Andrew Murray wrote the classic book, Absolute Surrender in 1895. It is based on a series of sermons he preached and he advocates for an absolute surrender to God. It serves as a timeless devotional.

In the section, “Having Begun in the Spirit,” he addresses Galatians 3. For context, I will include vv2-4 I only want to learn this from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning by the Spirit, are you now finishing by the flesh? Did you experience so much for nothing–if in fact it was for nothing?

Murray poses a central question- “Why is it, how it is to be accounted for, that God’s church as a whole is so feeble, and that the great majority of Christians are not living up to their privileges? There must be a reason for it. Has God not given Christ His Almighty Son to be the Keeper of every believer, to make Christ an ever-present reality, and to impact and communicate to us all that we have in Christ? God has given His Son, and God has given His Spirit. How is it that believers do not live up to their privileges?”

God has granted us great privileges as his children. We must live in surrender to him to realize them. Murray continues, “God has called the church of Christ to live in the power of the Holy Spirit, and the church is living for the most part in the power of human flesh, and of will and energy and effort apart from the Spirit of God.”

Paul proclaimed justification by faith, and emphasized that believers can only live the Christian life by the power of the Holy Spirit. We cannot begin by faith in the Spirit and then think that we can continue by the works of the flesh. The believer is to live continually in the power of the Holy Spirit. This demonstrates the difference between grace and the law.

My prayer is that we would begin by the power of the Spirit, continue in the power of the Spirit, and finish by the power of the Spirit.

Who are you depending on, God or yourself? Who are you surrendered to, God or yourself?

“If you don’t surrender to God, don’t think that you don’t surrender. Everybody surrenders–to something.” E. Stanley Jones