How are we to submit to God?

Firstly, the Apostle says, “Submit yourselves therefore to God.” Grace alone will lead to submission. The sense of the grace and goodness of God will give such confidence in God that the soul will gladly give up its own will and submit to God. Instead of seeking to be somebody and something in the world, the Christian will cheerfully accept the circumstances that God orders. The Lord Jesus is the perfect example of One whose confidence in God led Him to submit perfectly to God. In the presence of the most sorrowful circumstances, when rejected by the cities in which He had wrought His miracles of love, He said, “Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in Thy sight” (Matt. 11:26).

Secondly, the Apostle exhorts, “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” Submitting to God and being content with such things as we have will enable us to resist the devil's temptations to exalt ourselves by the things of this world. As in the temptations of our Lord, the devil may tempt us by natural needs, by religious advancement, or by worldly possessions. If, however, his temptations are met by the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, his wiles will be detected and he will not be able to stand against the grace of the Spirit that dwells in us. The Lord has triumphed over Satan and, in His grace, we can so resist the devil that he has to flee.

(V. 8). Thirdly, we are exhorted, “Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you.” The devil resisted has to flee, leaving the soul free to draw nigh to God and to find that He is very nigh to us. If, like the Lord in His perfect path, we set Him always before us, we shall find, even as He did, that He is at our right hand and, with His being near to us, we shall not be moved (Psalm 16:8). Drawing near to God is the expression of the active confidence in Him and dependence upon Him, of a heart moved by grace to find that His throne is a throne of grace.

James again insists on humility; that man's will should be broken, and that he should be subject to God. For obedience, and having no will of one's own, is true humility; and to this the goodness and grace of God invites man. Confidence in God leads the soul to submit itself to Him. This is both a duty and a necessity, but it is done heartily where confidence exists. It is the truth of our relationship with God, and the soul is happy. We do not need to have a will for ourselves; if God who loves us has a will for us in all things, we ought to commit ourselves to Him. What grace that the omnipotent God should be always thinking of us in all the details of our lives!

If we are marked by humility we shall have no difficulty in submitting to God, and as we submit to God we shall be enabled to resist the devil. All too often things work the other way round with us. We start by submitting to the devil, which leads to our developing the pride that marks him, and consequently resisting God; and as a result of that God resists us and a fall becomes inevitable, with its consequent humiliation. If only we were humble we should escape much humiliation.

The order then is clear. First, humility. Then, submission to God, which entails resistance as regards the devil. Third, drawing near to God. No one of course can draw near to God except as happily submitting to Him. Drawing near to Him He will draw near to us. This is the way of His government. If we sow the seed of a diligent seeking of His face, we shall reap a harvest of light and blessing from a realized sense of His nearness to us.

But we shall not have an attitude of humility if we do not take the first step of submitting to God: the will must first be brought into subjection before it will be subject. This positive step of submission is deeply important for every believer. And on the other hand, there is that which should accompany it, the resisting of the devil. For pride is the chief weapon in the devil's armory, and it is from this that envy and strife proceed. We must therefore resist his flattering of our own pride.

In short, if the presence of God is realised in the heart, if the Spirit of God rules there, and the sense of dependence is active in the soul, we shall feel that what the enemy presents to us is not of God, and the will of the new man will not desire it. Satan once detected, the new man resists him, and he has no strength. Jesus has overcome him for us. We learn here that, if we resist him, he will flee; he finds that he has met the Spirit of Christ in us, and he flees. The evil is, that we do not always resist him; we accept his enticements, because the will of God is not everything to us: in many things we still like to please ourselves. If grace is known, obedience and dependence guard us from the wiles of the devil. He has no power against the resistance of faith; he is manifested as Satan, the adversary, as he was when Jesus suffered Himself to be tempted for us, and Satan fled before His resistance. He knows it is the same One whom he meets in us.

Verses 7-10. Do you desire to avoid the danger and the evil consequences of lust? Humble yourselves, submit to God, resist the devil, draw near to God, purify your conduct, feel your state. These things wound the pride of the flesh, but are able to keep us in a true state in the presence of the Lord who Himself will lift us up, and then it will be without danger.

Would you avoid the danger and the evil of lust? Humble yourselves, submit yourselves to God, resist the devil, draw near to God, purify your conduct, feel your state. All these things which wound the pride of the flesh are suited to maintain you in a true state, in the presence of the Lord who will exalt you, when this can be without danger.

