Why must I surrender everything? What is the paradox of surrender?

Question

Accepted Answer

Matthew 13:44“The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure that a man discovered hidden in a field. In his excitement, he hid it again and sold everything he owned to get enough money to buy the field.”

Luke 9:25“What do you benefit if you gain the whole world but are yourself lost or destroyed?”

Luke 17:33“If you cling to your life, you will lose it, and if you let your life go, you will save it.”

Philippians 3:8Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ.

The paradox of surrender is that we gain everything by giving up everything. When we give up our agenda for God’s, when we give up control of our souls to God, we gain eternal life and eternal rewards. We also gain a sense of peace and security that we could never have otherwise.

Matthew 16:25“If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.”

Romans 6:4, 6, 8We died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives. . . . We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. . . . And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him.

Galatians 2:20My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

2 Timothy 2:11This is a trustworthy saying: If we die with him, we will also live with him.

We receive true and eternal life by giving up our lives. This is not a trade; it’s willingly removing an obstacle (ourselves) in order to receive freely God’s gift of eternal life. When we give up our temporary life here on earth to God, he gives us eternal life.