Surrender and sacrifice, while often used in the same context in the church today, are not the same thing. Far from it. Surrender is trading one ruler for another. Sacrifice is a voluntary offering of something one owns to someone else. When you surrender an item, you’re giving it up, but only because you recognize the rule or authority of the person you’re giving it to (for example, surrendering evidence to the police). Sacrifice tends to be more voluntary; at the very least, it indicates that you are giving up something (for example, sacrificially giving money to a missions fund).
So why do we tend to lump sacrifice and surrender under the same general heading in our Christian life?
I believe we equate the two because we also equate surrendering to God with sacrificing our own desires and plans, and in this view, instead of our voluntary giving up of our will, God “takes” it from our unwilling hands. But surrender doesn’t have to equal sacrifice, and sacrifice doesn’t always equal surrender (1 Samuel 15:22 – Saul was anything but surrendered to God, even though he offered sacrifices). God promises us that His plans are for us to prosper; He wants good for us (Jeremiah 29:11, Romans 8:28, Ephesians 3:20, etc.). If we really believe that, then surrendering to His lordship in our lives isn’t “God taking things away from us” as much as a joyful adventure! Are there still things along the way we need to sacrifice either because we want to give it to Him or to get something even better? Sure, but it really helps when we’re certain of God’s good intentions for us.
Many years ago, I led worship in a church where they believed God made you do things you didn’t want to do simply because you didn’t want to do it. I’m glad to report they’ve changed their stance a bit in the intervening years, but at the time, their perspective made no sense to me. It wasn’t that I thought God always told us to do things we wanted to do – far from it – but our not wanting to do it wasn’t his motivation most of the time. He asks us to do things for a number of reasons, mostly because He wants to do stuff with us – to invite us into His world, so to speak – and because He knows it will not only be “good for us” but also bear fruit in our lives. Good fruit, fruit that will last. That doesn’t sound like someone who picks the must unpleasant tasks (like cleaning the toilet) just because He knows you don’t want to do it (because who really loves cleaning the toilet?)
In the Christian life, we will experience both surrender and sacrifice – times when we surrender ourselves to God’s authority in our lives and times when we will voluntarily give up things that are ours. But neither has to be painful loss. God is able to give us exceedingly abundantly more than we ask or think (Philippians 4:19; Ephesians 3:20) – and that includes more than the “loss” of our surrender or sacrifice.
