God Loves… Himself

Humility is the sense of the entire nothingness of the soul so that God may be all to and in the soul. It is the absence of self and the strength of self and yet the life of humility is the life of the humble Savior in the soul. It is so easy for the soul to think that humility is what the soul does in putting down self some and then putting on Christ itself, but that is a deception. Humility is not what the self can do, but the emptiness of self with the life of Christ in the soul. There is a huge difference between an external humility which is limited to appearances or what others can see. It may or may not correspond to true humility which is internal.

External humility would be dropping of the head or eyes and perhaps not replying back to things that people say. It is the outward reactions of the body and facial expressions. It is the turning from insults or things that people are normally insulted over and incited to respond with loud words. But internal humility is when the soul is beyond insult because it sees itself as a creature before God and that God is the One that is truly being attacked. The humble soul is meek or returns love to those that insult it. The humble soul is not as concerned about its appearance, but about the glory of God being manifested through it. The humble soul may speak words that sound harsh to those without the Spirit, but it is concerned about God’s glory and not about appearances. Jesus was perfectly humble and perfect love and yet He spoke harshly to the Pharisees. At other times, however, He would not reply when spoken to harshly. External humility wants to appear humble at all times to others because it is only concerned with the appearance of humility. It is moved by pride. Internal humility seeks true humility and therefore desires the glory of God and the true good of others regardless of what people think. It is true humility.

In light of the previous paragraphs and BLOGS it is clear that human beings cannot truly understand nor actually have humility of heart apart from seeking God and obtaining it from God. God must open the eyes of the soul to see its pride and He must open the eyes to see the depths of what it means to be a creature in the presence of its Creator. The life of humility in the soul is also the life of Christ in the soul. The soul must know that it cannot have humility apart from God and His work of grace in the soul. No matter how much the soul may desire humility, it can never obtain it by the works and efforts of self. Humility is the absence of self and not the result of the efforts of self. The soul that is being humbled will seek the Lord for an ever deepening humility.

The proud person in religious settings wants to have humility simply because of the appearance of it to others. This is something that we must be aware of regarding others and our own hearts. The depths of pride in the soul are dangerous. Pride blinds the soul to its own pride and so it may be deceived about the nature of true humility. The proud soul may think that it has attained it. Pride may also desire humility so much in order to be thought of as holy that it will put on the appearances of it and that appearance may even blind it to its own pride. The human heart is so deceptive and so dangerous to itself and others in the spiritual realm. The Pharisees had such an appearance of holiness in that they prayed in public at the appointed hours. Oh how holy they appeared to others and yet it was just the appearance of holiness because they were so full of self and pride. We must know that our own hearts may be satisfied with just the appearance of humility rather than the real thing.

Do you want humility? Well, if you really want humility you will want it before God at all times and not just a form that comes out when you are in religious settings. We can want humility because of a feeling we get in private, but that is most likely not true humility but a fulfilling of self to obtain a certain feeling. We can want the appearance of humility in the presence of strangers in order to impress them. We can want humility in our religious meetings in order to appear holy. The spirit of the Pharisee is quite alive in our own hearts. So the desire for humility may be nothing more than the proud heart desiring things for self. We must examine our hearts.

The real question is whether we want humility bad enough to seek the death of pride in our soul. The real question has to do with reality and not just the appearances of it. If we desire the death of pride in our soul then we will desire to be humble before God when we are alone and when we are in the presence of strangers. The desire for true humility means that we will desire God more than self. It means that we will desire His presence more than anything else. If we desire the presence of God in our soul and the life of Christ in our soul, we will seek with agony the death of self. We cannot have the life of Christ in our soul if pride still reigns there. We cannot have the life of Christ in the soul if we desire Him out of pride and appearances. We cannot have Christ in the soul while still desiring the things of self and the world. If we truly desire humility, our own pride is our enemy and must die.

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.

