Each believer must not think of humility as something that is anything less than essential. Perhaps the only way to examine one’s own humility is to think of Christ as a mirror and hold up His perfect humility and compare what ours looks like compared to His own. Christ was the perfect image of God on earth and is still the perfect image of God. In taking human flesh to come and walk on this planet His humility was beyond what the human mind can conceive of. While on earth in His human body His humility was clear for all to see, but when He humbled Himself to go to the cross His humility was blindingly glorious. But in human flesh the only way for God’s glory to shine brightly is for the human flesh to be empty of self.
Colossians 1:15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
2 Corinthians 4:4 in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 6 For God, who said, "Light shall shine out of darkness," is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
The Divine nature of Christ was united to the human nature of Christ. The Divine nature shone through the human flesh because there was no pride and self to battle with the shining forth of the Divine nature. But in fallen human beings there is always the battle with the flesh. Humility is the emptying of the soul of self and pride so that the Divine glory of Christ who lives in true believers can then begin to shine in and through them. As long as there is pride and self, they act like veils which cover or at least darken the glory that shines out and through the human believer. But the more the believer is truly humbled and broken, the brighter the Divine glory shines.
The glory of God shines in hearts and it shines in the face of Christ. The glory must shine in Christ and it must shine in the hearts of believers if they are going to live to the glory of God. After all, what can a person do to make God look good? What can a person do to shine forth the glory of God in his own power and strength? No, it is Christ that the glory of God shines out in. It is Christ that the glory of God shines into believers by. It is in the incarnation, the life, the death and resurrection of Christ that the glory of God is manifested. But Christ dwells in believers as His temple and He is their life. To the degree that a person has self and pride, to that degree the person suppresses (so to speak) the glory of God in them. There is a continuing battle between the flesh and the Spirit. There is a battle (so to speak) between the glory of God shining and the person’s pride which wants self. The glory of God shone through Christ when He prayed this; ‘Not my will, but yours be done.” When Christ did that, the glory of God shone ever so brightly through Him. When Christ went to the cross and offered Himself up in perfect love to the beatings, the nails, and then the wrath of the Father in the place of sinners, the glory of God shone in and through Christ ever so brightly.
The believer’s humility must be seen in light of the humility of Christ. First, it is the perfect standard. Second, Christ is the life of the believer and so the only true humility the believer has is the humility that s/he partakes of when Christ works it in the heart of the believer. In one sense there is the humility of the believer but in another sense the only life of humility is the life of Christ in the person. There is no other standard for humility other than Christ. One way of gauging this is to simply ask if the glory of God is shining through me or not. As I look in my life, do I see the glory of God or the glory of self? As I look in my heart, do I see love for the glory of God or the glory of self?
The degree of grace in the soul is really the degree of Christ and His life in the soul. If we have true humility (self and pride have been emptied out of our soul (o some degree), then Christ will be evident in our soul. After all, He is the very life of the believer. It is difficult to focus on having humility in the soul if we don’t look at the other issues. The real issue is that there is a life of humility and that life of humility is Christ Himself. We can only judge the degree of our humility if we are able to see something of Christ in the soul.
God Loves... Himself 
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