I have a tendency to get hung up on the meaning of words…and when I do, the use of the words skew my perspective. For example…coming from a pastor’s home, I have always struggled with “churchy” words like justification and atonement. I know it sounds silly…but I have some kind of weird gene that does that to me…goofy, right !?
Well, the other day, I was sitting in bed thinking about how I have to surrender my life to Christ everyday. I actually started doing a prayer journal about a year ago that I write in twice a day. In the morning I list/pray about things that I must “turn over” and at night I list/pray about the things I am thankful for.
So…as I was journaling, I was praying that I surrender myself….my will…my need for control…etc, etc, etc…and be willing to 100% participate in God’s plan. That got me headed down a path about the word “surrender”. I then started to question myself and my motives. Was I surrendering…submitting…or subrogating…or possibly all 3. HMMM…now I’ve gone and done it…another set of words to twist my mind with and mess with my perceptions.
Here are my perceptions…
1. Subrogate is a passive act (this is my definition…not Websters). I love contract law…and when I see terms regarding subrogation, I think of a passive release of responsibility or authority. Contractual subrogation technically arises out of a contract (such as an insurance policy or mortgage agreement) that provides in a clause or two that if payments need to be made then the payor will have a claim (or a lien on the claim) against the responsible party. This is basically a “if you don’t do X…then you give up your rights to another party”. Again, to me this is a passive act. In fact, it is merely a transfer of responsibility.
2. Surrender, on the other hand, is active. Dictionary.com defines it as: to give oneself up, as into the power of another; submit or yield. That is active…you give yourself. Whether you are a soldier who surrenders after battle or you surrender your own agenda to that of someone else.
That has really got me thinking about my daily walk with Christ. Am I merely subrogating my will…meaning that I passively release it because I did not do something else…which feels a lot like “works” theology. Or am I actively surrendering my life, my will, my need for control…to Christ…as an act of worship to one that is greater than me…one that deserves such surrender.
I choose to surrender…how about you?
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Darrel
Defining words is a great way to express a subject. When I teach I usually begin with defining the word/s. The challenge is it often takes the meaning of several words to convey a complete thought. For instance..Because of sin we all die but my right/mandate to die has been subrogated to Jesus Christ that I could have life eternal. I still have the choice to die the mortal death and that’s it, or I can surrender to self and give my life to Christ and have eternal life. Now let’s complicate it a little more and also add the word “obedience”. Motive again will be part of the equation. “Christ was obedient unto death”, not because He had to be, but because He loved us and to Him we were worth the price.
May 30th, 2010 at 12:06 pm
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May 31st, 2010 at 9:28 am
Steve Cruze
Having given this consideration I would stay with ‘subrogate’ and see it as being anything but passive. I understand the term differently under the contract law context. If I give up or subrogate a portion of my overall responsibility I’ve simply named a second creditor. With regard to the journey of faith,… we could describe subrogation as well as surrender as an obligation to choose. I (we) maintain the overall responsibility for the outcome in one life only,…including my choice to subrogate something of value in the first place.
This has enormous application in the spiritual life where we are choosing daily to what or to whom we are investing our ‘present future’. We cannot ‘not’ choose because the enemy does NOT have to play fair. This is what is so special about the Word of God not simply being ‘knowledge’ like the type we get in a history book or a dictionary. We must (and do) ‘act’ in ways that reveal our true belief about the future.
This is the point in the conversation where theologians remind us that there is no neutral ground. The failure to choose – is in fact one of only two choices. Seems a bit unfair,..and in fact it is. It is to balance this un-fairness that Christ became one of us!
In the context of christian community in this life or the wonderful promise of the life to come one will never be able to separate ‘faith’ and ‘works’ because frankly; if our faith ceases to work in the manner intended by God’s Purpose for our lives as individuals and as the ‘body of Christ’, we don’t have much future,…certainly not a rosey or satisfying one.
June 7th, 2010 at 12:53 pm