A Christmas to Surrender

I am ending the perceived War on Christmas today. As an equal heir to the same authority which has mistakenly been used to declare the conflict to exist, I am individually capable of ending it. Thus, we, as the body of Christ, surrender. Yes, I can speak on every other Christian’s behalf because I am led by the same Spirit which connects us all.

And isn’t that, ultimately, the reason for the season? Surrender. Christianity and Christmas are both derived from the term “Christ”, which is not, as some non-believers may perceive, the last name of a carpenter from Nazareth. Christ is the position that Jesus was elevated to by God himself, the anointed of God…our undisputed King, the King of kings. Thus, to call oneself “Christian” is not an exercise of self-aggrandizement, it does not make us special or even improved; to call oneself “Christian” is an act of submission, it is our declaration of joyful subjection to our King, it is our confession that we are unworthy of the mantle of spiritual leadership in deference to the Christ who lives in us.

And so Christmas becomes a celebration of the arrival of the worthy One. Where we have failed, Christ is victorious. Where we have claimed personal, ego-driven victory, attempted to retake lordship, battled over God’s territory in the hearts of His children, and raised the battle cry for the name of a day of remembrance that we made up as a means to antagonize the lost, Christ is missing.

That’s what Christmas is for believers, an opportunity to affirm, before a watching world, our abject, comprehensive submission to the Christ, King Jesus, our God incarnate. Christmas is not a celebration of genesis and beginnings, it is a celebration of promises fulfilled and surrender to a single, most worthy, God-anointed, personal Lord for eternity. It’s not just a history lesson, or a birthday celebration, or a particular liturgy or event, it is a yearly affirmation of our submission to our King.

Because we, as Christians, know the end of this story. And that final, “apex” moment for all mankind has nothing to do with judgement, the winnowing of wheat and chaff, fiery furnaces and cloud kingdoms, Hell or the very throne room of God…that pinnacle moment is articulated here:

But you, why do you criticize your brother? Or you, why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before the tribunal of God. For it is written:

As I live, says the Lord, every knee will bow to Me, and every tongue will give praise to God.

That is the glorious moment articulated in both the book of Isaiah (45:23) and Paul’s letter to the Romans (14:10–11). And if your heart has been hardened by years of false teachings of self-sufficiency, judgmentalism, evangelical exclusion, and spiritual exceptionalism — look to the sky, not for stars but to behold the gathering clouds:

Look! He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him including those who pierced Him. And all the families of the earth will mourn over Him. This is certain. Amen. — Revelation 1:7

Ultimately, in the end, every person who has ever received the spark of life will see Him. Everyone — those who don’t believe in the supernatural, those who don’t know, those who have faith, and those who are misled — all will see the one true King of kings and Lord of lords, Christ Jesus whose Spirit dwells in us even now, and by whose authority and for whose glory I surrender the contrived, Spirit-grieving battlefield of the “War on Christmas”.

In the end, all will know the truth. And that truth is why we affirm our unequivocal surrender every year to the Lord we know to be, in joy and hope — but the ownership and knowledge of that truth is also a terrible burden in our relationship with those who have not received and accepted that truth as their own.

In that moment of revelation, our stewardship of God’s gifts, our confession of faith in His word, and our effectiveness in fulfilling our commission will also be revealed, not in the cries of exultation by the faithful but the cries of fear or praise from the throngs that will have been newly awakened to the reality that the Christ they have been told of has arrived. The unprepared will be terrified, the prepared but unbelieving will be enlightened, and the enemy will be consumed with grief.

See, we hold this truth as the very basis of our submission; there is no other basis strong enough to compel our daily surrender to Christ in us. It is in those acts of daily submission, magnified in this season of surrender and celebration of Christ’s first arrival, that we prepare those who have not received Christ for how to respond to the coming truth of His return. How they perceive us will translate into the reality of how they receive Christ in that moment.

Will they see Jesus with the eyes of terror at the representation His believers have made of Him as a violent battlefield general, arbitrarily condemning or exalting, capriciously choosing whom to bless and whom to curse based on human traditions, cultural mores and irrational fears? A Lord of Hosts who rides forth to conquer through bloodshed, division and strife in His Name?

Or will they see Jesus with the eyes of enlightenment at the representation His believers have made of Him as a loving, compassionate, magnanimous, self-sacrificing, forgiving King? And even more so, a Lord worthy of the submission, adoration, and surrender of selves that the newly enlightened has witnessed in those of us who already hold the truth of His eternal sovereignty in our hearts?

Our surrender to Christ is demonstrated most clearly in our actions and our relationship to those who have not yet received this truth, whom God, in His timing and for His purpose, has chosen not yet to reveal it to their eyes and their hearts. But He will, it is certain. And thus our role remains the same as it has always been, to demonstrate our joy in our surrender to our worthy King with acts of spiritual generosity, forgiveness, charity, mercy, compassion, and faithful encouragement, so that on that splendid day when He returns, the non-believer is filled with joy rather than fear at the revelation of the Truth.

So this Christmas, on behalf of the Body of Christ, and for the joy of the non-believing community that will witness the certain second arrival of our King, I am surrendering the cultural battlefield of “The War on Christmas” unconditionally just as I re-affirm my unconditional surrender to my Lord and Savior and Christ and King, Jesus. I encourage every one of my Christian brothers and sisters to examine their hearts and surrender whatever territory does not serve to glorify God, whether it be greed, envy, fear, hate, condemnation, pride, or apathy toward the lost, to your King; He will be faithful to fill it with the abiding truth of His presence and the anticipation of His return.

Merry Christmas, Jesus. The only appropriate gift I can give is all of me.