TOTAL SURRENDER by David Wilkerson

"But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested...even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference...being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" (Romans 3:21-24). God has revealed to us a sure way to become absolutely holy and perfect in his sight, whereby all his children can live in absolute peace and joy, knowing God looks upon them as holy and pure. And this is all a free gift! His gift of holiness can never be a reward for anything we have done. It is an unearned, undeserved favor—an outright gift. "For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness” (Romans 4:3-5). Submission is the only way into God's holiness, submitting to the righteousness of Christ through faith. To submit means "to surrender the power of your will." With God there is no such thing as willpower—all power is his and he will permit no other power than his own. God demands absolute holiness so that we will be humbled by this demand! He watches over our struggles to be holy with patience, waiting for us to fail so miserably that we will run to his throne, fall on our knees, and cry out, "It's hopeless—I will never be holy! I am weak, sensuous, sinful. I have no good in me at all." The kind of repentance that God is looking for is confessing the weakness of our futile efforts and denying that we have any power at all in ourselves. You can never be clothed in Christ's holiness until you fall on your face before God's throne, naked, poor, wretched, weak, and totally helpless! You must once and for all admit you have no power to resist sin, that you have nothing to offer the Lord but a broken-down, defeated and helpless lump of clay. You must admit you can't be holy, even with help. You must be given holiness as a gift. The greatest gift you can give to God is your faith that he will give you his holiness. Isaiah exulted, "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness.... So the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations" (Isaiah 61: 10-11).