Are Surrender, Commitment, or Yielding the Essence of Saving Faith?
Over the past few decades, some popular evangelical preachers have unintentionally promoted a flawed view of the essence or nature of saving faith. I do not question their motives, and I believe they are not doing so intentionally. In a sincere effort to address the dangers of “cheap grace” or “easy believism” (theologically known as antinomianism), they have added terms like “absolute surrender,” “unconditional commitment,” “full yielding,” “treasuring/desiring,” or even “repentance” to the definition of saving faith.
For a more in-depth treatment of this, I encourage you to listen to my podcast, “Understanding Christianity.”
The Law-Gospel Distinction in Reformed Theology:
Follow Up to Law-Gospel Distinction: Clarification about Repentance:
Ironically, many of these leaders would identify themselves as part of the Reformed tradition. However, Reformed theology and its confessions and catechisms (Belgic, Westminster, 1689 2nd London Baptist, Heidelberg) provide a consistent, biblical explanation of saving faith.
What is saving faith?
John Calvin defined faith as, “A firm and certain knowledge of God’s benevolence toward us, founded upon the truth of the freely given promise of Christ, both revealed to our mind and sealed upon our hearts through the Holy Spirit.”[1]
The Second London Baptist Confession defines faith as follows: But the principal acts of saving faith focus directly on Christ—accepting, receiving, and resting upon him alone for justification, sanctification, and eternal life, by virtue of the covenant of grace.
The Baptist Catechism also affirms this:
Q. What is faith in Jesus Christ?
A. Faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace whereby we receive and rest upon him alone for salvation, as he is offered to us in the gospel.
The Heidelberg Catechism Question 21: What is true faith?
Answer. True faith is a sure knowledge whereby I accept as true all that God has revealed to us in His Word. At the same time, it is a firm confidence that not only to others, but also to me, God has granted forgiveness of sins, everlasting righteousness, and salvation, out of mere grace, only for the sake of Christ’s merits. This faith the Holy Spirit works in my heart by the gospel.
Notice the Biblical words such as receiving or trusting, resting, and having confidence. Notice also that the Holy Spirit births this faith in the hearts of the elect through effectual calling and regeneration.
John 1:12–13 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
How is faith described? As receiving Jesus personally and believing in His name.
Acts 16:30–31 Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
The biblical terms for saving faith are “receiving” and “believing” in Christ alone.
Contemporary evangelical theology and practice have confused law and gospel and have introduced new vocabulary to describe what it means to have faith in Christ.
Instead of applying the concepts in the above definitions, some popular teachers use phrases such as “true faith in him begins with an unconditional surrender of the sinner’s heart.”
How often have you heard phrases like “Surrender your life to Christ”? Be willing to give up everything for Jesus. Yield your life to the Savior. Absolute surrender! Total commitment! You must take up your cross daily and die to yourself.
Are these the constituent elements of saving faith? Or, to put it another way, are these the core or essence of saving faith, or are they the fruit or by-product of a regenerated heart?
This modern teaching stems from a lack of understanding of the difference between the categories of Law and Gospel, as well as the distinction between justification and sanctification.
Terms like “surrender, treasure, or yield” emphasize the sinner rather than the object of faith in Christ. These responses focus on what the sinner must do. The problem with this terminology is that the only ground on which one can stand before a holy God is the ground of perfection.
Not our perfection, but the righteousness of Christ imputed to us by faith alone.
Romans 4:4–5 Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. 5 And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness,
Paul teaches us that ungodly sinners cannot earn God’s grace. The only requirement for salvation is for a wretched sinner to hold out a weak and empty hand of faith and receive Christ as a gift. At that moment, God credits the perfect righteousness of His Son to the sinner and makes a legal declaration that the sinner is permanently not guilty.
The Bible never uses phrases like “absolute surrender,” “unconditional commitment,” or “full yielding” to describe saving faith.
Therefore, if “absolute surrender” is the proper response to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, then the “surrender” must be absolute and comprehensive.
If “full yielding” is the answer, the yielding must also be complete and thorough.
If “submit” accurately describes an unbeliever’s response to Jesus, then that submission must also be perfect and complete.
If “Committing your life to Christ” defines saving faith, then it must be done with pure motives and intentions, and again be comprehensive.
Now let’s think about the biblical terms we have seen for faith: believe, receive, trust, or rest.
These are responses that direct all the emphasis toward the Object, Jesus Christ Himself.
Words like “surrender or yield” emphasize what a sinner must do and how much they need to do it to be saved.
Words like “trust and receive” call unbelievers to turn away from themselves and trust in Christ. Faith focuses on the Lord Jesus Christ, who perfectly obeyed and earned righteousness for us through His wonderful law-keeping.
Belief, therefore, can be less than perfect because it is not the foundation for the sinners’ salvation.