(V. 1). The Apostle appeals to believers on the ground of the mercies of God by which they have been so greatly blessed — the mercies that have been unfolded to us in the first eleven chapters. Seeing that we have been so richly blessed it becomes us to present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God. This is our only intelligent service. In pressing the deep need of governing our spirits, and having our affections held in check, we may be in danger of thinking this is all, and that we can be careless as to the way we use our bodies. Here, then, it is our bodies that are to be yielded to God. Our feet to walk in the path of obedience, our hands employed in His service, our tongues to speak as a witness for God. This will involve sacrifice, for the natural inclination is to use the body to carry out the will of the flesh. To restrain the flesh involves the sacrifice of much that nature desires. The body presented to God is not only a sacrifice, but it is a living sacrifice. We may present our money, and our goods, but such gifts, however right in their place, are not "living". With such gifts there may be, at the same time, much self-indulgence of the body. Moreover it is to be presented as a "holy" sacrifice. For God's service there is required not only a living body, but a "holy" body. Only as the body is held in holiness will the sacrifice be acceptable.

The exhortation in Romans 12:1 links itself with the doctrine of chapter 6, though the appeal is based upon the truth developed up to the close of chapter 8. "I beseech you, therefore, brethren," says the apostle, "by the mercies of God." The mercies are those unfolded in redemption, and which have been detailed in this epistle. Reminding us thus of what God is for us in Christ, and what He has done, the apostle, on this ground, beseeches us to present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, our reasonable service. Again, the exhortation, as in chapter 6, concerns our bodies — bodies, it must be remembered, which have been emancipated from bondage to sin, and which, according to the teaching of chapter 8, are now indwelt by the Holy Ghost. This will explain the apostle's meaning. Not now, as with the priests of old, are we to bring a dead sacrifice and lay it on God's altar, but in the power of the Holy Spirit we are to offer up a living sacrifice — a perpetual sacrifice therefore, — one that is ever to be presented to God as long as we are here upon the earth. But how is this, we ask again, to be accomplished? Is it by an act of will? Nay, this is impossible. It is by the application of death — it is, in fact, the truth of Romans 8:10 — "If Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin:" it is Christ controlling our bodies instead of ourselves, as we hope to explain more fully afterward; and this is both a sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, and our reasonable service — the recognition of what is due to God on the ground of redemption. Our bodies, in other words, belong to Him who has redeemed us; but the acceptance of this truth will involve their presentation to God moment by moment, as a living sacrifice; so that He may use them now for His own glory in testimony to His beloved Son.

"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the compassions of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, your reasonable service." (Ver. l.) It is the detailed application of the principle laid down in Romans 6, where we first hear of the Christian reckoning himself dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus, under grace, not under law. From this there is no receding to law now, as the tone of the exhortation itself testifies. But the compassions of God are morally to form the believer within and without. Just as in Romans 10 the apostle had taught the value of confession with the mouth as well as of believing with the heart, so here the brethren are entreated to yield their bodies as a sacrifice to God. Many then as now would have been disposed to have professed an inward devotedness with license for the outward man. The possibility of this self-deception is here precluded, the more strikingly as the exhortation is made not to Jews with their system of external observances, but to Christians who know that without faith it is impossible to please God. Thus is secured the service of the man as a whole; just as the apostle says elsewhere in his desires for the Thessalonian saints, "The God of peace himself sanctify you wholly, and your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." Again, the word "to present," or yield, is so put as to convey the idea of a completed act summed up in its conclusion. It is not mere effort as under law, but a thing done once for all, though of course stamped on the entire christian walk up to the last according to that beginning. The Spirit of God contemplates nothing less for every soul called of God out of this world, reconciled by the death of His Son and to be saved by His life. How could He lower the standard of Christ?

But the mention of "bodies" in God's wisdom associates itself with the thought of a sacrifice so familiar then to every mind even among the Gentiles. Only in Christianity it is an incomparably more intimate and personal question than in Judaism. Animals devoted to death and sacrifice do not suffice or suit, but our own "bodies," and this of course as a living sacrifice contrasted with those of dead beasts, which of themselves left self unjudged and untouched. With the Christian's self-sacrifice God is well pleased. It only is holy now, what was once legally so being in truth proved profane, now that the true light shines; it is acceptable to Him as the expression of giving God His true place, and of man, the believer, taking his. Without this the show of doing good and communicating is vain; with it such sacrifices are indeed well pleasing to God. Further, this is "our intelligent service." Worldly elements are condemned, carnal ordinances passed away, formal worship at an end. God will only be served now intelligently. It is no question of reason judging for itself without the word, but of the Spirit guiding the mind by divine revelation understood growingly.