1. The Core of Submission to Authority
The Core of Submission to authority
Imagine the u NIVerse without order. Our massive galaxy, the Milky Way, would spiral out of control. Our solar system, our sun and all the planets would function chaotically. There would be collisions and, eventually, utter ruin. Instead, as we look into the skies, we observe the perfect functioning of what God has fashioned.
We may have never considered it, but the reason we don’t have a disordered u NIVerse today is because creation submits to the laws God established. If our moon complained, “I’ve been reflecting the sun’s light for a long time. I choose not to submit to that arrangement anymore,” it would, of course, be nothing but a dark spot in the sky.
Our wise Creator also established order and peace for mankind through authority and submission to authority. This principle transcends time and space, for even the Trinity is bound by it. God provided it for us to bring peace and a wholesome life.
In our natural world, the principle of gravity—the force that pulls us toward the center of the earth—provides us with safety and order. You can make choices in cooperation with this u NIVersal law that will enable you to live a long and healthy life. You can also choose to disregard the law of gravity and foolishly walk off of a 10-story building. But as soon as you do, you will quickly end up injured for life—or the guest ofhonor at your own funeral service.
Submission to authority is a thread that runs throughout every aspect of our lives. Look at your body, your hands, legs, eyes—each member must submit to the other parts of your body. When that order is violated on a cellular level, you have cancer—self-destruction.
If you go to the airport and try to get through security without submitting yourself and your baggage to the authorities, you’ll end up in prison. Try to board a train without following the protocol of producing a ticket, and see what happens. The nation in which you live has established laws, and you have to obey them.
If there were no laws, no governments, no police, no submission to authorities of any kind, what would our world be like? To whatever extent you have chosen to obey and submit, it has helped you to still be alive today. Likewise, whatever tragedies have befallen the human race, the vast majority have come because of rebellion against authority.
An eagle can choose to walk around like a chicken, pecking and looking for insects, or it can submit to the laws of thermodynamics. By doing so, it can soar in the sky and enjoy the mountain peaks as few can. Yet it depends on this majestic bird choosing to submit to the laws God ordained.
To some, submission to authority always sounds negative, like somebody robbing them of their freedom. But Paul tells us that life or death is ours to choose, and in Christ, everything is “Yes,” never “No.”1 Psalm 34:10 ( NIV) reads, “The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.” When we choose to obey the law of submission, we are free to live and experience life and fullness of life just as Jesus promised.2
The first command God gave man was to Adam. He told him that of the two trees in the middle of the garden—the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil—he was not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.3 Please understand the very nature of God is love. And it was out of this love that He gave Adam and Eve the opportunity to submit to His instructions. This was for their own benefit and blessing. But Satan deceived them, and Adam and Eve disobeyed and ate the forbidden fruit.
Now we remain under a curse because we inherited the nature of Adam.4 We are all born with a desire to resist authority and to assume that submission is our worst enemy. How quickly do toddlers just learning to speak latch onto the word “no”? Then they start using the word to defy authority. A child doesn’t have to be taught to rebel! It comes quite naturally. The problem is that we are all independent and rebellious by our very nature.
Even when we become believers, our old Adamic nature doesn’t just vanish. We still have to contend with it. It is through our continual choosing of the way of the cross and the work of the
Holy Spirit that we are transformed to the nature of Jesus.
This nature of Christ is one of absolute submission. Satan’s nature is the exact opposite—rebellion. As we surrender to the way of the cross and choose to submit, we find freedom, healing and blessing.
in the potter's hands
Do you want your life to please God? Do you desire to know His will? Do you wish to know God intimately? I’m sure you are responding, “Absolutely! I long to know God’s will. Certainly I want to please Him.”
Then I ask: Are you willing to give up your will and surrender unconditionally to the Lord, saying, “Your will, God, whatever it may be; that’s what I want”? Maybe you’re thinking, That would be a hard prayer to pray, but in the long run, it’s what I want!
That’s a good response. But then I need you to understand that your obedience to God on this matter includes submission to His delegated authorities, to also obey them without question, as long as they don’t ask you to sin or violate the absolute authority, who is God.
Now what is your answer?
Chuck Swindoll, in his book Strengthening Your Grip, shares a conversation he had with General Duke about the Apollo 16 mission to the moon. Pastor Chuck asked,
“Once you were there [on the moon], weren’t you free to make your own decisions and carry out some of your own experiments . . . you know, sort of do as you pleased—maybe stay a little longer if you liked?”
He smiled back, “Sure, Chuck, if we didn’t want to return to earth!”
