Have You Surrendered Your Life to Christ?
What if the greatest threat facing Christianity today isn’t that people have stopped believing in Jesus? What if it’s that too many people believe in Him without ever truly following Him?
We live in a culture where Christianity can be worn like a label. We can attend church, sing the songs and still keep Christ at a safe distance from our lives. We can look the part on Sunday while living the rest of the week as though we belong to ourselves.
But Jesus never called us to admire Him from a distance. He called us to follow Him.
In Revelation 3, Jesus gives one of the most sobering warnings in Scripture. Speaking to the church at Laodicea, He says, “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot.” Then comes the terrifying declaration: “Because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.”
These weren’t atheists Jesus was addressing. They were a church. They knew His name and gathered together. Yet Jesus warned them that their faith had become lukewarm.
That should make every Christian ask: Am I following Christ, or have I simply added Christ to my life?
Jesus said in Luke 9:23, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” Christ doesn’t want to be Lord of your Sunday while you remain lord of Monday through Saturday. He doesn’t want an hour of your week while the rest of your life belongs to you. He wants your whole life – your ambitions, relationships, finances, career, private life, plans and future.
That sounds costly. But we have to remember what it cost Christ to save us.
We are sinners who cannot save ourselves or earn God’s favor. Jesus lived the perfect life we could never live, went willingly to the cross, was mocked, beaten and crucified, and took the punishment our sin deserved. He died, was buried and rose again.
That is the Gospel.
And the Gospel demands a response. If you have never trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, you don’t need to clean yourself up first. You don’t need to become more religious or prove that you are worthy of Him. You need to come to Christ.
Come to Him with your sin and failures. Repent, believe in the One who died for your sins and rose again, and trust Him. Salvation is not something you earn. It is a gift of grace from the God who loved you enough to send His Son to the cross for you.
And when Christ saves you, He makes you new. You will still struggle and fall short. But you belong to Him.
Following Christ reaches the parts of your life you would rather keep for yourself. It confronts your pride, habits, relationships, ambitions and private life. It means trusting Him with the life you live when nobody is watching.
So ask yourself honestly: If Jesus asked me to surrender something I desperately wanted, would I? If following Him cost me my reputation, would I still follow Him? If no one ever saw my faith, would my private life still belong to Jesus?
Most importantly, if Jesus is truly Lord, what part of my life am I still refusing to give Him?
Those questions aren’t meant to drive us away from Christ. They are meant to drive us to Him.
If you have never come to Christ, come to Him. If you have wandered, come back to Him. If you have been keeping Him at arm’s length, let go and trust Him. The invitation is still open.
The same Jesus who calls you to surrender is the Jesus who stretched out His hands on a cross and gave Himself for you. Because Jesus didn’t die to become a part of your life.
He died to become Lord of it.
He is worthy of nothing less.