One of the great puzzles that thinking on humility and pride brings is how religion can express a proud heart in ways that God seems to hate more than the openly sinful heart. When we see this, it shows the utter necessity of the soul having humility for salvation and then for sanctification. It seems as if God was more wrathful on the Israelites than He was on openly sinful nations. He would use openly wicked nations to punish the Israelites. Habakkuk 1:5 records the words of the Lord to the prophet about the Israelites: “Look among the nations! Observe! Be astonished! Wonder! Because I am doing something in your days– You would not believe if you were told. 6 “For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, That fierce and impetuous people Who march throughout the earth To seize dwelling places which are not theirs.” Habakkuk had been praying about the sinfulness of the nation of Israel just before, but this answer from God shocked his sensibilities beyond his ability to understand.

Habakkuk’s answer showed how he could not believe what he was hearing: “12 Are You not from everlasting, O LORD, my God, my Holy One? We will not die. You, O LORD, have appointed them to judge; And You, O Rock, have established them to correct. 13 Your eyes are too pure to approve evil, And You can not look on wickedness with favor. Why do You look with favor On those who deal treacherously? Why are You silent when the wicked swallow up Those more righteous than they?” He could not believe that God would punish the Israelites with a people that he judged to be worse than the Israelites. He could no believe that God could and would do this. It was in the context of Habakkuk waiting on the Lord for a reply that the words of 2:4 are given us: “Behold, as for the proud one, His soul is not right within him; But the righteous will live by his faith.”

God hates pride. When a person with pride tries to use the things of God to further his own pride and selfish heart, it appears to be a sin that is worse than other sins. Even the unforgivable sin seems to be something that only very religious people can commit. It was the Pharisees that Jesus warned about committing the unforgivable sin. The Pharisees also received the strongest and harshest words from Jesus for their religious activities done from a proud heart. We can see how God hates pride in Proverbs 8:13 and its clear teaching: “The fear of the LORD is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way And the perverted mouth, I hate.” God is determined to fight the proud and to bring them down in His way and His time. “Thus says the LORD, ‘Just so will I destroy the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem” (Jeremiah 13:9). So it is clear from Scripture that God hates pride and there is an especial hatred of it in people who practice religion. The things of God, when in the hands of those who is proud in heart, are things that arouse His anger more because they are closer to Him than other things. It is the heart of a person who would dare use the things that He has especially made to be used to magnify the glory of His grace and people use them to try to earn something, bring Him under their control, or to earn merit from Him. It is a heinous sin that is directly against God in a closer way than even open sin. We must beware.

We must ask a tough question in light of God’s opposition to pride. Can a soul be redeemed from if it has not been delivered from pride? We tend to think of salvation in terms of eternity, but a soul is saved in this life and then enters eternity. If pride and self are the sin or perhaps the sin of the heart that is most opposed to God and He is most opposed to, can we really say that a person has been converted if that person has not been delivered from pride and has the life of humility? Habakkuk 2:4 tells us very clearly that the proud person does not have a right soul in him. Jesus tells us that unless a person is turned to become as a little child that person will not enter the kingdom of heaven. The proud heart must be broken or the religious person will remain under the wrath of God and even more of the wrath of God than the open sinner. We must beware of pride in the heart all the while knowing that pride in the heart hides our own pride to us. Apart from that pride being broken our use of the things of God will do nothing but bring more and more condemnation upon our souls. Apart from our souls being broken from pride all the religious things we do is treasuring up wrath for the day of wrath as set out in Romans 2:4-5.

But let us remember that we must hear the Word of God if we are going to have true faith. So we must not run from the things of God out of fear that they will increase our condemnation. Instead we must learn to use them correctly. They are only used correctly when with humility we seek God Himself in them. We must read the Word of God with humility asking Him to teach us spiritual wisdom. We must humble ourselves and pray and seek His face. We must know that the things of God are meant to teach us about God and to teach us to seek His face for His glory rather than things for our own purposes and pride. It is hard to imagine how a person can be saved if s/he has not been delivered from pride and self-sufficiency. After all, we are to trust and rest in Christ alone.

