The next word we will examine in Romans 6 is the word present (or offer or yield depending on the be translation):

and do not go on presenting the parts of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead, and your body’s parts as instruments of righteousness for God. (Romans 6:13)

As a child of God we are not to present the members of our body to sin, but we are to offer ourselves to God. The first use of the word present in this verse is in the present tense and conveys the idea to stop allowing the parts or members of our body to dominate us. This refers to our fleshly indulgences that may have developed into well-worn habits. These may include physical habits such as eating, or emotional habits such as irrational fears.

The second time the word present is used the verb tense indicates that we are to present ourselves at once to God. This is the idea of a full and unconditional surrender to God. This may be referred to as consecration as one surrenders the will completely and unreservedly to God. Consecration is often initiated by a crisis as we see God’s word afresh and we realize its implications for our lives. It is also a process as we live out the implications of our surrender to God. We see this dynamic of a crisis and a process in the following passage:

Therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:1-2)

The crisis is to present ourselves at once to God as a living sacrifice, the process is our transformation by the renewing of our mind over time. When we present ourselves to God, this is a full and unconditional surrender to God. This is a willing, conscious, and total yielding of ourselves to God. God does not force us to surrender to Him. Jesus prefaced His invitation to follow Him with the word “If”:

And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” (Luke 9:23)

Surrender means that we say “yes” to God and “no” to ourselves. An unconditional surrender involves surrendering our entire will to God. Our motive is our love for God and not our personal benefit. Surrender results in a new way of life. Our overarching desire is to abide in unbroken fellowship and oneness with God. We discover that the things of this world grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. Our fleshly desires lose their appeal and we seek first His kingdom and His righteousness.

Oswald Chambers used the word abandon to describe this complete surrender of ourselves to God, “The great word of Jesus to His disciples is Abandon. When God has brought us into the relationship of disciples, we have to venture on His word; trust entirely to Him and watch that when He brings us to the venture, we take it.”

A life of abandonment is when we give ourselves totally and unreservedly to God. This is a transaction of the will, not emotion. My response to God is I will go anywhere, at any time, at any cost. Oswald Chambers described our need for complete and unconditional surrender, “What is needed in spiritual matters is reckless abandonment to the Lord Jesus Christ, reckless and uncalculating abandonment, with no reserve anywhere about it.”

What keeps us from absolute surrender? A major reason is that we have not died to self (Romans 6:6). We are trying through self-effort, rather than trusting in Christ to live His life through us. Faith is learning to in trust in God alone. Andrew Murray in his book Absolute Surrender wisely observed, “If I am something, then God is not everything; but when I become nothing, God can become all.” May we completely surrender ourselves to God so that He can be everything in our lives.