Submitting to God
James 4:1–10
Submit yourselves therefore to God. James 4:7
James calls us “adulterous people” (v. 4) because we have committed spiritual adultery against God. He speaks of a friend of the world being God’s “enemy.” What James has in mind here is the fact that we have rebelled against God’s rightful rule over us and now fondly believe that we are masters of our own fate.
In verses 7 and 8 he speaks of a cure for this adultery against God. “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.”
How do we draw near to God? Is James saying that the first move is up to us? If we seek God, then God will seek us? No, that is not what James is saying at all.
We draw near to God at the cross, and we draw near to God as the Holy Spirit draws us to him. It would be correct to say that as God has drawn near to us, so God draws us to him. “Submit to God” means “submit to the drawing power of God.” If you do this, if you allow God to draw you to him, you will find God to be the one you need. He will restore the broken Creator/creature relationship and subdue your pride. This is the truth that Isaac Watts conveyed in his great hymn of the atonement.
When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.
Submission to God happens in no other way and in no other place, for only as we see what God has done for us is our pride subdued and we find ourselves being brought near to him. So long as we think we are contributing spiritually to what God is doing, we will be proud of what we have done. But when we see the matter as God portrays it in Scripture, when we see the cross, we will recognize how desperate our state is and that there is nothing in us to commend us to God. We are the kind of men and women who crucified Jesus. Yet God still sent his Son to pay the price of our sin and then by the power of his Spirit open our eyes to see what we have done and draw our wills so that we might come and receive the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior.
When we recognize what God has done for our salvation, we are truly humbled and are able to ask God to do with us what needs to be done.
Taken from Come to the Waters by James Boice ISBN 9798887790954 used with permission from P&R Publishing, Phillipsburg NJ 08865
Scripture quotations are from the ESV (the Holy Bible English Standard Version) copyright 2001 by Crossway a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved.