As we continue to look at the vital importance between legal humiliation and evangelical humiliation, we should take note that we are looking at the difference between the ugliness of the devil shining in the soul with the beauty of Christ shining in the soul. The devil is the original self (self-centered opposed to God-centered) in the universe which was the poison that he injected into the human race when he deceived Adam and Eve. Jesus Christ, on the other hand, shines forth with the beauty of non-self or humility. The devil loves religion when it serves his hideous purposes of self. We see the contrast with Jesus who loved God even when the Father poured out His wrath on Jesus while He was on the cross suffering for the sins of others. While the devil desired to be like God, Jesus who was eternally and fully God humbled Himself to take human flesh. Then while in that human flesh He humbled Himself to go to the cross. The difference between the devil and Jesus are quite clear. They are also quite clear when looked at in their children. The children of the devil do all out of a love for self and that includes religious and moral activities. The children of God do all out of love for God because self has been renounced and denied.
The following quote is taken from The Religious Affections by Jonathan Edwards. The total quote being used can be seen in the BLOG Humility 36.
“Legal humiliation has in it no spiritual good, nothing of the nature of true virtue; whereas evangelical humiliation is that wherein the excellent beauty of a Christian grace does very much consist. Legal humiliation is useful, as a means in order to evangelical; as a common knowledge of the things of religion is a means requisite in order to spiritual knowledge. Men may be legally humbled and have no humility; as the wicked at the day of judgment will be thoroughly convinced that they have no righteousness, but are altogether sinful, exceeding guilty, and justly exposed to eternal damnation-and be fully sensible of their own helplessness-without the least mortification of the pride of their Hearts. But the essence of evangelical humiliation consists in such humility as becomes a creature in itself exceeding sinful, under a dispensation of grace; consisting in a mean esteem of himself, as in himself nothing, and altogether contemptible and odious; attended with a mortification of a disposition to exalt himself, and a free renunciation of his own glory…This is a great and most essential thing in true religion. The whole frame of the gospel, every thing appertaining in the new covenant, and all God’s dispensations towards fallen man, are calculated to bring to pass this effect. They that are destitute of this, have no true religion, whatever profession they may make, and high soever their religious affections may be.”
The souls that have legal humiliation still have nothing in them that is spiritually good because there is nothing in legal humiliation that is has the nature of true virtue in it. True virtue, as set out in I Corinthians 13:1-8, is Christian love which begins with a love from God and then to God. It is a love that is shown not because the other person is worthy or has merit, but because it is the love of God in the soul. So a person brought low enough to see that self cannot help self at all is not necessarily a person that has love in the soul. But the person that is a believer has evangelical humiliation and so is a soul with the beauty of the grace of God in the soul. Legal humiliation can be in a very religious person and yet with no saving grace (like the Pharisees). Yet legal humiliation is useful and even necessary. A person must be brought to despair of self and all the help that self can give (legal humiliation) in order to be driven out from self so that Christ would dwell in that soul by grace (evangelical humiliation).
As Edwards points out in his quote above, it takes a common knowledge of religion in order to have a spiritual knowledge. God uses the word of God preached to bring the light that only the Spirit of God can bring into the soul. It takes some degree of legal humiliation to bring the soul down from the height of its own self-sufficiency to even see its need of total grace. The proud soul may see its need of help, but the proud soul is blinded by its own pride and cannot see how dead and helpless it is. The proud soul must have some legal humiliation for it to begin to seek the Lord for grace. Until the natural man has legal humiliation and is broken off from his pride to see that it is grace alone that saves, that man will look to self in some way to help self. As Habakkuk 2:4 tells us, the proud man’s soul is not right within him, but the righteous man lives by faith. Pride stands in opposition to faith so the soul must be broken from its pride in order to make room for faith. Humility is not just a name for something that a person may or may not have, but instead it is something that must be there for faith and love to be in the soul. The Lord works in mysterious ways many times, but in this there is a logical causation in most cases. He works a legal humiliation in the soul in order to prepare for the grace of evangelical humiliation which is true humility.
God Loves... Himself 
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