Like this:

     Sir: Yours of this date proposing Armistice, and appointment of Commissioners, to settle terms of Capitulation is just received.  No terms except an unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted.  I propose to move immediately upon your works.  I am Sir: very respectfully Your obt. servt., U.S. Grant,  Brig. Gen.

The above words were addressed to General Simon B. Buckner, Commander of Confederate forces garrisoning Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River on February 16th, 1862 by Union General Ulysses S. Grant.   While shocking to Buckner, who happened to be an old West Point comrade of Grant’s, this abrupt refusal to negotiate terms of capitulation propelled the future President of the United States to national prominence when they resulted in the capture of 12,000 Confederates.

Recently, an acquaintance gave me cause to reflect upon another unconditional surrender: one of far greater import than the seizure of a river fortress.  See, this acquaintance, I’ll call him Bob, professes a belief in God and even in a literal heaven and hell.  Naturally, as any rational thinking human being who believes in a literal heaven and hell, Bob would much rather spend his eternity in the former location than the latter.  So far, so good.  Even better, he professes a belief that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who lived, died and was resurrected to atone for the sins of man.  But Bob has one problem: while he desires the salvation Christ offers, Bob wants to receive it on his own terms.  Bob wants to escape the consequences of his sin, but sadly, he is not interested in fullfilling Jesus’ terms: unconditional surrender of his life to Christ.  To clarify, Bob desires a Savior, but not a Lord.

Now General Buckner, outnumbered, surrounded and running low on supplies, realized that his position was untenable and wanted to escape his dilemma.  But the only way he could be assured of leaving Fort Donelson alive was to surrender to Grant.  Bob’s position is even more hopeless than Buckner’s for the only way he can escape eternal death is by surrendering to Christ.  For Bob, like Buckner, is a rebel, albeit a rebel against God rather than the United States Government.  Thus, he is deserving of death.

However, Bob’s predicament, while far more precarious than Buckner’s, is actually far more desirous.  How so?  All Grant, as the victorious representative of the U.S. Government, was willing to offer his former friend in exchange for his surrender was life in a northern prison camp.  As the victor over sin and God’s representative, Christ’s offer to the rebellious Bob is a restored fellowship with God and eternal life in exchange for his surrender.

Now, had Buckner pridefully refused to surrender, Grant would have simply launched an overwhelming assault on Buckner’s works and taken them by force.  Grant’s victory was already assured by the weakened condition of Buckner’s command.  And ultimately, for Buckner, the result would have been the same: life as a prisoner of war.  But for Bob, the consequences of a conceited rejection of Christ’s terms are far more devastating.   Being already dead in sin, Bob cannot hope to even survive an antagonistic encounter with the risen Lord.

But despite his dire predicament, Bob steadfastly refuses to accept Christ’s terms. Why? Because Christ’s terms are unconditional surrender to His Lordship. And, Bob, being dead in his transgressions cannot bring himself to submit to Christ’s Lordship even at the cost of his own soul.

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