“Absolute Surrender” by Andrew Murray

It is sometimes startling to read a book about the Christian faith aimed at a general audience that is free of late twentieth and early twenty-first century angst or psychological dilemmas or a popular theology book that doesn’t veer into the Christian self-help genre. What did Christians read, or used to read, when they were seeking to understand difficult Scripture passages, learn about Christian living, or answer basic questions about their faith.

One author they read was Andrew Murray (1828-1917).

Murray, the son of a Dutch Reformed minister and missionary, was born in South Africa, educated in Scotland, became a missionary and pastor himself in South Africa, and authored more than 240 books on faith, theology, and Christian living. He lived during the century of Darwin, Marx, and Freud, the triumvirate of thinkers who many believe permanently closed the book on the Christian faith. And yet he remained steadfast in his belief and wrote book after book to encourage others in the faith.

Absolute Surrender: The Blessing of Forsaking All and Following Christ is one of those more than 240 books. It is aimed at Christians who are seeking to deepen their faith and are asking the question, what does it mean to forsake all, or what he calls “absolute surrender.”

What he describes is a process. He starts by explaining what it means to be filled with Holy Spirit and how it changes the believer. He describes the roles of conviction and confession. He discusses the example of Peter in the New Testament. He explains the blessings which result from absolute surrender, and how it is to be lived out. He shows the results of surrender. He notes that Christians can continue in the process only through the active involvement of God. And he asks the question, what does it mean to be a branch to the vine?

Andrew Murray

The account is simple. It’s straightforward. It’s free of a lot of the stuff we add to Christian faith today. It is written from a perspective of assurance – doubt and questions are normal and it is through both that one’s faith deepens – in the context of reliance on God to provide the answers.

To read a work like this, written in the 19^th century, is something of a relief. Some very fundamental things have not changed, as much as we like to believe we’re smarter, wiser, and more intelligent than people used to be. Look at our technology! And we have the internet!

The basic questions remain the same. The human heart remains the same. And the God we worship remains the same.

Related:

My review of Humility by Andrew Murray.

Top photograph by Daniel Burka via Unsplash. Used with permission.

“Humility” by Andrew Murray

Humility is not a virtue widely promoted in contemporary culture. In fact, it’s one of the traditional virtues largely dismissed today, in this age of constant selfies, self-promotion on social media, and the near-compulsion to the experience celebrity. Even in the church, we turn our pastors into rock stars, promote ourselves by writing books guaranteed to invite controversy and attention, and read more Christian celebrity self-help books than we do the Bible.

Whether we’re Christian or not, humble we’re not.

To read Humility: The Beauty of Holiness by writer, teacher, and pastor Andrew Murray (1828-1917) is, in a very real sense, to enter an alien landscape.

Murray, the son of a Dutch Reformed minister and missionary, was born in South Africa, educated in Scotland, became a missionary and pastor himself in South Africa, and authored more than 240 books on faith, theology, and Christian living. He lived during the century of Darwin, Marx, and Freud, the triumvirate of thinkers who many believe permanently closed the book on the Christian faith. And yet he remained steadfast in his belief, and wrote book after book to encourage others in the faith.

Humility was one of those books. It’s a series of meditations on the subject (this edition is updated with modern English), and draws heavily from the Bible. And this is how Murray summarizes the framework of humility: “The creature must accept that its main concern, its best asset, its only happiness, now and through all eternity, is to present itself an empty vessel in which God can dwell and demonstrate His power and goodness.” The creature Murray is referring to is the human creature.

Andrew Murray

Our best attribute is being an empty vessel?

Murray goes on to use the filter of human humility to reflect upon the secret of redemption, the humanity of Jesus, the teaching and disciples of Jesus, humility in daily life, holiness, sin, faith, death to self, happiness, and exaltation. He goes about his writing quietly and gently, but with a steadfast purpose – to help us understand why humility may be one of the most, if not the most, important characteristic of a Christian.

Humility may be the most countercultural book I’ve read in years.

Top photograph by Arto Marttinen via Unsplash. Used with permission.