He then described the intricate plan, the exact and precise instructions, the essential discipline, the instant obedience that was needed right down to the split second. By the way, he said they had landed somewhat “heavy” when they touched down on the moon. He was referring to their fuel supply. They had plenty left. Guess how much. One minute. They landed with sixty seconds of fuel remaining. Talk about being exact!5
During this mission, these astronauts obviously had to abandon their own wishes, knowing that their lives depended on it. It was definitely in their own best interests to obey. They went out on this incredible mission knowing that everything had been planned out to such precise calculations that if there were any error, it could mean their deaths.
Now consider this: We don’t place our lives in the hands of human calculations, but every decision, even from our delegated authorities, is calculated and allowed by our Almighty and infallible God.
To have God’s best, we must unconditionally surrender our lives to Him, which includes submission to our delegated authorities. This choice, however, will not come without suffering in the flesh. The old habits we have grown up with as rebellious children of Adam don’t die easily. But there is one thing I am certain of: Anyone who deeply hungers to know the living God and to touch godliness will relentlessly pursue submission to God and His authority.
So submission is not something to be taken lightly. We must understand this truth in order to truly know the ways and the will of God. Look at what A.W. Tozer says: “The only thinkable relation between us [God and man] is one of full Lordship on His part and complete submission on ours. We owe Him every honor that is in our power to give Him. Our everlasting grief lies in giving Him anything less.”6 The Lord’s wish, His dream for us, is that we be our best for His glory. But He cannot accomplish this in us without our absolute submission to His will. Listen to our Father’s heart in the book of Jeremiah 18:2-6 ( NIV):
“Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.” So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him. Then the word of the Lord came to me: “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?” declares the Lord.
“Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.”
Let us learn to submit to this loving God even as clay submits to the potter. Only then will we see the Lord do His perfect work in and through us. God is love, and all His will is for our best. It is out of His great compassion that He established this principle and asks us to submit to His molding in our lives.
From Eternity past
Here we approach the throne of God as we study the foundations of a deep mystery called Authority. We are standing on holy ground; let us remove our shoes. Here our commitment must be to put aside reason as our guide. Instead, our hearts must humbly seek to learn on bended knees.
In Exodus, God told Moses His name is “I AM.”7 He is. It is from this absolute truth that Authority flows. Authority is God, Himself. In Isaiah, the Lord speaks of Himself, “Before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the Lord” (Isaiah 43:10-11, Kjv).
He is the all-powerful, all-wise, all-knowing Creator and sustainer of the worlds—seen and unseen—and He is absolute Authority. He sits on His throne and reigns. There is no person and no power He reports to, and from His throne, authority flows.
Major W. Ian Thomas of Capernwray put it this way: “God is answerable to no one but to Himself, for He is the omnipotent Creator. . . . God’s authority is final, and He obeys no one, for to obey would be less than an act of God.”8 In Hebrews 1:3, the phrase “the word of His power” points toward God’s creative acts being backed by His authority. At creation God spoke, “Let there be . . .”9And at His word, the worlds were fashioned because of the authority behind those words. Consider this statement from Watchman Nee, “In touching God’s authority we touch God Himself. . . . He upholds all things by the powerful word of His authority, even as He created them by the same word.”10 All authority on earth is delegated by God, and His appointments represent His authority. Romans 13:1 ( NIV) says, “There is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.”
Why do demons leave when commanded to in Jesus’ name? Because you and I are special holy people? No. It is not us, but the authority that is represented by us when we speak in Christ’s name.
When you sign a letter you have written, what does it mean? It is not the words in and of themselves that make the letter valuable, but the fact that the signature represents the person who wrote them. Beyond that, it is the authority behind that signature. So when we consider the matter of authority—remember that all authority is established by God Himself. The very throne of God is established on this principle.
Submission to authority is not a man-made concept; it is instituted by the Omnipotent God. The foundation of all God’s Word, even God Himself, functions on this principle.
The following verse in Romans 13:2 ( NIV) says, “Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.” This verse makes it clear that those who rebel against God’s delegated authority rebel against God.
God will also use all His power to make certain His authority is sustained. In Exodus during the slavery of Israel in Egypt, we read about Pharaoh, one of the mightiest kings of one of the mightiest kingdoms. God had appeared to Moses and sent him to Pharaoh to release the Israelites. So Moses went to Pharaoh and said, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Let my people go’ ” (Exodus 5:1, NIV). But Pharaoh replied, “Who is this?’11Moses was the delegated authority, and he was representing not just words, but God Himself. So God sent plague after plague until Pharaoh was brought to his knees. This story should make us fear God. The next time we are tempted to rebel against His delegated authority, may we remember Pharaoh and choose to fear God.
Submission to authority is an eternal principle by which God Himself functions. How did Christ come to this earth? Is Christ inferior to God the Father? No. Christ is the Creator of the u NIVerse and the second person of the Trinity. His name is “Mighty God, Everlasting Father.”12 Yet we know the prophetic passage reads: “Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart” (Psalm 40:7-8, Kjv). Coming to earth was a choice Christ made.
