God Loves… Himself

As we continue in this neglected topic, we should ask the Lord to open our own hearts to the truth. We should know that in a day which focuses so much on externals and neglects the true nature of the heart while giving some lip-service to it, there is a lot of deception. It is not always other people who are deceived. It is not just that it might be others at church, or other ministers, or other spouses. These things are true of every human being that has ever lived, lives now, or will ever live. Unless the pride of our hearts is mortified, and by that I mean truly mortified rather than just an intellectual explanation of a worldly idea, we are as unconverted as people are on judgment day when they understand the truth but have unmortified pride in their hearts. All of their orthodoxy is full of pride. The devil himself believes all of the things of Christianity but his pride has not been killed by grace. Oh, some say, I have free will to kill my pride whenever I please. That shows a person that has never felt the weight and power of pride in the soul. Only grace can kill the monstrous beast of pride in our hearts that is the offspring of the devil. The unregenerate soul is a slave to pride and self and it takes the power of God by the blood of Christ to deliver it.

The first quote is from Thomas Shepard and then a few comments on it by Alexander Whyte in a book he wrote on Shepard originally published in 1909. The second is from Jonathan Edwards.

‘Of all hypocrites,’ says Thomas Shepard, that pungentest of preachers, ‘take care that you be not an evangelical hypocrite.’ A hundred times and in a hundred ways Shepard says that. But what does the dreadful man mean? He means this: An evangelical hypocrite is a man who sins the more safely because grace abounds; who says to his lusts, both of mind and body, that the blood of Christ cleanseth from all such sin, and who reasons with himself thus: God cannot, by any possibility, cast any man into hell who loves evangelical preaching as I love it, and who would not sit a day but in an evangelical church. My evangelical brethren, let us take good care! For if evangelical hypocrites are to found anywhere in our day it is in a church like ours and under a doctrine like ours.

…without the least mortification of the pride of their hearts. But the essence of evangelical humiliation consists in such humility as becomes a creature in itself exceeding sinful, under a dispensation of grace; consisting in a mean esteem of himself, as in himself nothing, and altogether contemptible and odious; attended with a mortification of a disposition to exalt himself, and a free renunciation of his own glory… (Jonathan Edwards)

In the realm of television there are a lot of preachers and singers who seem to think highly of themselves. It is so easy to pick on TV preachers as that just means other people who will remain unnamed who are famous. However, what of those I know and then myself? It is easy to preach on subjects that I think are to the people rather than to me. If only preachers would follow the advice of John Owen who said that he had to live his sermon a week in order to taste of it so that he would not dispense poison to his people. A teaching may tickle the ears or it may make people laugh or feel good, and it may even feed their intellect in accordance with a Creed. But unless it has taken a hack at pride as Peter took at Malchus with a sword and even if it missed the head and just takes off an ear, then the heart has not been touched and no spiritual good has been done. The only way to progress in the spiritual realm is by pride being mortified and grace coming alive in the soul. God hates pride and opposes it. So if our preaching does nothing but build religious or spiritual pride we are doing nothing but what God hates and what is the most detrimental to souls. Orthodox preaching is and can be very dangerous when the heart is not truly considered in light of pride and humility. The truth will harden proud hearts while it softens humble ones.

It is vital to Christianity to get beyond orthodox information to the depths of the heart. The quotes from Thomas Shepard and Jonathan Edwards are but tiny bits compared to the whole of their writings. They were not satisfied to rest in propositions of truth, but they wanted the work of the Spirit in their hearts and knew that true conversion and true Christianity had to have that. How easy it is to rest in baptism, orthodoxy, good feelings, modern or traditional music, and yet still be a slave to pride and self. How easy it is to assume an outward humility and perhaps convince ourselves that we are truly humble. But true Christianity that loves the true God in Christ will hate all sin and especially when it is found in our own hearts. If we truly love the glory of God in the face of Christ which is the Gospel we will hate pride in our own hearts and go to war against His enemies. A love for Christ means a hatred for His enemies even when it is our own hearts. We must not deceive ourselves into thinking that we love Christ if we will not go to war with the pride of our own hearts. Evangelical humility is utterly necessary.

In the last BLOG a discussion about the distinction between what an evangelical hypocrite versus a true evangelical humility erupted. The big discussion is about humility and then looking at evangelical humility. But as we hopefully saw a person can be an evangelical in terms of theology and even practice (in morality and church attendance) and still be an evangelical hypocrite. Indeed this is not a popular subject and not many large churches could be built while teaching this in the modern day, and perhaps many if not all large churches would be emptied out if someone began preaching to the heart and the nature of true sin. Not many in our day that has been steeped in the teaching of the self-esteem doctrines of our day would stand to hear the truth of the kind of heart the Gospel actually requires in a person. Grace is not something that just makes up for what a human being can’t do in his or her own power, it must do it all or it will not save that soul.

