(The Surrender of Self and the Confidence of Divine Life)
June 16th brings the believer into two inseparable realities: friendship with Christ requires the continual surrender of self-directed living, and that surrendered life is sustained by the assurance of the divine life God has given through the Son.
Friendship with Christ Requires the Surrender of Self
Chambers writes:
“If I am a friend of Jesus, I must deliberately and carefully lay down my life for Him.” (My Utmost for His Highest)
Chambers is not primarily speaking about a single heroic act.
He is speaking about a continual disposition.
To lay down one’s life is to relinquish the claim of self-government.
The life naturally seeks its own way.
Its own priorities.
Its own preservation.
Its own understanding.
Yet friendship with Christ cannot exist alongside an insistence upon independent rule.
The Son himself lived in continual responsiveness to the Father.
Therefore, friendship with Christ involves participation in that same disposition.
This laying down of life occurs repeatedly.
Sometimes through obedience.
Sometimes through surrender of personal ambition.
Sometimes through relinquishing the right to direct one’s own course.
The issue is not loss for its own sake.
The issue is government.
Who governs the life?
The believer increasingly discovers that laying down the self is not the destruction of life, but the removal of what hinders the manifestation of the life of the Son.
The Confidence of Eternal Life
Spurgeon writes:
“Remember, it is sinful to doubt His word wherein He has promised that thou shalt never perish. Let the eternal life within thee express itself in confident rejoicing.” (Morning and Evening)
Spurgeon directs attention to assurance.
The believer who continually looks inward for certainty will find many reasons for hesitation. Weakness, inconsistency, and personal failure can easily become the focus.
But assurance rests elsewhere.
It rests upon the faithfulness of God.
The Father’s promise is greater than the believer’s fluctuating emotions.
The life given through the Son is not sustained by human confidence but by divine faithfulness.
Therefore rejoicing is not presumption.
It is agreement with what God has declared.
The believer is not called to manufacture confidence.
He is called to trust the Father’s testimony concerning the life he has provided through the Son.
This confidence becomes one of the expressions of sonship.
The life rejoices because it rests in what God has made known.
Where the Two Meet: Surrender Produces Confidence
These truths meet in a beautiful way.
At first glance, laying down one’s life and rejoicing confidently may appear unrelated.
Yet they are deeply connected.
The more the believer relinquishes self-government, the more the life becomes established in God’s government.
And where God’s government is embraced, assurance grows.
Self-rule produces uncertainty because the self is unstable.
Communion produces confidence because God is faithful.
One truth calls for surrender.
The other reveals the confidence that grows from that surrender.
The believer discovers that the loss of self-directed living is not deprivation.
It is the doorway into deeper assurance and greater freedom.
Pastoral Orientation
June 16th calls for surrender and confidence.
Do not cling to the right to direct your own life. Lay it before Christ.
Do not build your assurance upon your changing experience. Rest in the faithfulness of God’s promise.
As you continue walking “after the spirit,” you will find that the life becomes freer as self-government diminishes, and that confidence grows as the Father’s faithfulness becomes the foundation of your assurance.
Lay down your life. Rejoice in the life you have received.
And you will discover a life that is no longer governed by self-preservation, but by communion with the Father, manifesting the life of the Son, and resting confidently in the certainty of God’s faithful promise.