Surf the internet and you’ll find a whole lot of people who are flaunting their rebellion towards God. They complain that the Christian God is a sadistic ogre who is unreasonably harsh. They use examples of Yahweh trashing people in the Old Testament to make the point that He’s a heartless creep. What these people are really saying is that they don’t agree with how God operates. Fine. No human alive totally agrees with everything about the way God operates. If Christians were honest, they would admit that the idea of Hell really disturbs them. Oh, sure, you can get a lot more comfortable with Hell’s existence once you believe that you personally will never end up there. But when we really stop to ponder that the same Gods who will be hanging out with us in Heaven will be simultaneously getting high on torturing Their own fragile creatures in Hell—well, that’s upsetting.

There are a lot of facts about your Creators that you are going to find very disturbing. There are lot of things about Them that you are going to strongly disapprove of and disagree with. Fine. They never said you have to approve of Them or understand Them in order to be accepted by Them. They only demand submission, and submission is well within your grasp.

Suppose you have a boss at work who you don’t like. He’s abrasive, rude, and unreasonable. He’s always finding fault with people and He never expresses any appreciation for your work. When this guy comes into view, do you feel all warm and fuzzy? No, you tense up and feel anxious about him coming in your direction. Some of us have been taught from childhood that God is a brooding volcano who is up in Heaven making tick marks on a blackboard whenever we screw up. If this is your background, are you going to be able to resonate with Yahweh’s claims to be good? Are you going to be able to emotionally connect with the idea of Him deeply loving you? No. Those words are going to bounce right off your brain. Does that mean you can’t get saved? Not at all. Salvation is a matter of submission, you can sufficiently submit to God from any starting point.

Let’s go back to that nasty human boss you have. When the man comes over and orders you to do something, you might think that what he’s asking you to do is a bad idea and an inefficient way to get things done. But because he’s the boss, you do what he’s telling you to do. This is submission. You don’t have to like someone to submit to them. You don’t have to like Jesus before you can properly submit to Him. You don’t have to think Yahweh’s New Covenant is fabulous before you can properly submit to Him. You don’t have to be able to visualize what the Holy Spirit looks like before you can submit to Him. Submission is about recognizing that you are outranked by your Makers and accepting Their assessment of things. If They say you’re some depraved sinner, then that’s how it is. You accept Their view of reality even though you might not approve of it or be able to honestly agree with it. No human who is really thinking can sincerely agree that eternal torment in Hell is a reasonable response to our defying God for some nanosecond of time.

Submission only comes up when there is some element of disagreement. As long as you and your boss agree about everything, there is no submission happening. You’re doing what you want to do. It’s when your boss makes a call that you don’t agree with that an opportunity to submit is created. That’s when you have the choice to either submit to your boss simply because he outranks you, or to defy him by acting like his equal or superior.