The first quote is from Thomas Shepard and then a few comments on it by Alexander Whyte in a book he wrote on Shepard originally published in 1909. The second is from Jonathan Edwards. Note how they fit together.

‘Of all hypocrites,’ says Thomas Shepard, that pungentest of preachers, ‘take care that you be not an evangelical hypocrite.’ A hundred times and in a hundred ways Shepard says that. But what does the dreadful man mean? He means this: An evangelical hypocrite is a man who sins the more safely because grace abounds; who says to his lusts, both of mind and body, that the blood of Christ cleanseth from all such sin, and who reasons with himself thus: God cannot, by any possibility, cast any man into hell who loves evangelical preaching as I love it, and who would not sit a day but in an evangelical church. My evangelical brethren, let us take good care! For if evangelical hypocrites are to found anywhere in our day it is in a church like ours and under a doctrine like ours.

…without the least mortification of the pride of their hearts. But the essence of evangelical humiliation consists in such humility as becomes a creature in itself exceeding sinful, under a dispensation of grace; consisting in a mean esteem of himself, as in himself nothing, and altogether contemptible and odious; attended with a mortification of a disposition to exalt himself, and a free renunciation of his own glory… (Jonathan Edwards)

Where are evangelical hypocrites to be found today? By definition, according to Whyte, they will be found in the evangelical and conservative churches. If we are not awakened to this, we will go on giving easy words and nice potions to people which in effect drugs them and lulls them to sleep as they slip easily down the path into hell. There are most likely large numbers of lost souls who are rest in the fact that they love what passes as evangelical teaching and are conservative politically and morally. There are large numbers of lost souls who nod at conservative doctrines and conservative morality. But just like those who are standing before God on the last day being ready to descend into hell, all of that is without the least mortification of the pride of their hearts. We can know that there are many who call themselves Reformed and yet are full of pride and self. There are many who are Reformed and yet are proud of being gracious to others. There are many who are Reformed and are proud of their humility. A false humility can be proud of its own humility while looking down on the pride of others which just may be true humility. The world must not define humility and pride for us or what is Christian will be lost.

How many people are there in the Reformed world that focuses on the external man and yet makes no effort to see pride killed in his or her own heart? True enough, there is a lot of talk about the heart in our day. But the talk about the heart is limited to the feelings. As long as we can get the affections flowing we think the heart has been touched. So it is possible to deal with what we call the heart and yet miss the truth about the heart altogether. The pride of the heart must be mortified so that the creature sees self as exceedingly sinful in the heart. The Lord in His mercy must show us the pride of our hearts by the light of His holiness and glory or we will simply judge ourselves by externals and other human beings. We will then go along as evangelical hypocrites into eternal darkness. Spiritual darkness has descended upon our land today and it is getting darker. Human beings continue to look to methods and ways of making things externally better and getting people to make decisions for Christ. But the best that those things can do is to make evangelical hypocrites. What must happen is that God must show us the depths of pride and self in the heart so that we can seek Him to have this pride mortified (put to death) in us. We must be careful of ourselves and of others. After all, Jesus did say that the gate/way is narrow and few will find it.

While the subject we have been looking at is humility, and for the last several BLOGS evangelical humility as Jonathan Edwards terms it, there is also another point that needs to be looked at in light of what evangelical humility is. There is also what Thomas Shepard calls an “evangelical hypocrite.” On great difference between professing believers that are conservative and moral and that of true believers is that one group are evangelical hypocrites and the others have evangelical humility. This is a vital distinction that gets to the heart of true Christianity. Below is a quote from Thomas Shepard and then a few comments on it by Alexander Whyte in a book he wrote on Shepard originally published in 1909.

‘Of all hypocrites,’ says Thomas Shepard, that pungentest of preachers, ‘take care that you be not an evangelical hypocrite.’ A hundred times and in a hundred ways Shepard says that. But what does the dreadful man mean? He means this: An evangelical hypocrite is a man who sins the more safely because grace abounds; who says to his lusts, both of mind and body, that the blood of Christ cleanseth from all such sin, and who reasons with himself thus: God cannot, by any possibility, cast any man into hell who loves evangelical preaching as I love it, and who would not sit a day but in an evangelical church. My evangelical brethren, let us take good care! For if evangelical hypocrites are to found anywhere in our day it is in a church like ours and under a doctrine like ours.

