Past BLOGS looked at the need for pride to be mortified for a person to be a true Christian. This is not in line with modern Christian thought, though Scripture teaches that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. We want salvation to come by an act of the intellect rather than God changing the soul from its pride to a humility. In many ways this is at the heart of biblical Christianity. Jonathan Edwards said one time that an unbeliever can do anything that a believer can do except love. But tied in with that is that a proud person cannot love another in truth since the love of God only dwells in the truly humble. Unless the pride of a soul has been truly mortified, it will remain in the bondage of sin even if it has a high degree of orthodoxy or religion. Unless the pride of a soul has been truly mortified, it will even use some form of humility to exalt itself. How blind the proud soul is to itself.
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.”
In contrast to the proud soul that does all for self including external forms of so-called humility, biblical humility is what Edwards calls “evangelical humility” and is something far beyond what a proud soul can truly attain. It is only when pride has been mortified can a soul begin to see itself and then the glory of God in a true light. It should be added that a soul will only see itself in the light of the glory of God. But the humility that is a true humility means that the soul truly esteems itself as less than nothing before God. That is clearly nothing that is popular in our present time which teaches people to esteem themselves and live for themselves rather than God. But God only dwells with those who are humble and contrite. True humility is what becomes a creature which is to say that part of true humility is to see that the creature (myself) in light of the holiness and glory of the One who Created it.
“Nearly all the wisdom we possess, that is to say, true and sound wisdom, consists of two parts; the knowledge of God and of ourselves….we cannot seriously aspire to him before we begin to become displeased with ourselves. For what man in all the world would not gladly remain as he is-what man does not remain as he is-so long as he does not know himself, that is, while content with his own gifts, and either ignorant or unmindful of his own misery? Accordingly, the knowledge of ourselves not only arouses us to seek God, but also, as it were, leads us by the hand to find him….For we always seem to ourselves righteous and upright and wise and holy-this pride is innate in all of us-unless by clear proofs we stand convinced of our own unrighteousness, foulness, folly, and impurity. Moreover, we are not thus convinced if we look merely to ourselves and not also to the Lord, who is the sole standard by which this judgment must be measured. For, because all of us are inclined by nature to hypocrisy, a kind of empty image of righteousness in place of righteousness itself abundantly satisfies us. And because nothing appears within or around us that has not been contaminated by great immorality, what is a little less vile pleases us as a thing most pure-so long as we confine our minds within the limits of human corruption. Jus so, an eye to which nothing is shown but black objects judges something dirty white or even rather darkly mottled to be whiteness itself….Suppose we but once begin to raise our thoughts to God…then, what masquerading earlier as righteousness was pleasing in us will soon grow filthy in its consummate wickedness.” (Calvin)
God Loves... Himself 
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