We can be Submissive because Christ’s Life of Submission and Obedience is in us

When we are filled with Christ, we are filled with submission, for He has given us His life of submission and obedience; for us to be submissive, we need the supply of life, the enjoyment of grace, the working of the cross, and the denial of the self.

We all need to take grace and receive the divine revelation in the Word of God, saying Amen to the Word of God, and trusting in the Lord and obeying Him to work out His word in us.

In the Bible, a proper female indicates one who is in submission to God, for this is God’s ordination.

In the eyes of God, we all are females, that is, we are not “the man”; Christ is the Man, the Husband, and we are female, His wife.

So we all need to submit to Christ, for He is our Husband, our King, our Lord, and our Head.

However, in the Body of Christ, in the church life, and in human society, there is a difference between man and woman, for God created us in a particular way and He has ordained it in a specific way.

Paul said that Christ is the head of every man, man is the head of the woman, and God is the head of Christ.

This means that, even though Christ was God Himself when He was on earth, He still submitted to God the Father in all things, not doing His own will but the will of the Father, and not seeking His own glory but the glory of the Father.

Similarly, man is the head of the woman, and especially in married life, the sisters need to take grace from God and learn to submit to the husband. And all the husbands need to submit to Christ, the real Husband.

This is not a “law”, neither do we enforce such a principle; rather, we all learn to submit to one another, and we all take grace to obey God’s ordination.

Deborah was a pattern to the sisters in the church life today; she was married, she was very capable, and she had God’s instant speaking and leading.

Still, she didn’t do things in or by herself, even though she was the judge in those days; rather, she called for Barak, and she did not put herself forth or stand out in any way.

In the days of Deborah, the leaders of Israel had failed God, and they were in bondage under the king of Canaan, who oppressed them severely for twenty years.

The children of Israel cried out to Jehovah, and God raised up Deborah, a prophetess.

Because the situation was so unusual and the men failed God, He was forced to do something special, that is, to raise up a woman to speak and represent God.

Deborah was full of ability, capacity, insight, and foresight, but she was not proud neither did she seek to have the power or authority. Rather, she was very submissive; though God made her the leader, she kept the proper order and took Barak as her covering.

Therefore, the entire situation in Israel was headed up, for God brought in the proper order among His people.

Because this excellent woman took the lead to practice the female submission to the man, the entire country came into an excellent and proper order, and God had a full way among them.

Being Submissive requires the Supply of Life, the Enjoyment of Grace, the Working of the Cross, and the Denial of the Self

In Eph. 5 Paul exhorts the wife first, telling them that they need to be subject to their own husbands as to the Lord, even in everything (v. 24).

If a sister wants to get married, she needs not only to love her husband-to-be (which is by default) but also to be willing to be submissive. Actually, getting married to someone means that you are willing to be submissive to him.

This works both ways, that is, the husband being submissive to the Lord and also to his wife, and especially that the wife would be submissive to her own husband.

If a sister cannot be subject to her husband-to-be, she is not qualified to marry him.

This is not something that we put forth as a requirement; this is an attitude we need to have in our heart.

In the church life, the first and greatest function of the sisters is to be submissive; if the sisters can learn this lesson, the church will be strong, enriched, and renewed.

The sisters being submissive doesn’t mean that they can’t or shouldn’t fellowship; rather, it is an inward attitude, something in spirit, something that is underlying in all their service and living.

If we look at the world today, however, if we look at the situation in society in general, in schools, in universities, and even in the homes, there’s no submission but rather rebellion upon rebellion.

They may call it emancipation or some other novel term, but the attitude is one of rebellion. The whole world is rebellious toward God and His ordination.

Even we ourselves as believers in Christ, when we are in the flesh and in the natural man, we spontaneously rebel against God and His ordination, and we do not submit to Him.

In the church life as the kingdom of God, however, we need to be delivered from rebellion and simply submit to the Lord and His ordination.

The church is God’s chosen vessel to bear a testimony to the universe, a testimony that is different from what we see in the world.

The church life should be a miniature of the New Jerusalem with a throne set up in the centre and the river of water flowing, the tree of life growing, and the golden street being right in the middle and reaching everyone.

We are sanctified people, separated from the course of the world, and we should not go along the current of the age.

We are not in the flow of the world but in the flow of the New Jerusalem, the flow of God in Christ as the Spirit, which brings in life!

How can we be submissive? How can we submit to one another, and especially how can the sisters submit to their own husbands?

It seems easier for the sisters to submit to others’ husbands or to other brothers but not to their own husbands – how can there be such submission, such a submissive spirit?

For us to be submissive, we need the supply of life, the enjoyment of grace, the working of the cross, and the denial of the self.

If we enjoy the Lord and take Him as our life, being richly supplied by Him, we will spontaneously allow the cross to operate in us.

The cross will be applied by the spirit to our rebellious nature, and submission will spontaneously be there.

