I do not want humanity or social virtue. I can be honest and civil, and observe the law of kindness in my actions; but who shall give me humility, meekness, patience, inward purity, and the love of God? (Thomas Adam, Private Thoughts on Religion)
“The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).
The soul that wants the truth and power of Christ will not want social virtue and humanitarian things in and of themselves. Honesty and civility and kindness are attainable by the unregenerate person. Those things can be nothing more than external actions motivated by the love of self. The Pharisee could be honest and civil. The Pharisee could perform acts of kindness (giving of alms), but the Pharisee did those out of love for self and the desire to attain some form of righteousness. A person that desires the free grace of God will not desire those things in and of themselves, but will instead desire those things as they come from the hand of the one and only sovereign God in and through Christ.
For the person that has any idea of the nature of his own heart, that person knows humility is beyond the power of self to come up with. If humility is thought of as the emptying of the soul of self, then it is self-evident that humility is beyond the power of self as self can never be the worker of emptying the souls of self. The soul that longs to be free from the bondage of self and of the honesty, civility, and kindness worked by the love of self and the esteem of self recognizes the slavery and bondage of the soul to self. That is the soul that begins to understand the need of the soul for grace and grace alone to deliver it from self.
Westminster Larger Catechism: Q. 25. Wherein consisteth the sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell? A. The sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell, consisteth in the guilt of Adam’s first sin, the want of that righteousness wherein he was created, and the corruption of his nature, whereby he is utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite unto all that is spiritually good, and wholly inclined to all evil, and that continually; which is commonly called original sin, and from which do proceed all actual transgressions.
The Larger Catechism sets out the nature of the heart of man in almost brutal words. One of the key points is when it states that man is “utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite unto all that is spiritually good, and wholly inclined to all evil, and that continually.” Man can be honest, civil, and kind in the external things and yet be deeply opposed to all that is spiritually good. Man can be very religious and think of self as honest, civil, and kind and yet be deeply opposed to all that is spiritually good. Man can be very religious and all others think of him as honest, civil, and kind and yet be deeply opposed to all that is spiritually good. How deceptive the heart is and how willing it is to take up appearances of religion and goodness, but the heart that is dead in sin is blind to spiritual things and so the pride of the heart actually blinds itself to spiritual things by its outwardly good things.
It is extremely deceptive for people to take up the appearances of Christianity in things like honesty, civility, and niceness. But those things can be done by professing atheists and anyone apart from a new heart and apart from the spiritual work of the Holy Spirit. The heart that is proud of appearances can even desire some form of external humility, but not real and true humility. The heart that is proud of appearances may trick itself and others into thinking that it is meek and patient. The heart that is proud of appearances may desire forms of inward holiness and use high language to describe how much it loves God. But that is only in appearance. It is rare to find those that truly want humility because true humility is only found in the absence of self. In other words, self and the things of self must go and a person must learn and actually die to self. Inward purity is one thing in conception but quite another in reality. It is painful to attain to because the death to self and being given over to God for His purposes is not something God works in us apart from trials and suffering. True Christianity is of the heart along with motives, intents, purposes, and loves. It cannot be satisfied with the externals and the appearances of things before men. It is only satisfied when God takes up residence in the soul and His glory is then the very love of the soul.
God Loves... Himself 
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