Therefore Submit to God!

Therefore Submit to God!

James exhorted us to do this, adding: “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” Jas. 4:7. These two positions—submitting to God and resisting the devil—are closely connected. It is when I have submitted to God, having voluntarily chosen to subject myself to Him, that I receive the power to resist the devil so that he flees from me. James continues to exhort us to draw near to God, so that He will draw near to us. He then adds: “Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” Being wholehearted for God is a condition for God to draw near to us.

The anointed cherub, as described in Ezekiel 28, was not content to be submitted to God. Even though he was highly honored by God—he was the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty, placed on the holy mountain of God together with the other fiery stones—yet he was not satisfied with his position. He wanted to become greater, and he exalted himself in his heart. He let pride against God enter his heart, the One who had given him this position of honor.

It was he who was in the Garden of Eden in the form of a serpent, and tempted Eve to unbelief and doubt against what God had said, so that she abandoned the harmony that existed in the garden when she was submitted to God and His will. The serpent caused her to see that the tree was pleasant to the eyes, and desirable for gaining knowledge—knowledge outside of God’s will. She ate the fruit and also persuaded Adam to do the same. Sin, which is unbelief and doubt toward God, thus entered into the people that God Himself had created.

This corruption of sin has reigned over humanity ever since the Fall in the Garden of Eden. People have pursued greatness and honor, and since their will was brought forth by the sin in their flesh which entered through the Fall, death reigned over them. Rom. 5:12. They fulfilled the desires of the flesh and the mind, and the devil had power.

But when Jesus came, everything was set in proper order. He was totally submitted to God. Jesus Himself says: “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.” John 5:19. He also says: “I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.” John 5:30. God was in Him through His eternal Spirit, and Jesus was so submitted to God that God could condemn all the sin that had entered through the Fall, which was also in His flesh. Jesus was willing and obedient, and offered Himself through the power of the eternal Spirit that was in Him. In this way, Jesus was also able to put all things under His feet (1 Cor. 15:25-26), and He reigned over sin! Rom. 5:17. He destroyed him who had the power of death, and the fullness of God dwelt bodily in Him.

Now it’s up to us. Now we can voluntarily, with clean hands and hearts purified from all double-mindedness, submit ourselves to God. Our old man—our old way of life in which we committed the manifest works of the flesh—can be crucified and die with Jesus Christ. And we who believe ourselves dead with Him, also believe that we shall live with Him. We reckon ourselves dead to sin in our members, and become more and more alive to the promptings that come through the Spirit, from the One we are submitted to. It is the proud, those who trust in themselves with their own ability as their foundation, that God resists. But the humble receive grace, those who have voluntarily submitted themselves to God, who reigns over all things and has power in heaven and on earth. Praised be God. He gives grace for victory and freedom from all the sin that once entered through the Fall and has plagued mankind generation after generation, so that something new—a completely new life—can grow forth.