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Building up believers and the New Testament church

Submission - A Place of Grace

To many people, submission is a word of bondage. It signifies lack of freedom, suppression, loss, and fear. It is something to be questioned at every turn, and if one ever submits, it is with many qualifications and reservations.

This can be traced back to the original source of sin. In effect, Satan said, "I will no longer be in submission to God. I will come out from His authority and be my own authority. I will be my own god." The result was that Satan lost the riches that were his at that time, and he was cast from the presence of God, with eternal hell as the final end. This is the same spirit that characterizes this present world, for Satan is truly "the god of this world." If we want to be lifted back into the presence of God and enjoy the riches of His love, we must turn from the spirit of this world and again know the sweetness of submission.

Submission, when seen in its rightful place and working in our lives, allows us to partake of the grace of God. In reality, there is no other way that we can be lifted up. Consider 1 Peter 5:5-7, "...God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble." In God, the way up is always down. "Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you."

Many of us do not realize that we have been affected by the philosophy of this world, which says, "Put yourself forward. Be somebody. Be an individual. Don't allow anybody to tell you what to do. Don't do anything until you are good and ready and you have decided to do it with no outside pressure." These and many other similar statements are heard all the time. In effect, they are all the same. They deify man and seek to make an individual sufficient in himself. They leave a man separate from God and separate from every other person. The end is loneliness, fear, arrogance, insensitivity to the needs of others, hardness, and every other unlovely characteristic. God is the only source of good, and if we are separate from God, we are evil in every sense of the word.