We have seen in the quote from Jonathan Edwards that a person must have evangelical humility to be a true Christian. It is not that this evangelical humility is an option, but if a person has evangelical doctrine without evangelical humility, that person is not a Christian. In his work on The Religious Affections that the quote we have been looking at was taken from, he quoted Thomas Shepard more than all other writers combined. For whatever it is worth, Shepard was also the founder of Harvard University. But if these men are correct, then it is possible for people to have correct doctrine, be upright morally, attend church every time the door is opened, and yet they may still be utterly lost. If these men are correct (“are” not “were” because of their writings we are looking at now), then a person may adhere to the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith and/or the Westminster Confession and be lost. A person may love those Confessions and their corresponding catechisms and still be lost.

If those men are correct, conservative churches may be full of politically and theologically conservative people who are lost souls. It would be possible to have seminaries to have conservative men who are gifted academically and yet be lost. It would be possible for ministers to be conservative and kind and gracious (in the modern sense) and yet be utterly devoid of saving grace. The Pharisees were conservative in virtually every way. They were very strict in their morality, or at least according to their standards. Jesus showed them and others the hearts of the Pharisees and that is when their sinful hearts were exposed. But if you saw them back then you would be impressed with their learning and their outward morality. What we don’t see today is a ministry that is willing to stand up and preach to the heart and expose sin at its very root. This leads to people today going on in their external theology and morality thinking that they are fine and that they are saved. As long as morality and theology are left to the externals, people will go on not knowing or not worrying about the stench of the pride of their own hearts. They will think that they have grace to be saved while they are in bondage to the inner sins of their hearts.

…without the least mortification of the pride of their hearts. But the essence of evangelical humiliation consists in such humility as becomes a creature in itself exceeding sinful, under a dispensation of grace; consisting in a mean esteem of himself, as in himself nothing, and altogether contemptible and odious; attended with a mortification of a disposition to exalt himself, and a free renunciation of his own glory… (Jonathan Edwards)

How many people today would go to any church that preached to the wickedness of their hearts? No, we want someone to build us up and to speak things that give us a high self-esteem. But a teaching and a preaching that is built on self-esteem is a teaching and a preaching that is not getting at the mortification of the pride of the human heart. Unless the pride of the heart is exposed and men turn from that in reality and in truth, then that person does not have a true humility. As Edwards points out, this evangelical humility consists “in a mean esteem of himself, as in himself nothing, and altogether contemptible and odious.” We live in a day when men prefer to exalt themselves rather than renounce their own glory. That is a sign of a wicked heart no matter the theology one holds.

The last BLOG looked at the need for a creature to judge itself in light of the God who created it in order to attain to something of true humility. Human beings want to judge themselves by their own standards or other human beings, but that is not how we should or can attain a true sight of our won hearts. We must learn, though indeed it is a hard and disgusting thing, to see ourselves as we really are. The most vile and reprehensible thing that a person will ever see is a sight of his or her own heart in the blazing light of the holiness of God. A person with high self-esteem and a high view of self is a person that has never seen the holiness and glory of God. This is simply to say that a high view of self is simply a deceptive and artificial view of self that people have when they are too blinded by pride to see the true self in contrast to the holiness of God.

The following quote is taken from The Religious Affections by Jonathan Edwards. The total quote being used can be seen in the BLOG Humility 36.

“Legal humiliation has in it no spiritual good, nothing of the nature of true virtue; whereas evangelical humiliation is that wherein the excellent beauty of a Christian grace does very much consist. Legal humiliation is useful, as a means in order to evangelical; as a common knowledge of the things of religion is a means requisite in order to spiritual knowledge. Men may be legally humbled and have no humility; as the wicked at the day of judgment will be thoroughly convinced that they have no righteousness, but are altogether sinful, exceeding guilty, and justly exposed to eternal damnation-and be fully sensible of their own helplessness-without the least mortification of the pride of their Hearts. But the essence of evangelical humiliation consists in such humility as becomes a creature in itself exceeding sinful, under a dispensation of grace; consisting in a mean esteem of himself, as in himself nothing, and altogether contemptible and odious; attended with a mortification of a disposition to exalt himself, and a free renunciation of his own glory…This is a great and most essential thing in true religion. The whole frame of the gospel, every thing appertaining in the new covenant, and all God’s dispensations towards fallen man, are calculated to bring to pass this effect. They that are destitute of this, have no true religion, whatever profession they may make, and high soever their religious affections may be.”

The essence of evangelical humiliation consists in such humility as becomes a creature. That is more or less where we stopped last time as we focused on what it means to see self as a creature. It involves a look at the creature in light of its Creator. But the next part of the statement is that the creature must see itself as “exceeding sinful.” In other words, if we see ourselves in light of the holiness of God we will begin to see something of the despicable nature of our hearts and see ourselves as exceedingly sinful. A person that does not see self as exceedingly sinful is a person that has never seen self in contrast with the true God. Most likely it is a person that has never seen God either since one cannot see God in truth without seeing something of self in truth. The brightness of His glory is what will bring a person to a true sight of self and then a true sight of his sinfulness and creatureliness.

