A Fighter Who Surrenders

Paradoxes are seemingly contradicting statements that nonetheless are true. Over the last few months I have been keeping a list of them and sharing them here. I don’t express this one very well, but I have observed that in life we must learn to fight and learn how to surreder. God wants us to be warriors and fighters, who also know how to surrender.

As Christians, we are to grow to become more Christ-like in character. In Jesus, we see someone who was a fighter and not a peace going hippy. When the religious leaders didn’t want him to heal a crippled woman on the Sabbath, he fought for her and ripped into them for their religious hypocrisy in a very pbulic way. When the Temple had become a sham and a den of thieves, Jesus went into fighting mode. He made a whip of chords, he tossed over the tables and he drove the money changers out of the Temple.

Jesus was a fighter and it is his character we are to emulate. In Beautiful Outlaw by John Eldredge, writes, “If you would know Jesus, you must know this – his fierce intentionality – is essential to his personality.” To be fierce means a desire to fight. I wrote in my book next that line, "Yes, what I aspire to have."


Jesus was fierce, but he willingly surrendered his life for us. In the Garden of Gethsemene, he told his Father he didn't want to go to the cross. Yet, he still surrendered his will to the will of his heavenly Father. On the cross we see how utterly and completely he followed through with this surrender and trust in his heavenly Father.

Like Jesus, we are to build this paradox into our character – on one hand we need to be fierce warriors, willing to fight and to battle for justice and truth. To develop a Christ like character requires we fight for people who cannot fight for themselves; fight for the hearts of our kids and our spouse; guard our own hearts and fight a spiritual battle. And to develop a Christ like character will require we surrender our wills to our heavenly Father.

We need both aspects in our character, although I think we need to develop the warrior and fighter characteristic first. This is not a fully formed thought, but in order to have a self to surrender we must first developed a sense of self that could fight, but chooses to surrender his will to God.

Which characteristic of Christ is easier for you to develop: the willingness to fight or the willingness to surrender your will to God?