If it is a fact as Habakkuk 2:4 teaches that the proud heart is the opposite of true faith, then it is clear that pride and faith are opposites and faith cannot dwell with pride. But on the other hand, it takes humility to receive grace and even more it is the job of faith to receive grace. So as pride and faith are opposites, so humility is necessary for true faith. Humility, which is the emptiness of self, is necessary in order for the soul to trust in Christ alone. Now if those things are true, it is clear that there is no way to save sinners other than to be saved from pride. Until a person has been saved from pride, that person does not have faith and so does not have Christ. The soul must be delivered from pride and to humility if the soul is to be saved by grace alone and Christ alone.
Now if the soul must be saved from pride, then we can see the necessity of the Gospel of being saved by a humble Savior. The Lord Jesus Christ was from eternity and was very God of very God and yet He humbled Himself to take human flesh to Himself. While in that flesh He humbled Himself and learned obedience and then humbled Himself and went to the cross. It is only fitting that proud sinners can only be saved by a humble Savior. In fact, Jesus tells us in Matthew 11 to “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. 29 “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS” (vv. 28-29). It is in coming to Jesus who is gentle and humble in heart that proud souls find rest for their souls. There is no rest for the wicked (or proud), but instead they (the wicked) “are like the tossing sea, For it cannot be quiet, And its waters toss up refuse and mud” (Isaiah 57:20) The proud in heart are tossed around by the waves and desires of self and never find rest until they find it in the humble Savior.
But the promise of the New Covenant is that God would put His laws in their (believers) minds and write them on their hearts. How does this fit with humility? When we consider the promise of the New Covenant it points to the glory of Christ being the life of the believer (Gal 2:20; Col 3:1-11). Christ, the humble Lamb of God who humbled Himself to go to the cross, is now the life of His people. The life that a believer has in him or her must be Christ or there is not spiritual life at all. The life that is in the believer, therefore, must be a humble life or it is not the life of Christ in that person. There is no way for a believer to have the life of Christ in him or her without this life working in the believer humility, since Christ Himself was and is perfectly humble.
As we think through Scripture we can tell that there is no approach to God apart from humility. There can be not approach to God apart from Christ who is humble so there is no approach to God apart from humility. There is no approach to God apart from grace and God only gives grace to the humble. Isaiah 2:12 tells us that “the LORD of hosts will have a day of reckoning against everyone who is proud and lofty and against everyone who is lifted up, that he may be abased.” This verse should strike the proud in heart with feat, but many times those who are proud are blinded to their pride by their pride. James 4:6 goes on to say that “GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE.” So it should be manifestly clear that there is no approach to God apart from humility. Only the humble have the life of Christ in them and only the humble receive grace.
We must consider humility in the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is grace to the lover of Christ and to those who have died to self and the flesh (Gal 5:19-24). We must never think that we can earn the fruit of the Spirit which is really the greatness and glory of the grace of God in working His own character in the hearts, lives, and loves of His children. Since God opposes the proud and yet gives grace to the humble, we must know that He does not communicate Himself to the proud by the Spirit but instead on gives Himself to believers by the fruit of the Spirit to those that are humble. There can be now working of the Holy Spirit in the souls of people who are proud, and it is only to the degree that people have been emptied of self and are humble that they receive the fruit of the Spirit. We cannot imagine that the work of the Holy Spirit in sharing His fruit in the human soul is anything but grace.
As we look back on the landscape of the work of God and the nature of the human soul, it is so obvious that grace is only given to the humble. Pride is at the very heart of sin and is opposed to faith, grace, the New Covenant, the humble Savior, and the fruit of the Spirit. The truth of humility as the emptiness of self must ring with clarity across the land again or those who are full of pride and self will continue to bring the wrath of God down upon the professing Church and the nation. We must seek humility if we are to seek God in truth and reality and if we are to look to a humble Savior for grace. We will only find this on our faces and in emptiness of self.
God Loves... Himself 
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