We shouldn’t try to be submissive; the sisters shouldn’t strive and struggle to submit to their husbands – rather, we need to enjoy the Lord and take Him as our life supply, enjoy Him as grace, and allow the cross to operate in us so that the self is denied and submission will be present.

If the sisters take care of this one matter of being submissive, the church will be strong, living, rich, and prevailing.

Such a matter, being submissive, is greater than any other kind of work.

There is the need for fellowship, practical service, outward arrangements, and many other things, but submission is the first need. May we bring this to the Lord and ask Him,

Lord Jesus, we give ourselves to You to be Your testimony on the earth. Save us from going along with the flow of this world in rebellion toward God. We come to You, dear Lord, to enjoy You as our life-supply and our everything. We just give ourselves to enjoy You, for You are grace to us. Amen, Lord, by Your grace we allow the cross to work in us so that the self would be denied and we would be submissive. Amen, Lord, gain such an attitude and spirit in us all for the building up of the church. May there be genuine submission in all the local churches as the local expressions of the Body of Christ, so that all things may be headed up in Christ!

Being Filled with Christ to be Filled with Submission, for His Life of Submission and Obedience is in us

We should never try to be submissive by our self; our zealous self may want to obey God and submit to Him, and we may want to submit to others in our natural man, but this is natural and without the element of God in it.

We should simply consecrate ourselves to the Lord not just to do a work for Him but simply to be submissive.

When we were saved by the Lord, we were saved not only to be delivered from sin, the flesh, the world, and death but also to be submissive to Him.

How can we, rebellious beings, be submissive to God?

We may want to mainly enjoy God, enjoy the church life, and enjoy salvation, but this is not the end of it; we also need to be submissive to God and to one another, and in particular, the sisters need to have a submissive spirit toward their husband. How can this be?

How can we experience the fullness of our salvation? It is by having a submissive spirit.

We need to realize that submission is not in us; there’s no submissive bone in our body, but we have a life full of submission in our spirit.

The Lord Jesus became the source of our salvation through obedience; He learned obedience through the things that He suffered, thus becoming the source of our salvation (Heb. 5:7-9).

He humbled Himself, put aside the outward form of divinity and the splendour of His Godhead, and He became a man.

Even more, He became like a slave, coming into to be served but to serve; He died to serve us and to give His life as a ransom for us.

He humbled Himself to the point of dying for us, and that death was a shameful death, the death of the cross.

Through such submission to God and His will, the Lord learned obedience through the things He suffered, and He became the source of our salvation through obedience.

He today is in us, and His life of obedience and submission is in our spirit.

We need to appropriate Christ, gain Christ, and touch Christ, for when we contact this One and experience Him, we experience the life of obedience and submission.

When we are filled with Christ, we are filled with submission, for His life of submission and obedience is in us.

He was perfected to become our Savior, and He became to us all who obey Him the source of an eternal salvation.

In our natural man, we may not understand why did God ordain for the wife to be subject to her husband, but that’s ok; we don’t need to understand it, we need to just say Amen to it and practice it.

And the way to practice submission is by being filled with Christ, that is, by being filled with His life of submission and obedience.

Submission is not in our mind, our emotion, or even in our will; submission is in the divine life in our spirit.

God saved us with the hope that we would submit to His will; when we meet God’s authority, submission is there, for we meet authority.

When we really touch the Lord, we will be submissive and obey His ordination, for the Lord – who was submissive throughout His life – has already given us His life of submission.

May we practice contacting the Lord and bringing this matter to Him, fully believing that His life in us will be lived out and expressed through us.

Lord Jesus, thank You for becoming the source of our eternal salvation through Your obedience to the Father. Thank You for coming in us not only to save us and give us joy but also to impart Your life of obedience and submission into us. We just come to You, again and again, Lord, to be filled with You, so that Your life of submission may be expressed and flow through us. Amen, Lord Jesus, live in us today. Live out in us the life of obedience and submission that You lived out when You were on the earth. Gain the church as the anti-testimony to the rebellious situation today, and have a way to head up all things through the church, Your Body!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Ricky Acosta for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1968, vol. 1, pp. 83-86, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of Joshua, Judges, and Ruth (2021 summer training), week 7, God’s Raising Up of Deborah as a Judge of Israel and as a Mother in Israel Who Practiced the Female Submission to the Man in Order to Keep God’s Ordination and Bring All of Israel into a Proper Order under God’s Kingship and Headship.
• Further reading: see ch. 5 in Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 47, Authority and Submission.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Today we must learn to submit to His throne, / How to have a strict life and His government own; / His authority then we’ll be able to share, / o’er the nations to rule with God’s Son as the heir. (Hymns #947)
  – Take time to behold Him, / Speak oft with Thy Lord, / Abide in Him always, / And feed on His Word. / Wait thou in His presence, / Submissive and meek, / Forgetting in nothing / His blessing to seek. (Hymns #643)
  – In my knowledge and experience / I would not exalted be, / But submitting and accepting / Let the Body balance me; / Holding fast the Head, and growing / With His increase, in His way, / By the joints and bands supplying, / Knit together day by day. (Hymns #840)