We Submit Because Jesus Submitted

"21Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God." (Ephesians 5: 21)

Marriage begins with submission.

In fact, all good things for us begin with submission.

A more accurate translation of the above passage reads:

"Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ." (NIV)

Who was the first to submit in our lives? Not our parents, not our friends and neighbors, but Jesus!

"5Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: 6Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: 7But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: 8And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. 9Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: 10That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; 11And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." (Philippians 2: 5-11)

In other words: we submit to one another out of respect to Christ Jesus, who first submitted to His Father.

His submission is our glory:

"But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 5Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) 6And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: " (EPhesians 2: 4-6)

When God our Father placed His Son at His right hand (Ephesians 1: 22-23), He then placed us in Christ at His right hand, too!

Stoll, many people in the Body of Christ read the New Testament commands in Ephesians 4-6, and the first impetus is to focus on doing something.

Our identity in Christ is crucial. Before we do anything, we need to know who we are, and more importantly whose we are.

8For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light: 9(For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;) 10Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord." (Ephesians 5: 8-10)

We are now children of light, no longer in darkness!

"Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness." (1 Thessalonians 5: 5)

How are we children of light today? Because of Jesus. He submitted to His Father, and in Jesus we are glorified today.

"And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them." (John 17: 10)

and then

"Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world." (John 17: 24)

and finally

"But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." (2 Corinthians 3: 18)

Why would we not submit to one another? Jesus submitted to His Father, and glorified us, and our reverence for Him leads us to submit to one another!