In the previous BLOG we looked at how pride/self is the heart of sin. It is the soul’s desire to be god to itself and to do all it does in its own power guided by its own wisdom. Humility is what the soul needs in order to be an instrument of God. However, as one thinks back through all the passages of Scripture it appears that Jesus saved His worst or harshest words for the Pharisees and some of His kindest words for those coming out of deep sin. The Pharisees were very religious and stringent in their writing and keeping of laws, yet Jesus called them hard names and directed His hardest teachings toward them. It would see that a proud heart in religion is even worse than a proud heart given over to open sin. One would think that Jesus would not be as hard on the religious people, but instead He was even harder on them. In modern language, what is up with that?

It seems counterintuitive that very religious people are worse than open sinners to Jesus in some way. But if we come to understand that pride is the heart and the fountain of sin, even making a person like the devil, then this opens a door to understanding the issue. This shows the utter necessity of a heart being changed and the life of humility being in the soul. It is not the religion and it is not the external works that God is pleased with, but it is a matter of the heart. The external sin is still not the worst of sin, but it is the degree of pride in the heart. So a person that prays thinking that it is a way to please God has a high level of the wickedness of pride to do so. Those who live in external sin do in fact sin against God, but they don’t assume that God is pleased with them and their actions. Those with pride in their religion not only displease God with their actions because they are not from Him, but their hearts are far from Him and they are proud of what they are doing and of their sin.

Another thing to consider is that the Pharisees thought of themselves as teachers. Indeed they taught, and even things about the Bible, but they did not teach the truth of God. They taught their own reprehensible system of trying to please God in their own strength by keeping the laws that they had set up. This is seen in Matthew 25:2. When a person uses the Bible to teach his own morality and religion rather than God’s, this is an attack on God Himself. It is to use His Law to set up one’s own law. It is to use His Word to establish one’s own word. It is to use His authority to establish one’s own authority. This is what a proud heart does. The humble heart wants to know what God’s morality and religion truly are and would tremble that others follow it rather than God. The humble heart wants people to follow God’s law and would tremble to change the least part of His law. The humble heart is established on the authority of God and only wants others to bow to His authority.

Another principle that is involved in this is that teachers will be judged with a harder judgment. What we see, then, is that those who claim to speak for God need to speak accurately or they misrepresent God. Those who claim religion in some way represent God and those who are leaders teach in a way that represents God. A proud heart that tries to represent God is actually trying to represent God by the heart and mind of the devil (pride). Teachers and preachers who try to teach about God and yet do so with a proud heart are serving themselves in the place of God and represent the devil teaching Eve about God. A proud heart is in no condition to take the covenant of God and try to teach about it. A proud heart has no business trying to speak of a humble Messiah. A proud heart knows next to nothing in reality about God and is doing the work of the devil. A proud soul takes the law of God and turns it into what the devil wants it to be. A proud soul teaches morality just like the devil wants it to be. A proud soul tries to establish the religion of the devil in the name of God. A proud soul uses the name of authority in an effort to establish its own authority which is the authority of the devil.

Christianity is the heart of true religion because in it the truth and glory of God are manifested in and through Jesus Christ. Christianity is the heart of true religion because it has the message of the glory of God and the Church is the very body of Christ to the world. A proud heart knows nothing of the truth of these things and whether the person tries to or not a proud heart is the devil’s effort at gaining control of a church and of the message of the glory of God. The devil can use a proud heart to deceive others about the Gospel. The devil can use a proud heart to distort the truth of the real God. The devil uses proud hearts to gain the service of many who think they are serving God.

There is no wonder that God hates the proud who are religious more than those who are simply openly sinning. Humility, then, is not just something extra, it is utterly vital in order to have the truth of God in the soul and for the establishment of true Christianity. God does oppose the proud even in their religion (ask the Pharisees), but He gives grace to the humble. The humble have God dwelling in them so He sees His own glory in them.

The last BLOG ended with some discussion over the root and heart of sin based on Genesis 3:5. It is the promise that Satan made to Eve and which she bought into. It was promised to her by Satan that she would be like God. The desire to be like God is pride and in some sense it is the root of all sin. It can be seen in Romans 1:18-32 very clearly. Much of the battle in the human heart is over who will rule over and in it. The battle, then, has to do with pride and humility. The proud heart wants to deny that which it does not love and so it suppresses the truth about itself and about God in unrighteousness (Rom 1:18). Verse 19 goes on to say that is true “because that which is known about God is evident within them.” Creation itself puts enough of the very character of God on display to render all without excuse. In light of that, the suppression of the truth (v. 18) occurs in the heart of man in suppressing the truth about God and not honoring Him as God or in giving thanks.

