Have you ever heard it in the church today, to give it all up for God because after all He gave it all up for you?  Or have you ever sang songs like “I surrender all”? Recently, I heard a worship song with the lyrics, “I am going to make it my one endeavor to match His surrender”.  What are we talking about?  How can we even fathom thinking about giving our all to God?  I understand where it’s coming from and I know that people mean well in their intentions. Many believers are trusting in Jesus for their salvation but their focus on works and surrendering all to Jesus can cause more harm to themselves and the body of Christ.  Instead of trying to make it our endeavor to match Christ’s surrender, we need to make it our endeavor to rest in Christ’s surrender.  Big difference.  One view puts the focus on you and you being a daily sacrifice by your efforts and the other puts the focus on Christ and all He’s done for you and His efforts. One of the reasons many falsely believe we need to pay God back with our lives or preach that we should sacrifice our lives through our works and give our all to Him, is found in Romans 12:1-2, NASB. It says, “Therefore I urge you, brethren by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.  And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is , that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”  These verses typically are used to encourage believers that in view of God’s mercies, everything Paul has talked about, the good news of the gospel and His amazing grace, being saved by faith and not by the law and so forth, we are now to go out and respond by getting to work for God. Since you believe the good news about your salvation, now let’s get busy and give Him all you got even if it means to sacrifice your whole life to the mission of God.  After all, since you really are saved this is what you will be doing they will say.  Some will say, it is to prove we are really Christians and some will even go so far as to scare you into thinking you lost your salvation if you don’t continually present yourself as a sacrifice for Jesus through your works.  It is also sometimes preached that renewing your mind is to get you to do more stuff for God.  It’s reading and studying the Bible more, memorizing verses, fasting food, keeping your church attendance up, signing up for a bunch of church ministries, going on that mission trip Haiti.  We are told as well, that not being conformed to the pattern of this world is about not doing naughty things.  Let’s avoid those worldly things you might enjoy, like dancing, listening to secular music, or watching too much Netflix or ungodly movies. Lets sacrifice it all for the heavenly rewards of doing more work for Jesus.  Now hear me out, I am not saying that we should go out and sin it up, nor am I suggesting that the more we view God’s mercy that it won’t compel us to have hearts that want to serve God and others. I’m also not suggesting God doesn’t want us to do do good works at all.  But what I am saying is that this passage is not encouraging the believer to go out and get busy for God, in fact it is rather a call to believe the gospel and just rest in your new identity.  It is a call for those that have believed the gospel, to see themselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus and to do it daily.  Presenting ourselves before God as a living sacrifice is simply to come to an agreement or confess that Jesus is Lord and Savior and that you can do nothing to get right with God. You can bring nothing of value of yourself to the altar for God.  All we do is lay dead on the altar of the cross and recognize our new life in Him.  See now that your holiness, and being pleasing to God and finding your acceptance is not from your sacrifice to Him but from the blood of Jesus and His sacrifice for us.  Paul is giving us a picture of one who believes the gospel, showing us that we are gifts to God the Father, holy and pleasing to God not because we gave up our all to Him, but simply because we are resting on the altar of the cross.  We know that we can do nothing to be pleasing and holy and acceptable to Him it is only through Christ’s blood that sanctifies us.  When Jesus was on earth he blasted the Pharisees for boasting in their gifts they were bringing to be sacrificed on the altar.  In Matthew 23:19, he says, “For which is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift?”  They were boasting in their gifts, their works, Jesus was reminding them the altar was what sanctified their gift not in the gift itself.  In other words, it’s the blood of the spotless animal on the altar that made the gift acceptable to God.  It was the aroma of the fattened part of the flesh of the animal that made it an acceptable fragrance to the nostrils of the Lord.  In the same way, Paul is painting a picture of us being the gift on the altar sanctified by His blood.  In view of everything the gospel does for us, believe who you are in the finished work of Christ.  Lay down on the altar of the cross, it is His blood that makes you holy, it is His broken flesh that is the sweet aroma that makes Him like you!  It has nothing to do with your works and you giving it your all for Him. It has everything to do with Him giving His all for you and you just resting in the gospel truth that when He died, you died, and when He rose to new life, so did you.  Galatians 2:20, “For I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me and the life I now live I live by faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.”  This is all Paul is saying.  He is saying that in view of the mercies of God, believe the gospel and see yourself as holy and acceptable in the finished work of Christ.  Then he tells us to not be conformed to the pattern of this world but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. This is a call for the believer to renew ones mind in the gospel truths of the great exchange.  Your old nature died and your new life in Christ arose and all because of the finished work of Christ.  You are a living sacrifice because you just responded in believing it is true.  The pattern of this world that we are not to conform to, is a reference to how one is generally accepted by this world.  The world says, you are never enough, not beautiful enough, not successful enough, do this and we will accept you, act a certain way and if you are not performing to our standards then we are going to reject you.  The religious world says the same thing.  For God to love you more, you got to do more, give it your all, surrender everything, do those daily disciplines to stay in God’s fellowship.  Work harder, try harder, fly straight, prove it by your works that you are really saved or haven’t lost your salvation.  All this does is tamper down the gospel and bring you into bondage.  Instead, we need to renew our minds in the freeing truth that we are unconditionally loved and already complete in Christ.   The simplicity of the gospel, is just believing and receiving, religion is do more to become, maybe He will love you.  When we daily remember that our righteousness is His righteousness and we can do nothing, but rest in His love, then His life which is ours will manifest more and more in our lives!  Then we will be able to prove the will of God.  What is the will of God?  To show others in particular, Christians that they too are completely loved.  In the context here in Romans we read all throughout this chapter, it is to love and serve others in the body of Christ.  It is to take the truths of God loving us so much because of His finished works and letting His life manifest in us to serve and build up the body of Christ!  It is a way of reminding one another, who have believed in Jesus, that we are all living sacrifices because of what He has done!  It is allowing God to prove again and again how much we are truly loved and accepted by God!  But in order to do that, in order to serve and love one another we must renew our minds in the finished work of Christ’s love for us.  We must believe that we are first loved and accepted, that we are righteous and good with God and renew our minds in this truth over and over until naturally we will find ourselves doing the will of God and loving others. 

So, the next time you hear the term give it your all for God because He gave His all for you, or make it your endeavor to match his surrender, don’t try to waste your efforts doing that, you will only burn yourself out on the treadmill of religious performance.  Instead, do what Paul says, and lay down on the altar of the cross, renew your mind in the truth that He gave it all for you, killed your old man and deposited all of Him in you instead.  All you have to do is strive to rest in the finished work of Christ and let His life flow out of you as you bask in His love.  Real living is not trying to surrender it all for Jesus, but simply resting in the gospel truths that He surrendered it all for you.