John 1:13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” John 3:3. Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” James 1:21 Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls.
James 4:6 But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, “GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE.”
What must happen to the soul that comes to the realization that it is dead in sin? It must be born from above. What must happen to the soul that realizes that by nature it is a child of wrath? It must be born from above. What must happen to the soul that is in darkness? It must be born from above. These things are quite clear and are certainly basic to Christianity. But what must happen to the soul for it to be born from above? Ah, now this is something that has been largely forgotten in our day.
God opposes the proud. This is a statement that should be normal, but it is still a shock to our systems and way of thinking if we are not exposed to it from Scripture on a regular basis. God stands in battle alignment (opposes) the proud and He does not give them one bit of grace. How can a proud person receive grace from a humble Savior? How can a proud person desire to have humility but from a desire to have pride fulfilled? The Pharisees were full of pride and so they prayed, gave alms, and fasted in order to be seen by men (Matthew 6). The Lord granted them their real wish which was to be seen by men and honored by them, but He did not give them want was really good. What He gave them was a curse to their souls since their desire to be seen by others was from pride and the attention they obtained from others just fueled and increased their pride. God opposed their pride by turning them over to their sin of pride.
God gives grace to the humble. It might seem on the surface of this text that if God gives grace to the humble then a humble person earns grace, but one needs to look deeper into the heart of things. Every unregenerate soul is a proud soul and does not have the slightest bit of true humility in it. It is true enough that many natural men appear humble, but that has to do with their personality. Only those that have the humble Savior as their life have true humility. The life of Christ in the soul is true humility and nothing else. God gives grace to the humble because the humble are regenerate people, have Christ as their life, and they seek His face.
Some of the older writers made a distinction in types of humility. They would distinguish between a legal humiliation and a gracious or evangelical humiliation. The legal humiliation of the soul would be when God brought the soul down and emptied it of all hope in self, but the soul was not regenerate and did not have saving grace. But the evangelical humiliation of the soul was for a regenerated soul and God poured out His grace in that soul and that soul had Christ as its life and so it had the life of humility.
What we can see by this understanding of things is that the soul must be brought to a legal humiliation before it will see Christ alone as its hope. The soul that is full of self, though indeed that soul may be a very religious self, is proud and will fight true grace. But the hand of God can begin to humble the soul and bring the soul to an end of self when God opens the eyes of the soul to the demands of His law and of what the soul is by nature. That soul can be brought low to where it has been emptied of all hope in self and looks to grace and grace alone for the work of regeneration that it so desperately needs. It is only when the soul is brought down by legal humiliation that God regenerates it and gives it evangelical humiliation which then prepares the soul for more and more grace. But we can see the utter and desperate need of the soul to be humbled that it may receive grace. No, this humbling of the soul is not by works, but instead is by the hand of God teaching the soul what it must have. This is not a sinner preparing himself for grace, but instead it is God preparing the soul by emptying it of itself to receive grace. It is not the soul being prepared in a way that brings it up, but instead it is the soul finding out just how unprepared it really is for grace and so brings the soul down to where it does not trust in self or anything self can do. Indeed it is true that the soul must be prepared by coming to see how unprepared it is, but this is the work of God.
God Loves... Himself 
Leave a comment