The very lie of Satan (be as God) is brought out and displayed by human beings who do not want this God to be over them and instead they want to run and rule their own lives which they think is their own to run. In these actions their very speculations become futile and their foolish hearts are darkened. When the God who is light is suppressed there is nothing left but to fall deeper and deeper into darkness. When hearts love their own wisdom enough to suppress the wisdom of God, the pursuit of that wisdom sinks those hearts deeper and deeper into foolishness and speculation. In this very drive for wisdom according to self rather than God that is exchanging the glory of God for an image of man. It is not that one has to bow down to a wooden or metal image, but in serving self one has exchanged the glory of God for an idol because self is an idol at that point. In doing this God hardens their hearts and turns them over to more and more darkness and foolishness. When they serve self rather than God, they have exchanged the truth of God for a lie. This is deep darkness.

When these proud souls that serve self do this, God sees it for what it is: “And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper” (v. 28). The refusal to “acknowledge God” is really a suppressing of the truth about God and a rejecting of the knowledge of Him. The “natural” downward trend of this sin is that God turns a person over to a mind that is depraved and growing even more depraved by its rejection of Him. It is a mind that is being filled with all sorts of the sin that is really the soul being turned over to the love and service of self. It is a hatred of God (v. 30).

Humility is the only answer for such a person and such a heart as that. It is the proud heart that rejects God and it is by that pride that such wickedness enters the soul. A proud heart is one that rejects God and His sovereign rights over it. While it might be obvious at this point, it should be pointed out that the human soul is either descending into darkness and sin or it is descending into a deeper and deeper humility. On the one hand the proud heart rejects God and continues to reject Him and so it descends into deeper and deeper darkness and wickedness. The other side is the soul that God has delivered from its pride and so it is growing deeper in its humility. The proud soul is growing in being full of self and the so-called wisdom of self while the humble soul is being filled with God and His wisdom. The proud soul becomes consumed with self as Satan is and the humble soul becomes consumed with God and His glory as God is. The proud soul becomes more and more consumed with self and ends up in hell where the soul if hardened to self and given totally over to self. It is in hell that the soul hates all others and God. In hell the soul is given over to the wrath of God and to the total misery of hating all other beings. The humble soul becomes more and more consumed with God and ends up in heaven where it will be full of God for all eternity. For all eternity it will share in the love God has for Himself and all other beings in heaven.

Pride is the very heart of sin while humility is at the very heart of holiness and love. Pride is at the heart of sin because it is the suppression of the truth of God in the pursuit of self. Humility is the very heart of holiness and love because it is the emptiness of self and pride so that God who is love can fill the soul with Himself and His love. Humility is the heart of holiness since self is the very nature of sin and the heart that is emptied of self will be a partaker of the holiness of God (Heb 12:10). When the heart of sin is pride and self, it is obvious that when God humbles the soul He is taking out the very heart of sin. When God fills the soul with Himself, He is giving the soul that which is the very best which is Himself and He fills it with true love and holiness. Humility is so vital that a person cannot be saved apart from some humility and a person cannot grow in sanctification apart from it either. A humble heart is at the heart of the Christian life. After all, it is the life of Christ who was perfectly humble.

Since humility is the emptiness of self which leaves the soul in utter dependence on God to work in it and through it by grace alone, this should instruct us on how to live to the glory of God. The humble soul will arrive at the point that there is nothing in it and of itself that can bring glory to God. As the humble soul knows that the command to love God cannot be kept other than to first receive the love of God from God, so the humble soul realizes that the command to glorify God cannot be kept unless one receives what is needed to do that from God.

