Faith, Repentance, and Surrender

In McRaney, page 94, he states "Properly understood and applied, surrender, repentance, and faith describe how to establish a relationship with the living God. However, if any one of the three is emphasized to the neglect of the others, there is a problem and possibly a misleading interpretation of the Gospel. If faith alone is emphasized, one can move to an "easy believism." If surrender is overly emphasized, one can move to legalism. And finally, emphasizing repentance alone can lead to a works salvation. In sharing our faith, we should listen carefully to hear these three facets, regardless of the words that are being used.


II). The three words that McRaney uses to describe an approach to salvation is the foundation of our Christian life. Balance in every facet of our lives is essential to living a Christian life that shows those we are attempting to reach for Christ the difference that Christ is supposed to be making in us and for us. The world around us is looking for someone that lives a life of example. Unfortunately those same people are quick to point out our faults. A careful examination of surrender, repentance and faith will show that we have whole denominations and movements based on each of these three words. As a result you can analyze each of those denominations and readily see where they are missing the other two facets. Each denomination of course claims to have it all. If every denomination were equally balanced we would not have so many and then we could present a unified body of Christ to the world and then we could reach multitudes more people than we are reaching now with all of the divisions the body of Christ has. We must daily surrender our lives, minds, and wills to the will of God, which of course means surrendering our pride. I often tell people that I live at I John 1:9, because it seems I’m constantly repenting for something. Faith is the glue that seems to hold it all together. Of course I am continuously growing in my relationship with my Father in heaven. A balanced approach to our relationship with Jesus is the most important goal we should each strive to have.