Every Christian’s journey from the very beginning is characterized by submission. In the words of the great hymn, Rock of Ages, we find this truth epitomized in the cherished lyrics, ‘Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to Thy cross I cling.’
This statement demonstrates true humility and trust in the Lord, especially when we’re at the end of our rope. David exemplified this humility and trust in the Lord in the Psalms at various times while on the run from Saul and his men. As an example, in Psalm 63 David showed faithful confidence in the Lord as he proclaimed his desire to seek God and acknowledged a complete yearning for Him. Once again, the words spoken by David in this Psalm as with others were during a period in his life when his safety was constantly being threatened, thus leaving him to continuously search for places of refuge.
As indicated by the lyrics from Rock of Ages and the words of David, submission comes with an acknowledgement of our reliance on God. In fact, we rely on God solely through the means that He has made Himself known. Without these means, He remains a complete mystery. Adverse consequences come when we foolishly, by our own arrogance and human philosophy try to discover God without relying on His revelation and humbly submitting to Him. We find a good example of this is in the eleventh chapter of Genesis in the Tower of Babel account. There God saw people craftily attempting to reach the heavens by their own means to gain a name for themselves. In response, God thwarted their efforts leaving them in utter confusion and in the end dispersed throughout the earth. Later in the Gospel accounts, Jesus addressed the consequences of this type of arrogance in Matthew 23:12 by declaring, “For those who exalt themselves will be humbled.”
As a religion that sets itself apart from others by holding divine revelation as the ultimate authority, Christianity also requires its adherents to submit to that revelation. For example, in the First Commandment, God says, “You are to have no other Gods before me.” Just prior to making this statement, the Lord said, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” In those words, God is speaking of His redemptive nature and His omnipotence. Jesus picks up on this and how we’re to obey God by saying in Matthew 22:37, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” With this said, we’re clearly to approach God in total submission.
Worth noting in Jesus’s words is His emphasis on loving God with all our mind. From a human standpoint this makes complete sense. Imagine a man who meets his wife for the first time. They get to know one another, they get closer as time goes on, eventually they’re engaged, and finally the wedding day comes. This is just the start of a couple’s journey. If this couple is like most, after 40 years they’re still getting to know one another. This is how our relationship with God is. He longs for us to know Him, even in a rightfully jealous way. In fact, knowing God is one of man’s chief ends. This knowledge is so important that it is linked to our eternal salvation. Remember what Jesus said in John 17:3, “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” Jesus goes on to connect our growth in the knowledge of God through His revealed word in John 17:17, “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is the truth.” Thus, once again, we see our need to submit to divine revelation.
The church’s submission to God’s revelation, as documented in the Holy Scriptures has been an issue over the centuries. In fact, this was forefront during the 16th century at the time of the Protestant Reformation. Prior to this, during the Dark Ages, decisions by popes and councils made decrees that set the standard for the church and what it was to stand by. However, a German Augustinian monk named Martin Luther after many years in the monastery, noticed much corruption in the church. He addressed and condemned the corrupt sale of indulgences, which the church at that time was leading people to believe impacted their eternal standing with God along with their relatives’. Also, Luther rediscovered key truths in the first chapter of Romans that led to his salvation. In verses 16-17 he read, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith.” Further, another key verse in Romans was 3:28, “For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.” With rediscoveries like these, Luther came to stress the doctrine of justification by faith alone in his writings and this principle became the key teaching of the Protestant Reformers. In fact, it is the essence of the one true gospel that had been surpassed throughout the Middle Ages, a suppression due in part to the prevailing belief that people needed to depend on various sacramental means ministered by the church to be made right with God. This belief prevailed despite what was revealed in 1 Timothy 2:5, “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”
Martin Luther’s discoveries and teachings did not bode well with the church councils and popes. At a council called the Diet of Worms in 1521, Luther was called to recant his writings. After long consideration, Luther insisted that he could not recant his teachings. He declared that unless he could be proven wrong by sacred Scripture and sound reason, he could not recant because his conscience was tied to the word of God revealed and documented in Scripture. It was this claim that our own consciences should be tied to the word of God that led the Protestant Reformers to coin the phrase, “Sola Scriptura” meaning Scripture alone is the ultimate source of authority for teachings on faith, and practice, and nothing taught by any church leader should supersede it. In fact, in their time the Protestant Reformers made a concerted effort to insist that the church submit to the final authority of Scripture alone.
How does this apply now? The Apostle John tells us to test the spirits in 1 John 4:1, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.” The Apostle Paul in 1 Timothy 6:3 also warns against false teachers when he cautions against those who teach a foreign doctrine that conflicts with the teachings of our Lord Jesus. Put another way, we must distinguish truth from error. Therefore, it’s necessary to submit to the teachings of Scripture and allow them to transform us daily. Doing so is especially important because we are being miss led now just as they were in the times of the early church. Not only should we equip ourselves to ward off lies that persist in the world but also those that come into the church. With respect to our pulpits, we must insist that our pastors submit to the Bible and the best way for them to do that is by preaching through the text as opposed to speaking on hot topics merely to satisfy those with itching ears in the pew.
In closing, I remind us of 2 Timothy 3:16 which confirms and substantiates Scripture, revealing its divine origin and telling of its reliability and its usefulness: “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.”
In His Image 