The pride of man is so great that he always thinks of himself first. If he hears that God is love, he thinks that God must love him instead of thinking of the triune God as being love within Himself. If he hears of God being just, he will think of justice according to his standard rather than thinking of it according to the character of God. Man thinks of hell as not being so bad because he thinks of the standard of sin, justice, and wrath in accordance with himself and his own fallen ideas. The pride of man’s heart has so worked that man is now the measure of all things, and yes, even of God. Man is so proud that he has even twisted Christianity to make it man-centered. When man thinks of the cross of Christ, he thinks of what that means for him first rather than what it means for God. When man thinks of the Holy Spirit, he thinks of the things the Spirit can give him. Christianity has thus been diluted if not almost destroyed in modern America by humanism and self-centeredness. That is nothing but pride.
“In egocentric religion, we may say, man is the measure of all things-even of God. For God Himself is understood in the light of man. In theocentric religion it is God who is the ‘disposer supreme,’ the final arbiter of all things. Here, man is understood in the light of God. Expressing the difference in specifically religious language, we may say; in egocentric religion, man chooses or ‘elects’ God; in theocentric religion, God chooses or ‘elects’ man.” (Let God Be God! An Interpretation of the Theology of Martin Luther)
Some might think of Reformed theology as having escaped the ravages of the pride of man, but it has not. Reformed theology can become little more than an intellectual philosophy in the hands of proud man. People who are Arminian or even Pelagian at heart can put the veneer of Reformed theology over their man-centered hearts. The brain can hold to creeds of theology that a man-centered heart has stripped of its real meaning. So a person can walk around with a creed of Reformed theology while having gutted the heart of its God-centeredness. This is to gut Reformed theology of true Christianity. Reformed theology has historically taught on the total depravity of man, but totally depraved human beings can also believe in Reformed theology in a creedal sense while that same depravity can strip it of its inherent God-centeredness and make it man-centered. Thus the truth of total depravity impacts and even strips the meaning of creeds that declare it. The words of the creed can be adhered to while the pride of the depraved heart will strip it of the meaning that the words point to.
When man becomes the real center or measure of all things, the very nature of sin is in control to some degree. The pride of man’s heart will make himself the measure of human beings, the creeds, the Bible, and then God. There is no end to what the pride of the human heart will desire. After all, the promise Satan made to Eve was that she would be as God. The pride of the heart of humanity is such that all do desire to be as God. This is seen in religion and in Christianity as well as if not more than other places. The desire for man to be God is seen in man making himself, his reason, and his morality as the measure of God rather than Christ who is the perfect image of God. To understand God man must go by the standard of measure of God’s self-revelation in the Bible and especially in Christ. Rather than man being conformed to Christ as the image of God, fallen man in his pride tries to twist the truth of God until He is conformed to the image of man. As one ancient put it, “God has created man in His own image and man has returned the favor.”
The Pharisees were masters of this great sin through the use of the Old Testament and their writings. Modern man has perhaps outstripped the Pharisees in the extent and degree in which this is done. In modern forms of Christianity God is no longer the absolute sovereign of the universe that only shows men favor by grace alone, but instead He is now the divine genie by which men can gain riches and honor for themselves if they will just jump through certain hoops. Man does not like the will of God being supreme over him, so he decides that his own will is the final arbiter for himself. Man does not like the fact that the Bible teaches election which means that God must choose a man from His own will, so he turns things around so that man now elects God by a choice of man’s will. Those who are more orthodox know that God has something to do with salvation, so they let Him provide most of salvation and then try to talk others into seeing Christ as acceptable to them rather than declaring that God from sheer grace must make man acceptable to Himself through Christ. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is by grace alone, but man in his pride and self-centeredness always leaves himself something to do as the final arbiter of his own salvation. Thus we have those who are Reformed in creed essentially gutting Reformed theology by practicing forms of evangelism that are man-centered and dependent on the choice of man in reality. How idolatrous pride is.
God Loves... Himself 
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