In eternity past, the Trinity must have talked among themselves about the redemption of mankind. God knew all things from beginning to the end. One within the Trinity must make the decision to be the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8).
Why didn’t the Father come down to earth? Why wasn’t the Holy Spirit sacrificed on the cross? Jesus chose: “No one takes My life from Me; I, Myself, choose to lay it down” (John 10:18, paraphrased). I can just imagine the conversation between the Father and Son before His coming to earth: “I call You Father and choose to be second. You are greater, and I submit to You. I lay aside My powers as God and will go to the earth. I will be Your servant, doing only what You tell Me, and in the end, I will go to the cross to die as a ransom for the world’s redemption.”13
What a great mystery to consider what Jesus must have done. Again, we are treading on holy ground! Logic doesn’t help us here. Authority and submission are at the very heart of redemption. By this the kingdom of God is established here on earth. It is at the core of who God is.
Who is in the Mirror— Jesus or Lucifer?
Unfortunately many Christians, even after decades of knowing the Lord, still remain shallow and carnal, without understanding these deeper truths of God. They have not really touched godliness. The reason is that they are still in control of “their lives” and God cannot mold them, for they are not like clay in the potter’s hand. Instead, they fight to save their lives, and in the end they lose them. None of us really wants that to be true in our lives.
The following are a few questions for us to consider:
• Do you lack a sense of purpose and peace in your life?
• Is it hard for you to know God’s will?
• Do you regularly experience strife and disunity with others?
• Do you feel lonely and alienated from God and your fellow man?
• Is it difficult for you to believe and obey the commands of God?
• Do you live with bitterness and anger toward those above you?
• Are you rude and unkind to your subordinates?
• Do you have careless and hurtful conversations?
• Do you live with strong unbending opinions?
• Are you quick to correct others without thinking about how you would feel if you were in their shoes?
• Do you lack humility and a gentle spirit?
• Do you lack spiritual authority when you share God’s Word with others? (You may say all the right words, but God’s power is missing.)
• Are you defensive when questioned about your choices?
• Do you feel hurt and offended when somebody corrects you?
• If you are in authority, do you lord it over others and cause them pain?
• Are you desperate to be in control of situations?
We have all probably experienced some of these symptoms. The reasons are many, but each of these statements indicates a certain lack of full surrender and submission to authority.
The main reason we notice these traits prevalent throughout the Body of Christ is because so many of us have not truly understood the principle of submitting to authority. Instead, we too often see believers who are independent and confused about their lives and even some whose lives end up spinning out of control.
Why is it our flesh hates submission and resists learning about it? It’s because submission requires brokenness—humbling ourselves, choosing to become a lamb, not a wolf.
Christ is the picture of brokenness for us: “And while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously” (1 Peter 2:23, nasb). We read in Philippians 2 that He humbled Himself to the extent of embracing death on the cross.14Nobody humbled Him. He chose it. There was no rebellion in Christ. He was the embodiment of submission and surrender, even though at the same time He was God.
Just as Christ manifests absolute submission and surrender, Satan manifests absolute rebellion.
Satan did not start out that way. He began as Lucifer—number one in the angelic creations. The archangels Michael and Gabriel, and all the other angels, were under Lucifer.15 He was the mightiest and the most beautiful—the shining one.
Isaiah 14:12-15 tells why Lucifer became Satan:
“How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’ Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the Pit.”
How did Lucifer, this most beautiful, powerful and holy angel, become the devil? There was no sin found in Lucifer until his heart was so lifted up that he intended to set his throne above God’s. This was clearly rebellion against God’s authority.
Rebellion is the seed of Satan because it was through rebellion against authority that he became Satan. So sin entered the scene as a result of his insubordination and rebellion. Thus the seed of sin is rebellion. Through the sin of Adam, our lives all begin with this spirit of rebellion. But in Christ we are called out of rebellion into obedience by submitting to the authority of God.16
When we rebel against authority, we are not just participating in sin; we are walking into the heart of Lucifer. These are hard words. Who wants to hear them? But if we don’t realize the seriousness of what we are doing, what incentive will there be for change?
This is why rebellion is taken so seriously throughout the Old Testament—so much so that rebellious children were taken out of the camp and stoned to death.17 Read about Korah and his followers in Numbers 16.18 Read about the kings who heard God’s direction but deliberately chose their own way. Their actions left them in line for severe punishment and sometimes even sudden death.19 When Jesus spoke with His disciples near the end of His life, He was able to say, “I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me” (John 14:30, emphasis mine). During His whole life—whether it was to His earthly parents, or Caesar, or His Father in heaven—Jesus lived in submission to those who had authority over Him. There was no trace of rebellion in Him. Nothing of the ruler of this world was in Him.