Some older theologians (John Smith, Jonathan Edwards) spoke of God as having an internal glory (glory ad intra) and then that internal glory when expressed was referred to as the external glory (glory ad extra). Here, once again, we can see where the teaching on the character of God and true humility are parallel to each other. God exists in perfect love and glory within the Trinity. There is no one who has access to that glory unless God Himself decides to express it. So the command of I Corinthians 10:31, which is really an expression of the Great Commandment, is a command that the humble should hear and know that it can do nothing to keep it in its own strength. God commands us that whether we eat, drink, or whatever we do we are to do to the glory of His name. The proud soul sees that command and sets out to fill its head with knowledge and to do things which make God look good. But wait a minute, says the humble soul, how am I to reach into the Godhead and extract glory in order that He would be manifested? The proud soul simply smiles and says that if God commands it then it must have the power to do so. So it sets out to do all these external things while thinking that it is doing them to make God look good.

The humble soul cringes at the proud soul and knows that it is not really the glory of God being expressed by the proud soul but in reality it is the pride of the soul that is being seen. God will not give His glory to a proud person even if they say they are doing what they do to the glory of God. The humble soul knows that if it is going to keep the command to do all to the glory of God it must die to the desires and works of self so that it may be filled with the glory of God in order that the glory of God may be manifested through it. It has no illusions that it can do anything to make God look good or that any of the glory of God will shine in and through it apart from God filling that soul full of Himself. A soul only truly glorifies God when it is emptied of self and when the glory of God (Christ Himself is the shining forth of the glory of God, Heb 1:3) fills the soul and the Spirit fills that soul with the fruit of the Spirit (which is really the character of God). It is only then that the soul that is full of Christ and the
Spirit can glorify God because it is God who is manifesting His own glory through the soul.

With the previous thoughts in mind, it is easy to see how pride is the root of every sin and evil. It is only the humble soul that receives grace and so is used as a vessel and instrument to the glory of God. Romans 3:23 tells us that sin is to fall short of the glory of God. It is not as if they barely missed the glory or only did it on occasion, but the whole soul of the person has a bent away from the glory of God and don’t even aim at it. In all that the person does the person seeks self instead of God. People seek themselves in whatever they do and seek for glory and honor from others and in their own estimation. They do this in the things of religion as well. We have to be very careful or we will fall under the condemnation of the Pharisees. They prayed for themselves (though they used the name of God) and they fasted for themselves (Matthew 6:9ff). In other words, they were using what God intended as means of grace (grace always glorifies Him) to be ways to glorify themselves in seeking their own honor before human beings. They tried to use God to honor themselves. They tried to use what God intended as ways to glorify Himself and twisted them as means to bring honor to themselves. That is to be just like the devil.

The very root and heart of sin is in the soul’s desire to be like God: “For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Gen 3:5). The soul wants to do its own thing and do it in its own wisdom and strength like God does rather than be emptied of self and wait on God to do what He wants to do in and through the soul. Self-righteousness is hated by God because it is the soul trying to be self-sufficient in its own righteousness which is an attempt to be like God. The humble soul knows that it has no righteousness in and of itself and knows that all righteousness needed to stand before God is granted it by the imputation of the righteousness of Christ. It also knows that any righteousness it lives by is a righteousness that will come from the throne of God and be worked into it by grace. The devil wants to live by what it derives of self and not receive all from God based on self. That is what his children do as well, even if they are very religious. The humble bow in their own nothingness and receive all righteousness and all good by grace.

God originally created human beings to manifest His own glory and not the glory of any other. But Satan injected his poison of pride and self-centeredness into human beings and now all are born dead in sins and trespasses and are by nature children of wrath (Eph 2:1-3). Out of pride and self fallen human beings now glory in themselves and seek their own honor and glory in all they do. This is exactly what Satan wanted in that he is at war with God over who gets the glory. Each human soul that is full of pride and lives for self demonstrates that it is a child of the devil. It is true that many human beings devote themselves to doing charity work or to religion in another name and many in the name of God. But that is not the same thing as doing those things from the grace and strength of grace that comes from God. It is easy for a human being that is devoted to self to give self to the things that would honor self in the ways of religion or the work of charity. The human heart is seemingly boundless in finding ways to gain attention to self for its so-called devotion to good works. Even the good works of human beings shows us the need for true humility so that it may be the glory of God working those things in and through us.

