‘Submission’ is a word that men do not like. Proud man would prefer to rule rather than to yield submission to any other. It is true that ‘submission’ can have evil overtones, as, for example, when it is subjection and submission to tyranny that is implied. From such a rule and from such submission men naturally recoil. When we think, however, of submission to lawful authority, then ‘submission’ far from having a freedom denying connotation is in reality part and parcel of true liberty.
When we come to the Word of God we have to ask the question — why ought men to yield submission to it? The answer is that it has no authority beyond that of its author. Its author is God, for it is the Word of God. It has, therefore, divine authority and to this authority men ought to bow. Having divine authority it has paramount authority. No other law or revelation can claim either superiority over it, or even equality with it. Every other authority, all other rule is subject to it; be it that of earthly Kings, Queens, Potentates or Rulers of whatever sort, or even that of principalities and powers in the spiritual realm.
It is honouring to God to show deference to His Word, for this shows respect for His authority as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Yet none by nature will willingly yield that submission to the Word of God which God Himself requires. To yield submission we must be the subjects of supernatural enlightenment and of divine regenerating grace. Man’s apostacy in the beginning involved rejection of divine authority and the setting-up in opposition to it of human authority and power. If we are ever again to submit to the Word of God, our will must be renewed. Nothing less will do if we are to yield that obedience and submission to the Word of God which is required of us.
When the Holy Spirit comes, He comes to enlighten the mind and renew the will, as well as to convince of sin. He does this by bringing the sinner to see that the Bible is indeed the Word of the living God — the Word before which the sinner must bow. To find out the divine authority of the Scriptures is a profound discovery in the experience of any sinner.
Submission to the Word of God comes with conviction of the sinner’s own rebellion and sin. Because the divine authority of the Scriptures is recognised there is no longer any quarrelling with the Word of God even when it condemns. That God has rightful claims against the sinner is acutely felt and that his continued rebellion is an affront to the Majesty of Heaven — an affront which, if not forgiven, God will surely punish. What deep concern such conviction brings! There is a realised sense of condemnation and of need of deliverance from it. With this there is an understanding of the fact that unless God will deliver him from his rebellion, he will never willingly yield submission to Him.
Oh, how suitable is the Gospel then with its promise of deliverance from the power and dominion of sin. “A people shall be willing in a day of Thy power.” God is able to subdue the sinner and bring him to that submissiveness to His will that is pleasing to Himself. How suitable is the Gospel to a sinner who is hopeless and helpless and lost. When Christ and salvation is revealed in the word of the truth of the Gospel, how heartily is He embraced and with what willingness is submission given to His yoke and burden, whose yoke is easy and whose burden is light.
No oppressive yoke is this — to walk in wisdom’s ways, for “wisdom’s ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace.” So the saved soul finds it to be. The law of his God is now the rule of his life. There is a willing acquiescence in the will of God in all things. There is no coercion here. The law is written in the heart. Submission to the Word of God is as natural to the heart of the renewed child of grace as rebellion was natural to the heart of the unrenewed sinner. The 119th Psalm becomes meaningful in the experience of the living soul. There is a delighting in the law of God after the inward man and there is a warm, loving submission to the will and word of God.