It was for the salvation of men from sin that Christ came. When He was to be born, the angel of the Lord declared that the child would save His people from their sins. From time immemorial men had struggled with sin. Laws and edicts were passed but they could not change the heart of man. The Apostle Paul later declared, “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” There was no man who could claim that he was free from sin. Sin had entrapped everybody and we all needed a Savior. The Bible declares that at the fullness of time the Son of God appeared to save humanity from its sins. But why is it that after we do everything that we know that we still fall short of victory. The sins which beset us are many and salvation becomes a word without much meaning except as applied for the time when we will be in heaven. We become hypocrites in this world for we see that we profess something but practice another. We become whitewashed tombs like the Pharisees of old whom Jesus vehemently condemned. We are like the fig tree that Jesus cursed which appeared to have fruit from afar but when He got near it was a dry tree. People like us when they first get to know us but when they draw near they see the dirt and filth in us. We forget that God is not looking at how many souls have been saved by your life but whether the life that He has given you is being lived as He desires and wants. It is not your works that He desires but your heart. He wants to know whether your heart is right before Him or not. You cannot cover the dirt in your heart by the various missions you run or the charities you do. He came to set us free from sin and give us salvation and it was not just so that you and I could have fun in church. We have to take it seriously. There is too much sin in the church and we cannot just say that we are all imperfect. Of course we are imperfect but the imperfections should disappear as we progress in our Christian walk. Being imperfect is no excuse for sin in your life. You cannot resign yourself to it. On the other hand there are genuine people longing for deliverance from the things that as the Apostle Paul said ‘trip us and slow us down’. To these people would the key to victory be like a life saver.
The Bible says “By grace are you saved and not of works.” Deliverance from sin is by grace. It means that it is not from you. You are not saved from your sins by what you do but by what God does. So what is the first thing that you need to realize? You need to realize that you should stop trying to help God save you from your sins. Our pride makes us think that we need to exert some effort in the matter of our deliverance. But God wants no help from you. That requires faith. So two things arise in the matter of deliverance – surrender and faith. The one cannot go without the other. Surrender without faith is not surrender and faith without surrender is not faith. Jesus surrendered His life to death because He believed that God was able to raise Him up. So, he laid in the grave for three days until He rose up victorious. It takes faith to surrender. We are so used to doing things ourselves that we cannot resign ourselves for God to do everything. You have to give up trying and start trusting. But then again we tend to make trust or faith a matter of works. One thing you have to realize is that salvation is not a struggle. Anything that comes with self effort is not of God. Surrender is saying, “I am not able. I cannot do it. I give up.” And faith is saying, ” God, you can do it and you have done it in Christ 2000 years ago when Christ died on the cross for me. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death. It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me.” Believe that when you give up God will take over from you and He will do a much better job than what you have been doing. Faith sees the victory that has been achieved by Christ and ignores the facts that are presented before you. But it does not struggle in the course of doing so. If you cannot surrender, take the matter to God. If you cannot have faith, then take that matter too to Him. It is a relationship we are in and He will give you the strength to surrender and to believe. Trust me, He will do it.