Do we surrender?

King Leonidas: “Spartans! Prepare for glory!”

Daxos: “Glory? Have you gone mad? There is no glory to be had now! Only retreat, or surrender or death!”

A quote from the movie, ‘300’.

Glory! We as Christians have a Glory to grab a hold of. Paul says, “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.”

The Spartans believed that surrender was not an option; death was a better end for them. This concept was brought up to me lately. Many of us talk, believe and strive to surrender to Papa every day. The thought that was brought before me was that it doesn’t actually say to surrender, but that the New Testament clearly states to die.

I found this very interesting. I looked into it and, yes there is only one use of the Hebrew word ‘surrender’. It is found in Timothy and was used in reference to the leaders at the time.
The above concept was followed up by the meanings of the words. “They are different.”, was said to me. I went ahead a looked them up:

To die – a verb

1. To cease to live; undergo the complete and permanent cessation of all vital functions; become dead.

To surrender – a verb

1. To yield (something) to the possession or power of another …
2. To give up, abandon, or relinquish (comfort, hope, etc.)
3. To give oneself up, as into the power of another; submit or yield.

Yes, they are different words. I am wondering though, if everything that Papa tries to teach us is actually spelled out? I know that we would like it to be, but is it really? I’d like to go through the above definitions. The One who ceased to live, was Jesus. The One who set the plan in motion, was Papa.

“Going a little farther, He fell with His face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” Matt 26:39

“He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may Your will be done.” Matt 26:41 – 43

In the above scriptures, Jesus embodies the definition of to die and the third definition of surrender. He gave up Himself, as into the power of Another. He submitted and yielded His own feelings of pain and fear to fulfill “this very reason (He) came to this hour. (He yielded to The Father’s plan, to) … glorify Your name!” John 12: 27

The thing that Jesus had to surrender was His fleshly attitudes! He was fully God and was fully man. Just as we wrestle with fear, pain, anger, jealously … He did as well. In Romans, we read about “our old self (being) crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin…”

Many of the scriptures that I found on dying all talked about Jesus doing the dying. That through His death, we die also. That the dying that we can do is only accomplished through His death first. We can’t die on our own … it was His death that frees us. My point is spoken of in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

I found one instruction that is given by Jesus, Himself to us all, “Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.” Matt 16:24. I looked up the word deny in the original Greek. Deny – aparneomai – (1) to deny (a) to affirm that one has no acquaintance or connection with someone (b) to forget one’s self, lose sight of one’s self and one’s own interests. This definition, 100% lines up with the definitions of surrender. We are giving up, abandoning and relinquishing any acquaintance or connection with our old self … our flesh. We forget our self, yielding to the power of Another. Therefore, we live!

A friend of mine said recently, “The surrender is when we stop fighting Him and stop trying to protect and validate our flesh. We know that Jesus "knocks" on the door of our hearts. It is always an invitation.” That reminded me of a metaphor that was also shared with me in the original conversation. When men are in a battle, whose orders do they follow? They follow their General. And when do the men surrender? When the men do not want to die.

The above was shared to prove that we don’t surrender as Christians but we in fact die. But what if the battle is against God? Wait! Stay with me. What if the battle field is our lives and the General is our flesh. If we listen what will happen to us?