it. That you recognize that you are a sinner condemned by the law. That you are ready and have repented of your sins and don't want to war against God any more. That you have faith in Jesus to save you and accept Him as your Lord. When one confesses their faith with the words "I believe that Jesus is the Son of God," they are saying all of these other things, as well.
The other expression of our surrender is baptism. Baptism is not simply immersion in water. Many unseen but very real things happen at that very moment of baptism. It is a burial with Jesus into his death (Romans 6:3). It is the putting on of Jesus as the Lord of righteousness in (Galatians 3:27). It is a washing away of all the guilt for our sins (Acts 2:38). It is the point where we enter into the church (Acts 2:47). And we receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38).
When we are baptized, we physically demonstrate for the first time our unconditional surrender to Jesus Christ, our new Lord and eternal Savior. So the first term in our unconditional surrender to God is that we believe in the One that He sent to save us and respond to Him in faith and baptism, excuse me, faith, repentance, and baptism.
For several years after the war, for example, American troops and officials occupied Japan to supervise compliance to the surrender and also help rebuild that nation. The U.S. policy was that it was better to train a new and friendly ally than maintain an old enemy. The Japanese knew, however, that any attempt to violate the agreement would result in swift retribution. Our unconditional surrender to God also has a second stage that follows initial surrender in the waters of baptism. That second stage is called discipleship. In Luke 14, Jesus explains the requirements of discipleship that follows conversion. In this passage, the Lord outlines three requirements of discipleship.
It's a question of exclusiveness when it comes to Christ. Nothing, not even family, not even your own life can take His position in your life. And anything that does, anyone that tries is hateful because it is trying, knowingly or not, to destroy your eternal soul. Note that He says that this is not an optional clause. If you can't be exclusive about Christ and putting Him above all else, then you can't be His disciple. Why is that? Because you won't last. And more importantly, He won't let you be His disciple. He will not accept you on those conditions. Remember, it's unconditional surrender. He accepts you on His conditions, not your conditions.
Again, why? Well, all disciples are cross bearers. I mean, some want to follow without the cross so that they can have the name without the pain, and that just doesn't happen. Cross bearing is one of the terms of surrender.
If you don't want to carry a cross, then you're refusing the terms of unconditional surrender and putting in one of your conditions. Your condition is, "Oh, I want to be a disciple, "but I don't want to carry a cross." That's your condition. If you want to be His disciple, you have to go with His conditions, and one of His conditions is that we carry a cross.
The Japanese had to let go of their old ideas and their old goals as part of their surrender. Jesus warns those who plan to come to Him that unconditional surrender will mean giving up everything they have and starting all over again.
The point here is that you must be prepared to relinquish control of all you own and put it into God's hands as part of your unconditional surrender. You see, disciples may possess many things and manage vast holdings, but they realize that they no longer own anything. Everything they have comes from God and is used to glorify and serve Him. And so in this losing war against God, we can only survive through an unconditional surrender which requires conversion and discipleship.
These are not easy things because they require a total and unconditional surrender of ourselves and all we love, and all we do, and all we have, and all we think. However, along with the terms of this unconditional surrender, come the blessings for those who comply.
He doesn't exactly ask a question, you notice here? He kind of makes a comment. You know, I'm just sayin'. It's one of those I'm just sayin'. And what he's saying is we've left everything, we've done that, we don't own anything. We're following You. We're willing to carry the cross and blah, blah, blah. What's the question hidden in there? Well the question hidden in there is: What's in it for me? I've done all of this. What's in it for me? What do I get out of all of this? And Jesus summarizes the blessings of a full surrender in His answer to Peter and the other apostles who were within earshot. Here's the first reward:
Actually, for many, it has meant quite the opposite. Our faith costs us our wealth and our friends, and for some costs us our families. And therein lies the relationship between unconditional surrender and this earthly reward that the Lord is talking about. Surrender brings you to another level of spiritual experience which is 100 times or 100% superior to the experience of life that you were having before you surrendered to God. That's the point. Not quantity, it's quality.
We see complete surrender as a sacrifice. We see it many times as the end of our pleasure or the point where our lives end, if you wish. But Jesus says to His disciples that surrendering to Him is really a door, it's the entranceway to a life and an experience that is 100 times fuller and richer than anything we've ever known before.
I mean, I know in my own life, my own family, our family and of course my aunts, uncles, parents, you know all of that, they're gone now, but when they were alive, you know, my conversion stood as kind of an invisible wall between us. We spoke. They didn't call us bad names or anything like that but it was forever a division in our lives. We never go back to the way we were in the past. So in a sense, both my wife and I lost our families over it.
And yet, the family that we now have in Christ, 100 times fuller in the sense that the relationship is richer and deeper and hopeful. And the Bible confirms this truth over and over with the stories of men and women who surrendered and discovered while here on this earth an experience they would not trade anything for, not even in front of threats of suffering and death.
Moses and the prophets, Mary and Paul, and others who found a life 100 times worth living once they gave up their other one in becoming disciples of Jesus Christ. This is the major symbolic point of baptism. Along with your sins, you also bury your house, your family, your wealth, your life in the waters of baptism, and this new surrendered person arises ready for the new life, that 100% improved experience of Christian living. 2ff7e9595c
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