In the last BLOG we looked at how human beings are utterly dependent on God each moment for all things in the physical and spiritual realms. He is the One that upholds us each moment and gives each breath and all things. The soul must learn this in order to understand true humility. The life of God is imparted to and shared with the soul (of true believers) moment by moment for no other reason than grace. We say the words “saved by grace alone” and we think that it simply means that we are delivered from hell based on His help which we don’t deserve. Rather than that, however, true salvation is also to be saved from self and the power of sin. True salvation is to have the life of God in the soul. All of these things comes to us each moment by His grace. Now since we know that Scripture teaches us that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble, we know that we only obtain grace to the degree that we are humble. The proud live by self even though they may think they have humility, but it is truly pride that they live by. But the true believer lives by grace each moment which means that the true believer must be seeking the emptiness of self so that is may live more and more by grace.

Surely, then, we can see something of what true holiness is then. Hebrews 12:10 tells us that we are partakers of His holiness and so holiness is something that comes to us from Him. The proud seek to do outwardly good things and find a form of self-righteousness in them. But the humble know that they can do nothing apart from Christ and so all that is good that comes from them is really that which originated in Christ and came to them through Christ. True humility is to see that all that comes from the self is in fact sin regardless of whether it is externally good or not. True humility seeks to be full of Him so that what comes from the person is in fact the life of God being expressed through it. The humble person understands that the command to be holy as He is holy (I Peter 1:13-16) is not a command to do something in the strength of self. When Jesus commanded the disciples to give the thousands around them food, He did not command them to do what they could do in their own power (Mark 6:37). Instead, He took five loaves of bread and two fish and broke them and then had the disciples set the food before the people. He commanded them to do what only He could provide and enable them to do. The command to be holy as He is holy is something like that. If we try to be holy as He is holy in our own strength, we will see very quickly that we cannot do so. This should drive us to be partakers of His holiness and so have true holiness.

The soul that learns that it is only grace that enables it to live in holiness, love, and truth is the soul that is beginning to learn what true Christianity and true humility is all about. True humility will only come to the soul that reaches the point of not living for self and doing all in the strength of self. This is the person that recognizes deep within its soul and not just intellectually that every command of Scripture is beyond its strength to keep as God would have it kept. This is the soul that understands that it must live by grace each moment or it is living by its own strength and pride. If the soul is to live by grace each and every moment, then we must realize that the soul must be humble each and every moment because God only gives grace to the humble. This soul has begun to awaken to the fact that being saved by grace also has to do with being saved from the life of self so that the life of grace may live in it. This soul has begun to understand what it means to die to self and that the life of Christ in the soul is the life of grace. When this soul runs into temptation, it knows that it must die to self and that the fight is by and through grace. This soul lives by grace each moment and so it knows that it must seek true humility each moment as well. Where the self is, grace is not. Where grace is, self is not. The humble soul seeks a deeper and deeper humility so that it may partake more and more of Christ who is grace to it.

One of the most basic questions that gets to the heart of all things is why did God create the universe. Did God create the universe out of need? Did He bring the universe from nothing in order to obtain something from it that He lacked? Surely just the asking of the question in that way makes the answer obvious. It cannot be the case that God brings something from nothing or from non-being to being in order for it to provide Him something that He could not provide for Himself.

The next question has to do with why God created man. Did God create man so that man could do something for Him or so that man could fulfill some need He had? Once again the answer is obvious. God has no need of anything or anyone. Human beings, despite their pride in thinking differently, are utterly dependent on God for all things rather than God being dependent on them for one thing at all. This is the basis for one aspect of humility. God does not need man at all and yet proves man with breath and all things. God did not need man and yet He created man for a purpose. What could that purpose be?

Hebrews 1:3 And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

Colossians 1:16 For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities– all things have been created through Him and for Him.17 He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.

