© Wendy Anne Clark, 2024

I remember a diagram we used to use with those surrendering to Jesus. It was a picture of a throne. “Who’s on the throne of your life?” we’d ask. The diagram, though useful in its way, barely scratches the surface of a deep and important part of the Christian life–surrender. 

A.W. Tozer writes, “In every Christian heart there is a cross and a throne, and the Christian is on the throne ‘till he puts himself on the cross . . . “

We can draw the diagram and ask the question, ”Who’s on the throne of your life?” but it will take more than a few minutes to grasp the fulness of what the means or of what it means to truly surrender and let Christ rule. It will take some effort for us to understand how allowing Christ to sit on the throne of our lives will require that we take our own desires to the cross to die.

How do I take myself to the cross and die to myself so that I might live for Jesus? The short answer is “through confession and repentance,” but it will take much more time, thought, reflection, experience, and diving into Scripture to grasp the concept of confession and repentance and to move to the place of surrender.

While there may be some things that we quickly recognize as sin and confess and repent of, and come to surrender quickly, more often that surrender takes time. It occurs as a long process of self-reflection and examination, of acknowledgement and understanding, of confession–agreeing with God about our sin, and choosing to turn away from it–repentance. And sometimes we will find ourselves cycling back around again before we reach the place of complete surrender. Perseverance is required.

When we are surrounded by others, even others who call themselves Christians, who accept sin as “normal” or “natural,” which is often the case, the walk to the cross will be much slower, much more encumbered. We may have to drag ourselves to that cross, and we might not get a lot of support on the journey. We may not be celebrated by others when we finally get where we needed to be all along.

Sometimes we see and acknowledge parts of our sin and not the whole. Sometimes the Holy Spirit’s work is like surgery. It requires discovery of the problem, recognition that a drastic move is needed, surrender to the process, and then healing and recovery from the changes and maybe even loss that come with surrender.

The process of dying to self is not easy, and can be painful and even scary. Pulling self off the throne and yielding the seat to God is not a simple task. What the diagram of the throne fails to show us is that we often hang onto that throne with everything we have, and convincing ourselves to align with what God says is good and right and true might be the hardest part.

Through His physical death on the cross, Jesus shows us what dying to self in the spiritual realm will look like; we get a glimpse of it–and it is tortuous and bloody, messy and painful. Why do we expect that taking ourselves to the cross and allowing Jesus to rule over us will be comfortable or easy or without opposition? Are we paying attention? Have we noticed that so many give up and give in so easily, living a natural life, rather than a supernatural one?

The Apostle Paul writes to the Galatian church, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20, ESV).

It is no longer I who live.

Of this A.W. Tozer writes, “It will require a determined heart and more than a little courage to wrench ourselves loose from the grip of our times and return to biblical ways, but it can be done.”

It can be done.

But it will require . . . determination and perseverance and seeking the truth, and honest self examination and confession and repentance and . . . surrender. 

(Tozer, A. W., From the Grave: A 40-day Lent Devotional, Moody Publishers, 2017.)

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