When we meet the Lord, we surrender and equally true, when we surrender, we will meet the Lord.   Anyone who has not known the meaning of surrender, has not met the Lord and His Gospel.   

Jesus has explained this when He said these words: Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.  For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.  For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost? Luke 9:23-25

To believe in the Lord Jesus Christ is to believe His Gospel, and when anyone truly believes we will also obey the Gospel.  The path of the Gospel is (continual) surrender.  We lay down our life.  What does it mean to lay down our life?  We no longer let our life be what directs us.  We do not live to serve and please ourselves.  If we do not surrender, we cannot hope to obtain what the Lord has bought with His own life.  What do we obtain?  His Life. 

When we read or watch advertisements we are informed of the product that is being solicited and why it is something we need to buy.  For the sake of gaining insight, the Gospel is a product that contains our way of Salvation and experiencing Resurrection Life.  It is not a thing, but found in the Lord Jesus Christ.  For us to obtain all that this means, is to buy in.  When we go to the store and find a product we can’t expect to go to pay for it with only partial payment can we?  We get the product when we are all in and commit to giving all that it costs.  This is the same with the Gospel of Christ.  We are all in or not it at all.  Luke 14:27-33.

What is confusing is we have people who think they can pick and choose how they will believe in the Gospel of Christ.  Mainly because of a false interpretation of the Gospel to major on one thing that is taken from passages such as:  For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16  Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life. John 6:47.  He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Romans 3:26

This (flawed) Gospel message has majored on ‘faith alone’ as being the pinnacle rather than Christ Himself.  It becomes about belief (alone) which is only a ‘partial payment’ to what the cost is to buy in.  The Gospel of Christ is to be lived and looks like this:

I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. Gal 2:20. 

The Gospel that we receive and live is a spiritual work that Christ does in us as we participate with Him.  Our faith in Him is expressed in our obedience.  2 Thess 1:18, Heb 11:8

To receive the Gospel is to live it and to live it is practice a life of surrender.