In reading these verses, we get the idea that Christ is the center of all things. How much does God really need us and how dependent are human beings on Him? If God truly maintains human beings and all things each and ever moment (also see Acts 17:24-28), then how empty human beings should be of self-dependence, self-sufficiency, and pride. In other words, humility is to be empty of self and a focus on self so that we can rely on God for all things and to look to Him for all things simply we truly live by His mercy and grace. If God does truly maintain human beings each and every moment of each and every day as Acts 17:24-28 declares, then there is no room for pride at all. This teaches us to look to Him as the Creator who created all things for Himself and no other reason. This teaches us that we are utterly dependent on Him for life, breath, and all things. Then when we look at things in the spiritual realm, we can see how dependent we are on Him for spiritual things. This should humble us in the dust to realize how dependent we are on Him and how proud we have been to think that things depended on us.

In light of why God created human beings and how we are dependent on Him for all things each moment, a human being would find its highest good and joy by being nothing more than an empty vessel in terms of self and pride so that it could be filled with God Himself. The soul would then find rest in Christ-esteem rather than self-esteem. The soul would then find that it was created for another and not itself. It would find that it is not to be a selfish and self-centered being, but instead it is to share in the life of God and then in the lives of others as they share in the life of God. This type of soul would find that it is the dwelling place of God and find that its true love is in seeing the glory of God being manifested through it. This type of soul would find that its greatest privilege is to be a vessel of the glory of God and an instrument He uses to manifest Himself through.

The soul that discovers the joy of humility as in fact discovered the goal of that humility and that is to be an empty vessel in regards to self so that it may be a full vessel in regards to God. This is the soul that will learn what it means to hate self (Luke 14:26) because it is that self that gets in the way of its true love which is God. It will learn to despise the noxious fumes of self as they rise because it wants to exalt in the incense of Christ. Oh how this soul now begins to truly live as it has Christ who is Divine life in the soul which is what eternal life really is. How this soul learns that true joy is to delight in God and not the things of self. Now this soul learns that true love must come from God and in fact is for God in all things. This is the soul that longs for and seeks for the enlightening work of the Spirit to show it more sin and more selfishness so that it may die more and more to self so that it can truly live by the Spirit of Christ more and more. Humility is not just a virtue that is added to the soul to make it more righteous, but it is the emptiness of self from the creature that it may share in the Divine life. It is true life. It is looking to Him as the all-sufficient One rather than self.

In the last BLOG we ended looking at I Corinthians 2:10-14 in an effort to show that all spiritual understanding comes from the Spirit of God and is therefore by grace. Only the humble can receive grace. A spiritual wisdom and understanding, therefore, always comes by grace and grace alone and can only be received by the humble. This is disputed and fought by many, but it is a certainty from Scripture that this is true. It is said that academic degrees and human knowledge can bring a great understanding of the Bible, but the Bible itself militates against that. The Bible teaches us that human intellect and wisdom can give a great understanding about the Bible but it is impossible for anything but the Spirit of God to give spiritual understanding of the Bible. If a spiritual understanding of Scripture is beyond the human ability, then it can only come to the soul by the grace of God and it is only the humble who can receive grace.

“For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.13 For He delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son” (Col 1:9-13).

This text is simply full of spiritual truth. It is being filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding (versus human wisdom and understanding) that one may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord and please Him in all respects. It is also in view of those things that a person can bear fruit in every good work and increase in the knowledge of God. It is only in spiritual wisdom that a person can bear fruit. That should be obvious since it would require a spiritual wisdom and understanding in order to bear spiritual fruit and to increased in the knowledge (or personal knowing) God. Clearly, and most likely without any real disagreement, there is no spiritual fruit that comes to the soul that is not by grace. Believers bear spiritual fruit by grace and not because of works. True good works come from grace rather than grace by good works. This is hard for many to hear, but it is music to the ear that is in tune with the Divine symphony.

