How Do I “Give My Life to God”?
00:00:00.000 | [Music]
00:00:04.000 | Well, some of the very best questions we get in the inbox are really short and pointed
00:00:09.000 | questions like this one from Elizabeth in Tempe, Arizona.
00:00:13.000 | "Pastor John, what does it mean to 'give your life to God'? I hear that phrase all the time.
00:00:19.000 | But what are some biblical categories that you would use to explain this phrase?"
00:00:24.000 | I can't say for sure what others mean when they say that they have given their lives to God
00:00:33.000 | or want to give their lives to God, but I can tell you what I mean by it
00:00:39.000 | and then show you from Scripture why I believe this is a biblical way of talking
00:00:47.000 | and what the Bible intends for this kind of language to mean and the experience to be like.
00:00:54.000 | So that's what I'm going to do.
00:00:56.000 | If I say to God in prayer, "Oh Lord, I give myself to you," what I mean is this.
00:01:08.000 | I am saying yes, a very earnest, heartfelt yes to God's purchase of me by the death of his Son
00:01:20.000 | so that I belong to him. He purchased me so that I belong to him,
00:01:25.000 | not only by virtue of his paying a price for me, but also by virtue of my willing surrender to him.
00:01:33.000 | So that's what I'm doing when I say, "I give myself to you."
00:01:37.000 | I'm saying, "I'm no longer my owner, my master, my shepherd.
00:01:43.000 | You are my owner, master, shepherd, Father, my treasure, my wisdom, my hope,
00:01:49.000 | my source of fullest and lasting pleasure.
00:01:53.000 | I renounce finding all of that in me, and I look for it now in you because I am utterly yours."
00:02:03.000 | And the key thing here is, did God give his Son to purchase me for himself?
00:02:12.000 | If he did, then the words, "I give myself to God," mean, "I gladly agree with that."
00:02:23.000 | I am happy, happy, happy about that. That's what we mean.
00:02:29.000 | I want this to be true for me. I want to accept and live in the reality of that purchase.
00:02:38.000 | I want to renounce all claims upon my own life.
00:02:42.000 | I want to surrender completely to his protection and provision and leading and satisfying
00:02:49.000 | and that final embrace I desperately will need when I die.
00:02:54.000 | That's what I want. That's what I mean when I say, "I give myself to him."
00:02:59.000 | Now, here's the biblical foundation for that way of thinking.
00:03:03.000 | First, there's the great event of divine purchase, 1 Corinthians 6.19.
00:03:09.000 | "Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?
00:03:17.000 | You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body."
00:03:27.000 | Now, that's a fact. God did that. God has purchased a people for himself.
00:03:34.000 | They are not their own. They belong to God.
00:03:37.000 | That is, they exist to glorify and enjoy God forever.
00:03:43.000 | Their sins are forgiven. Their guilt is taken away. Their rebellion is overcome.
00:03:48.000 | And what they say is, "I'm happy about that. I agree with that.
00:03:55.000 | I give myself freely and joyfully to the one who has purchased me."
00:04:01.000 | So you're just bringing yourself into alignment with what God has already achieved for his people
00:04:08.000 | when you say, "I'm yours."
00:04:10.000 | And he said, "You bet you're mine. I bought you."
00:04:13.000 | One way of expressing it is found in Romans where Paul says, for example, in chapter 12, verse 1,
00:04:21.000 | "I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice,
00:04:30.000 | wholly acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship."
00:04:34.000 | "I give myself to God" means, "I do this. I do," Romans 12.1.
00:04:39.000 | "I receive the mercies. I present my body as a living sacrifice. I mean it as an act of worship.
00:04:46.000 | I long for God to completely possess me, rule me, satisfy me, use me for his purposes."
00:04:52.000 | And then if you go back to chapter 6 of Romans, he says it this way,
00:04:56.000 | "Do not present your members"—your arms and legs and tongue and so on—
00:05:01.000 | "Do not present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness,
00:05:06.000 | but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from the dead to life,
00:05:12.000 | and your members to God as instruments of righteousness."
00:05:16.000 | So when we read that and want to obey it, we say, "I present to you, O God, myself, my members,
00:05:25.000 | my arms, my legs, my hands, my eyes, my tongue, so that you may possess them as your own
00:05:31.000 | and accomplish your good and holy purposes through the use of my self, my body, my soul,
00:05:39.000 | as instruments of righteousness. I give myself to you."
00:05:45.000 | And there's a beautiful story in 2 Corinthians about how the Macedonians did this.
00:05:52.000 | It says, "They were begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints.
00:06:01.000 | And this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to God, to the Lord,
00:06:10.000 | and then by the will of God to us."
00:06:13.000 | So Paul was simply blown away by the beauty of this obedience of these young Christians.
00:06:21.000 | They gave themselves to the Lord, then in the confidence that they belonged to God,
00:06:27.000 | they gave themselves to Paul and to his purposes of mercy for the poor down in Jerusalem.
00:06:33.000 | And then we have a great example of Jesus calling out with a loud voice.
00:06:39.000 | Jesus said on the cross, "Father, into your hands, into your hands, I commit my spirit."
00:06:47.000 | Having said this, he breathed his last. So, "Into your hands I commit my spirit" is another way of saying,
00:06:53.000 | "I give myself to you. I'm dying, and if I am to live again, it will be because you possess me,
00:07:02.000 | hold me, keep me, preserve me. I give myself to you for that care."
00:07:07.000 | And it's no surprise then when the early Christians described their own suffering and their own death that way.
00:07:16.000 | 1 Peter 4:19, "Let those who suffer according to God's will and trust their souls to a faithful creator while doing good."
00:07:27.000 | Entrusting your soul to a faithful creator means, "I give myself to you. I give myself to you, God.
00:07:34.000 | You're faithful. You're powerful. You're my creator. I belong to you. You made me. Take care of me now. I'm dying."
00:07:42.000 | So, I think the key for Elizabeth when she asks about this, and the key for all of us,
00:07:47.000 | is that we settle it in our minds and in our hearts whether we believe we have been purchased by God through Christ or not.
00:07:55.000 | Do we believe that? And that we are therefore not our own, that we are utterly dependent on God for our life,
00:08:02.000 | our choices, our provision, our protection, our satisfaction, our meaning, our hope of eternal joy.
00:08:10.000 | If in fact God has purchased us for this, then the words, "I give myself to you, O God," mean, "Yes, yes, yes, yes to your purchase of me.
00:08:23.000 | Yes to your purchase of me. I am thrilled to be utterly yours, bought with the price of your Son in this way.
00:08:32.000 | I renounce therefore all self-reliance, all self-exaltation, and I give myself utterly to you for your use forever."
00:08:41.000 | Amen. So much biblical truth behind such a simple phrase. Thank you, Pastor John.
00:08:46.000 | And thanks for the simple but profound question, Elizabeth. So good.
00:08:51.000 | This is my chance to let you know that we do this three times a week, and you can stay on top of the episodes as we release them by subscribing to our audio feeds.
00:09:00.000 | And of course, we have now over 1,050 episodes released to date, and you can search through all of them.
00:09:07.000 | And you can send us your own question. You can do all of that through our online home at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.
00:09:15.000 | Well, many of us have friends or relatives who are enduring constant physical suffering and with no immediate hope of relief in sight.
00:09:25.000 | So how can we encourage them with truth and not give up in our quest to serve them over the long haul as they endure these sufferings?
00:09:33.000 | That's the question on the table for Friday. Until then, I'm your host, Tony Reinke. Thanks for listening to the podcast. We'll see you then.
00:09:40.000 | [no audio]