Perhaps you have heard the exhortation to “surrender to God.” Perhaps you have prayed during an emotional or needy time in your life, “Lord, I surrender to you!” This is a wonderful prayer and desire, but what exactly does it mean?

I think we get the idea that surrender to God is the act of changing our behavior. Doing the wrong thing has gotten us in trouble, so we have learned our lesson and we are ready to do the will of God. I believe this is an incomplete idea of surrender at best. We have all known people who have surrendered to God until they were blue in the face, but they never changed. Consequently, because they can’t seem to become a “good person,” they live in a state of condemnation.

Yet, is this what God wants from us most of all—good behavior? Is the will of God summed up in the exhortation “Do the right thing”?

If we think so, perhaps we should look at the apostle Paul for our example.

Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. For me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you it is safe. Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation! For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh,  though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so: circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee;  concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.

But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith….

What was the nature of Paul’s surrender to God? It was not going from a bad person to a good person. It was the loss of his own good for the good of Christ. It was losing himself as the measure of where he was with God and what he had with God and finding Christ as the measure of these things.

This is the heart of surrender to God. It is looking away from self and seeing Jesus. It is moving from isolation to union with Christ. This is real repentance. If we only view repentance as a change of behavior, we miss the point. Repentance is about relationship with God. Like the story of the prodigal son, repentance is coming home to our Father who can’t wait to embrace us.