The Divine symphony is the love that the triune God has for Himself and His own glory and He shares that with believers. In Ephesians 1:17 Paul prays that the “God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. 18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened.” We know that it is the Spirit of the living God that brings enlightenment and so God gives this by the Holy Spirit. Paul prayed for God to give this spirit of wisdom and revelation (enlightenment) to sinners but not because they deserve it. He wants the eyes of the hearts of sinners to be enlightened, but not because they deserve it. The text goes on and it is to show forth the greatness and glory of God. Sinners are not enlightened to the truth so they can feel better about themselves, but this happens so that they can know God and may be used by Him to manifest His glory. After all, sinners are saved according to His good pleasure, to the praise of the glory of His grace (Eph 1:6-7). Sinners are saved so that they would be “to the praise of His glory” (Eph 1:12) and “to the praise of His glory” (Eph 1:14). It is in this light that Paul prays to “the Father of glory” (Eph 1:17) so that sinners would be given a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. He wanted them to know this “so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints” (Eph 1:18). It is all about His glory and His glory only comes to the humble.

The prayers of Paul are utterly dependent on the Spirit giving understanding to people. His prayers for people are utterly dependent on the people being humble before the Lord or they could not even understand what he was praying much less receive that he prayed for. Perhaps we should learn to pray that the Lord would teach others humility so that they could receive the spiritual things that we pray for them. Without denying the sovereignty of God, it almost seems that we would waste spiritual prayers if the people are not humble to begin with. We do not pray for unbelievers to be sanctified, so perhaps we should not pray for spiritual things for people who are not humble and instead trust in their own powers. Nevertheless, we can see once again how the knowledge of God and spiritual wisdom go hand in hand. For sinners to receive those, they must be seeking humility and have some degree of it. God opposes the proud and will not give Himself to them. He will give Himself to the humble alone.

In the last BLOG the effort was to show how vital it is to understand the nature of Scripture as having spiritual meaning as its primary meaning and then to show that humility is at the heart of all of that. When Paul prayed for the Colossian people to be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, he was not praying for them to understand things intellectually. He was praying for them to understand God and His glory in a spiritual manner which has to do with the Holy Spirit and has to do with grace. Anything that a saved human being receives from God is by grace alone and God only gives grace to the humble.

“For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.13 For He delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son” (Col 1:9-13).

Paul does not just tell the Colossian people that he prayed for them to be filled with the knowledge of His will, but he told them why. It was so that they would walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects. Now, if all spiritual understanding comes by the Holy Spirit, and all that He gives is by grace and only the humble receive grace, then we can see how it is true that walking in a manner worthy of the Lord requires humility. We can also see how it takes humility to please the Lord. Once again, however, it is so hard for the human mind to see its utter dependence on God in all things. We strive to set out how much ability man has by saying man is responsible in order to avoid hyper-Calvinism, but we don’t see it as much of a concern to avoid Pelagianism. What we must be concerned about is to be biblical in this area and Jesus said without equivocation that apart from Him we can do nothing (John 15:5). There is no spiritual fruit regardless of the religious exercises done apart from abiding in Christ and Christ abiding in us. There is no walking in a manner worthy of the Lord and there is no pleasing the Lord apart from Christ in the soul working in the soul so that it would walk and please the Lord.

“10 For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.11 For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man, which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God, 13 which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. 14 But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.” (I Cor 2:10-14).

Colossians 1 speaks of a spiritual wisdom and understanding that is necessary to please the Lord. The passage just above speaks of how no one can (has the ability) know anything spiritual except by the Spirit of God. It is the Spirit that knows the depths of God as it is the spirit of man that knows (rather than other humans) the spirit of man. Who can reveal spiritual things and the thoughts of God but the Spirit of God? Only those who have received the Spirit can know the things given to human beings by God. Paul said that he spoke, not in words taught by human wisdom, but with spiritual thoughts with spiritual words taught of the Spirit. The natural man cannot understand the things of the Spirit of God. The text says that “he cannot understand them.” In other words, the natural man has no ability to even understand spiritual things. Only those who have the Spirit can understand the things of God. But even there we must be careful because those who are not walking with God at the moment He will oppose and not give them greater understanding. A spiritual understanding only comes by grace and God will only give grace to the humble. The proud, and in this context it would mean those who trust in man’s wisdom, cannot understand the things of God even if they are ordained ministers and even if they have taught Sunday School for years. It takes humility to understand the things of God regardless of a person’s brilliance, personality, or education level. The Spirit of God alone can give understanding into the things of God and that is spiritual wisdom and spiritual understanding. How badly we need to learn this.