May we allow the Lord to change us more and more into the likeness of Christ until there is nothing left in us from the ruler of this world.
The way to Freedom
So God has this problem to deal with. It began in eternity past, and it will continue through to the end of time: Nothing will remain in eternity that is not of the Spirit. All that is done from self-will and independence will be rejected. Study the life of Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, Gideon and David. In all these people we find that God made sure His purposes were accomplished only through His Spirit and not through man’s ability, reason or flesh.
My wife has said to me, “God must have talked to many people and asked them to do what you are now doing—people who are smarter, abler and more educated. But they didn’t follow the Lord’s direction. So He came to you, and you said yes.”
Why did God choose me? Scripture answers that question in 1 Corinthians 1:27-29 ( NIV), “But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him” (emphasis mine).
Before Adam and Eve disobeyed and ate the fruit from the forbidden tree, they had no understanding of good and evil. This period is known as the dispensation of innocence. There was no right and wrong. All was God. And all that was done was in absolute dependence upon God. Whatever He said, that was it. They never had to reason or figure things out. Nothing in their heads was centered on themselves. They lived in absolute innocence!
Now why would God set that tree in their midst and say, “Don’t eat this”? To abuse them? No!
God wanted to demonstrate to the worlds out there, to the angels, Lucifer and all the demons, that submission, surrender, is the way by which He accomplishes His eternal purposes. And this principle could only be validated when Adam and Eve were given the freedom to choose between submission or rebellion.
Mankind, like the angels, was given the freedom to choose to obey and submit to God’s authority or to disobey and rebel. With this sacred principle, God gives us the choice to demonstrate to the seen and the unseen world that submission is the means through which His eternal purposes are accomplished.
Paul Billheimer in his classic book Destined for the Throne explains that the whole reason for creation was so God could find a bride for His Son.20 Our life on earth is thus the classroom where we are trained to reign with the Lord throughout eternity. Through our choice to submit, we are being prepared to rule with Him.
God made sure that nothing in this story of redemption would have the touch of Lucifer’s spirit. In Luke’s Gospel, there is the story of a teenager named Mary. An angel visited her and proclaimed she would become pregnant by the Holy Spirit. Even when Mary knew she faced lifelong scorn, she responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. . . . May it be to me as you have said” (Luke 1:38, NIV). In spite of all the possible consequences, she chose to submit.
God didn’t create us to be independent. He created us to live in total dependence on Him and to have our lives in Him. When man fell, he lost his dependence on God. Now man starts out self- and flesh-centered. Satan fights to keep the flesh elevated and to cause us to depend on ourselves, not on God.
If this principle of submission to authority is so sacred, so important to God, why do we seldom hear it taught? One can be a student at a sound evangelical seminary and not be required to take a single course on submission to authority. The god of this world, as Paul said in Corinthians, has blinded the eyes of people.21 Satan, the father of rebellion, is definitely behind our ignorance.
However, in the end God will demonstrate that the redeemed will not follow the spirit of Lucifer, but Him. And innocence will be restored. It will be all of God and none of Lucifer.
You and I are still given the choice between these two trees. We can choose the tree of life—which says, “God, You are God, and my life is in You alone.” Or we can choose the tree of the knowledge of good and evil—which says, “I will find my own way with my mind, emotions and will deciding how I should live.”
Jesus said,
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ ” (Matthew 7:21-23).
Explained more simply, Jesus is telling these people, You have lived your life controlled by the Lawless One, doing what the Lawless One wanted you to do. Is it possible to be a full-time Christian worker and still be living in rebellion against God and His authority? Jesus said it was so.
Brothers and sisters, only eternity will show us how much of our work was done in the flesh without the Lordship of Christ in our lives!
This reality should grip our hearts. As I have gone through this study, I have often found myself deeply troubled and truly frightened. I also wept and asked for forgiveness. I thought about times when I was not obedient in my attitude or actions. All of us need to take these thoughts seriously and to honestly come before the Lord while on this side of eternity and let Him pour His light into our hearts.
The beginning of all new things is to let go. Let it be. Let God be God. Don’t fight against Him anymore. Don’t strive. I say to you: Let it be.
I can’t explain to you the peace and rest I found in my own life when I realized that I didn’t have to make anything happen! I just have to do what He tells me to do both directly and through the authority He has placed over me.
We enter into the Holy of Holies when we look into this subject, and I believe we are invited to touch a great mystery of godliness. All spiritual realities are built on this foundation of surrender and obedience. There is nothing more sacred than this truth.
May God open our understanding of this mystery of the Bride and how she is being made ready to reign with Him for eternity.
Lord, help us to fear You and surrender our lives to You. We are slow to understand. Even when we do, we often drag our feet, when we should be running after You. Please, forgive us. Change our thinking regarding submission. Let the day be soon when we respond to