We need to remember that the foundation of our justification is the righteousness of Christ imputed to us — not the amount or strength of our faith. Our faith may be weak or small. Our faith is not the basis, but the instrument, through which we are saved.
Now we understand why some people use terms like surrender, yield, or treasure — because they don’t want to engage in “easy believism” or water down the gospel, or see false converts who just say a prayer and don’t really mean it.
The problem is that, in this noble goal to guard against easy believism, this kind of preaching and evangelism transforms faith into a new kind of law.
By this, I mean that unconditional surrender and complete yielding are additional requirements imposed on a sinner beyond just trusting in Jesus alone.
These questions should come to mind. How much should I surrender to be saved? What if it’s not enough? What if I haven’t yielded every part of my life to Jesus? What if I haven’t made a radical commitment to give up everything for Him? What if I haven’t repented enough? What if I didn’t cry hard enough or get emotional enough?
Again, where is the focus? The focus is on YOU and your level of faith instead of Jesus as the object of your faith.
Here’s the problem: If Jesus accepts you based on your surrender, your yielding, your commitment, or your intensity of repentance, how much is enough?
Can you give Jesus your all? Can it be 100%? Are you willing to honestly surrender completely? Can you truly yield everything to Christ? Is there any way your commitment could be less than perfect?
The answer is NO — and the reason is that those terms are LAW; they focus on what you need to do to be accepted by Christ. These terms place a heavy burden or requirement on the FRONT END of salvation as “hoops” a sinner must jump through to receive grace.
Instead of trusting or accepting Jesus and His promises in the Gospel and His finished work on the cross, the goal is too high. You can’t surrender enough.
But you can place your faith in Jesus—and even if it’s weak faith or you don’t have all the theological answers, but you trust in Christ—it’s not the AMOUNT or INTENSITY or LEVEL of commitment of your faith, but the OBJECT of your faith that saves you—namely, Jesus and His imputed righteousness credited to you so that the Father declares you not guilty.
Three aspects of faith:
Through the teaching of the Bible and throughout church history, we have recognized saving faith as encompassing three important elements.
Knowledge—where the mind understands the facts of the gospel, the need for salvation, the understanding of personal sin, and that Christ is the only one who can save. This involves believing with our MINDS. But this is not enough. Many people have “head knowledge” of the gospel and believe the facts about Jesus, but are not saved.
Assent—when the heart has a firm confidence and affirmation that Christ can save me personally. I agree with the gospel and Jesus, and I approve of what it says for me personally. This involves believing with our HEARTS. And yet, this is still not enough; you can reach a point where you believe it is true and that it is even true for you and necessary, but you still are not saved.
Trust—this means resting in, receiving, or trusting Christ. It involves believing with our wills. Only after we have genuinely turned from sin and personally placed our faith in Christ are we saved.
Obedience, faithfulness, and surrender certainly follow justification and the new birth, but they are not the foundation or the means. Jesus is the foundation, and faith alone is the means.
We need to be very careful here that we do not fall into the trap of “cheap grace/easy believism” because Christians should commit, surrender, and obey Jesus.
We just need to get the ORDER correct.
We do not do these in order to be saved, but as fruits of our salvation.
This is a mix-up of theological concepts—specifically, a confusion between justification and sanctification.
In justification, we include words like trust, receive, and accept.
There is no law or requirement or level of intensity that sinners must obey (yield, submit, commit, surrender, treasure, desire, etc.) before they believe.
In sanctification, we encounter words like obey, commit, work out your salvation, and train yourself for godliness.
John Calvin has famously taught about the “Double Grace” in the gospel. He writes, “First being reconciled by the righteousness of Christ, God becomes to us, instead of a Judge, a loving Father; and secondly, being sanctified by the Spirit, we aspire to integrity and purity of life.”
There is a double grace in the gospel. The first is justification by faith alone. God declares us not guilty the moment we believe in Christ alone.
But there is a second grace. Because we have been justified, we will, as Calvin says, strive for integrity and purity of life. We will grow to be more like Jesus. We will mature in Christ through obedience. We are new creations in Christ, and we are to walk in newness of life, bearing fruit for Him.
The good news of the gospel calls sinners to:
Rest in Christ alone, not in Jesus plus your surrender, because you will never surrender enough.
Trust the Savior alone, not Him plus yielding, because you can’t be sure you’ve yielded enough.
Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone!
[1]Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 499.
I understand the effort toward accurate definitions of saving faith but even the stripped down version you champion here still includes words that point to human actions - “trust” is a verb you endorse, but not “repent” which Jesus said over and over. Isn’t the issue really that nobody can trust or repent or believe or anything without God willing it? I think it’s enough to declare that we simply are not capable of coming to Him on our own without Him doing all the work, which He did and does. Perhaps the more critical argument involves focusing on who He is and what He does for us?