Letters to My Grandchildren: Submission

My Dear Grandchildren,

Today, we’re going to take a look at a word that so many people these days just hate. And the word is submission. People hate that word because they have been taught to be independent individuals. Such people submit to no one. But the fact of the matter is that God made all of creation with submission, and therefore authority, in mind.

Consider how God established our world. When He created Adam and Eve, one of the first things that He did was to give them authority over it.

God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule[!] the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth.” Genesis 1:28

So, right off the bat, there is authority. And this authority that God gave to Adam and Eve wasn’t to be exercised in a vacuum. Adam and Eve were to rule as those who are in submission to God. 

Submission

Today, we’ll be looking at another challenging topic of the Bible: submission. This is something that we American Christians need to take some time to seriously consider. I say that because we live in a culture that is quite opposed to the biblical concept of submission. And that has affected us. But being submissive is not optional for us. So, we need to think through what submission means so that we all can follow Jesus faithfully.

Let’s start, as usual, with a definition. What is submission? Here, the structure of the word itself helps us. The word submission is based on some Latin words that, when joined together, mean ‘to put under’. But what is it that we are put under when we submit? The answer to that is authority. Submission is about being placed under some authority. Because that’s the case, we will need to take a look at authority before we consider submission.

Permission?

God is not required to seek the sinner’s permission for doing with the sinner what he pleases.

R.C. Sproul

I bumped into this quote during my morning blog reading, and I found it quite striking. And it's quite striking because it's just wrong -  at least according to the prevailing attitude of our culture. Now, no one is going to come out and say, 'Hey, God! Did I say you could do that to me?!?' But how else shall we understand all the accusations against God these days? There's a tornado here and an earthquake there. Terrible things, evil things, to be sure. But does God have to run these things past us to make sure they're okay with us? 

Those who are still in their rebellion have no rights with God. They're rebels against the King! And those who have been reconciled through Jesus know that they can trust their Father when he uses evil. After all, they know that his goal in using that evil is ultimately for good. And the best example of that is the Cross. 

Submission and Happiness

I recently preached a sermon that included some thoughts on submission. A friend from church had some good questions about this. I've included here an excerpt of my reply.

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One can be submissive and yet disobey. Peter and the others did it in Acts 4.19,20 and 5.29. If the Council had said, ‘You need to be sure to get a permit before you do street preaching’, I’m sure that the Apostles, as an expression of an attitude of submission, would have gotten a permit. But they demanded that the Apostles not preach at all. At that point, there was a conflict: ‘Obey God, or obey the Council?’ Easy to answer. We must be submissive (which has to do with the attitude of the heart and not merely outward actions) to those in authority over us but that does not mean that we blindly obey. There are times when we will have to be disobedient to those in authority over us – though still respecting their authority. (That is, needing to disobey is no excuse for a bad attitude to those in authority.) We may have to pay the consequences – the Apostles were flogged, Bonhoeffer was executed – but better to honor God (and that’s what the issue needs to be when we disobey) and suffer than to ignore Him. And we take the drastic step of disobeying those in authority over us knowing that the Father will ultimately decide whether that was a good course to follow.

As to the Gentile woman [of Matthew 15]: this is a variation on the ‘trying to change God’s mind’ thing. A person can be assertive and submissive. This woman was both. It must have been okay because Jesus blessed her. This explains some more what the Bible means by ‘submissive’. But her example is not a promise that whenever someone is assertive and submissive (or even just submissive) that he will get what he wants. Doing everything right (being righteous) is no guarantee of a smooth life filled with happiness. Peter’s first letter is about the call to submit to authority, particularly slaves to masters, who were often just plain evil. Even though the slaves were doing what is right, they just might suffer. And many of them did. Godliness is no guarantee of happiness in this life, though it is a guarantee of happiness in the next. Here let me offer two thoughts. First thought: Most people who have ever lived have not had happy lives. Most people who have ever lived have had hard lives, very hard lives – and a number of them were Christians who lived the right way before God but still were not happy. The American culture of our day expects happiness as a right and a reasonable expectation. It isn’t. Second thought: Jesus didn’t have a happy life. It was a life filled with suffering, emotional, physical and spiritual suffering; a life filled with suffering. You will never find a verse about Jesus laughing while He was here. He was not happy then. But He’s happy now. And that’s how it works. God promises to bless our submission to Him. Some Christians who submit to God get happiness here. And thank God for it! Then there are some Christians who are equally submissive or even better at submitting to God, who don’t get happiness here. But we all get happiness later, just like Jesus. One thing that is promised for here to all who submit is joy and contentment.