Victory by Surrender: The Art of Letting Go

The concept of surrender occupies a prominent place in Christian theology and spiritual teachings, but to the untrained ear, its meaning is misunderstood.

How can surrender possibly be a good thing? Especially when the faith promises triumph in the victory procession of Christ?

Is “surrender” nothing more than a tool of oppression, designed to break the spirit and compel submission to the will of others?

Certainly, it’s been used as such. History provides plenty of evidence of religious teachings on submission and obedience being exploited to justify oppression. However, that’s not the topic I want to explore here.

What I’m going to do is clarify the term “surrender” in order to redeem its original intended purpose. I’ll explore what it means in a deeper sense, and how the art of letting go leads, in truth, to the greater victory.

The Things We Think We Want

Life is full of things we think we want.

Money, cars, phones, jobs, people, and power. There are all kinds of things in this world that glitter which we become obsessed with, building our sense of identity around them. We say, I’ve got to have that thing.

Before long, we start to believe that if we don’t get the thing we think we really want, we’re a failure. People fight, cry, lie, cheat, slander and steal in order to obtain the things they’ve come to believe define them. They become so consumed by their pursuit that their sense of self-esteem becomes entirely wrapped up in them. They believe that obtaining these things will make them happy. But in doing so, they’re liable to forget who they were before they entered the process.

Jesus said, “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Mark 8:36)

It doesn’t even have to be a material thing. It can be something as simple as wanting to win an argument. The thought that an opponent could be right and you could be wrong is so thoroughly detestable that you’d rather lose all dignity in victory than let them win.

What Does It Mean to Surrender?

Surrender, in this sense, takes on a different connotation than it otherwise would.

Consider again the two people arguing, each determined to prove themselves right.

The more desperate either side gets, the worse the situation becomes. They exhaust themselves, destroy their peace of mind, and invest so much of their identity in the outcome that even when victory arrives, it brings little comfort.

Instead of enjoying the satisfaction of having won, they become preoccupied with defending their position, protecting their reputation, and ensuring that nobody challenges them again. And so, the struggle continues. What began as a simple disagreement turns into an ongoing war to preserve a falsely perceived sense of worth.

Why should confidence, happiness, or your sense of identity rest upon something so fragile?

To consider what surrender can truly accomplish, we must first understand something fundamental about who we really are.

Your Divine Inheritance

Every person is more than just flesh and blood and bone.

We’re more than a mere assembly of atoms and molecules, configured in such-and-such a manner. We’re more than our names, our possessions, our jobs or their associated appellations.

Beyond those things, there’s the part of us that gives us life, consciousness, imagination, character, personality, and the ability to move through the world as an individual with a unique experience.

Let’s call it the soul.

And that soul possesses greater treasures than can be reasonably imagined. You may not have discovered them yet, or know how to access them. But they’re there. And they’re yours to recover.

A deep sense of confidence and self-esteem, leading to wealth and happiness in life, comes from knowing that you have a soul which is precious and which is yours, regardless of what occurs in your external circumstances. Your soul, and its associated treasures, can’t be taken away from you. They can’t be stolen, expunged, removed, or bought at any price. They can’t be surrendered, even by yourself. That’s how deeply connected to you they are.

This brings us back to those things that glitter in the world. The money, cars, jobs, and statuses. The truth is, by chasing after these things and identifying with them, you’re actually putting them between yourself and your eternal treasure. The things you think are going to make you happy are the very things preventing you from claiming the inheritance that truly belongs to you. By surrendering those things, you’re actually bringing yourself closer to what you’ve really been searching for all along.

Surrender, Slavery, and the Spirit of Scripture

How far does this principle go?

What happens when someone has absolutely everything taken away from them, including their freedom? This brings us to something that has long troubled readers of the Bible.

Why is it that the apostle Paul instructed slaves to obey their earthly masters (Ephesians 6:5)? Was he suggesting that God condones slavery, or that people shouldn’t try to emancipate themselves from oppression?

Absolutely not. Paul was a human scribe using the finite, imperfect language of his time to capture an infinite divine principle. He wasn’t endorsing the institution of slavery — he was expressing a radical spiritual reality. In a world where slave owners exercised excessive power over other people, he was reminding the subjugated that no earthly master could ever claim their soul, their dignity, or their divine inheritance.

Paul expressed the paradoxical freedom that even a slave still has available to them when he wrote, “For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10).

And therein lies the extraordinary victory latent in surrender.