“In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. 2 Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called out to another and said, ‘Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory.’ 4 And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke. 5 Then I said, ‘Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts'” (Isaiah 6:1-5).

“Hear, now, and I will speak; I will ask You, and You instruct me. 5 ‘I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; But now my eye sees You; 6 Therefore I retract, And I repent in dust and ashes'” (Job 42:4-6).

These two passages could be multiplied, but these are sufficient to make the point. Once a person sees God, then that person is brought to an end of self and sees self as a creature what is exceedingly sinful. Isaiah was a prophet and most likely thought to be a holy man, but once the light of the holiness of God shone in him, he saw himself as utterly vile and unclean. Job thought he was righteous and could not understand what God was doing to him, but once he saw God he repented in dust and ashes and saw the sovereign rights of God over him. God is our standard.

Past BLOGS looked at the need for pride to be mortified for a person to be a true Christian. This is not in line with modern Christian thought, though Scripture teaches that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. We want salvation to come by an act of the intellect rather than God changing the soul from its pride to a humility. In many ways this is at the heart of biblical Christianity. Jonathan Edwards said one time that an unbeliever can do anything that a believer can do except love. But tied in with that is that a proud person cannot love another in truth since the love of God only dwells in the truly humble. Unless the pride of a soul has been truly mortified, it will remain in the bondage of sin even if it has a high degree of orthodoxy or religion. Unless the pride of a soul has been truly mortified, it will even use some form of humility to exalt itself. How blind the proud soul is to itself.

The following quote is taken from The Religious Affections by Jonathan Edwards. The total quote being used can be seen in the BLOG Humility 36.

“Legal humiliation has in it no spiritual good, nothing of the nature of true virtue; whereas evangelical humiliation is that wherein the excellent beauty of a Christian grace does very much consist. Legal humiliation is useful, as a means in order to evangelical; as a common knowledge of the things of religion is a means requisite in order to spiritual knowledge. Men may be legally humbled and have no humility; as the wicked at the day of judgment will be thoroughly convinced that they have no righteousness, but are altogether sinful, exceeding guilty, and justly exposed to eternal damnation-and be fully sensible of their own helplessness-without the least mortification of the pride of their Hearts. But the essence of evangelical humiliation consists in such humility as becomes a creature in itself exceeding sinful, under a dispensation of grace; consisting in a mean esteem of himself, as in himself nothing, and altogether contemptible and odious; attended with a mortification of a disposition to exalt himself, and a free renunciation of his own glory…This is a great and most essential thing in true religion. The whole frame of the gospel, every thing appertaining in the new covenant, and all God’s dispensations towards fallen man, are calculated to bring to pass this effect. They that are destitute of this, have no true religion, whatever profession they may make, and high soever their religious affections may be.”

In contrast to the proud soul that does all for self including external forms of so-called humility, biblical humility is what Edwards calls “evangelical humility” and is something far beyond what a proud soul can truly attain. It is only when pride has been mortified can a soul begin to see itself and then the glory of God in a true light. It should be added that a soul will only see itself in the light of the glory of God. But the humility that is a true humility means that the soul truly esteems itself as less than nothing before God. That is clearly nothing that is popular in our present time which teaches people to esteem themselves and live for themselves rather than God. But God only dwells with those who are humble and contrite. True humility is what becomes a creature which is to say that part of true humility is to see that the creature (myself) in light of the holiness and glory of the One who Created it.

“Nearly all the wisdom we possess, that is to say, true and sound wisdom, consists of two parts; the knowledge of God and of ourselves….we cannot seriously aspire to him before we begin to become displeased with ourselves. For what man in all the world would not gladly remain as he is-what man does not remain as he is-so long as he does not know himself, that is, while content with his own gifts, and either ignorant or unmindful of his own misery? Accordingly, the knowledge of ourselves not only arouses us to seek God, but also, as it were, leads us by the hand to find him….For we always seem to ourselves righteous and upright and wise and holy-this pride is innate in all of us-unless by clear proofs we stand convinced of our own unrighteousness, foulness, folly, and impurity. Moreover, we are not thus convinced if we look merely to ourselves and not also to the Lord, who is the sole standard by which this judgment must be measured. For, because all of us are inclined by nature to hypocrisy, a kind of empty image of righteousness in place of righteousness itself abundantly satisfies us. And because nothing appears within or around us that has not been contaminated by great immorality, what is a little less vile pleases us as a thing most pure-so long as we confine our minds within the limits of human corruption. Jus so, an eye to which nothing is shown but black objects judges something dirty white or even rather darkly mottled to be whiteness itself….Suppose we but once begin to raise our thoughts to God…then, what masquerading earlier as righteousness was pleasing in us will soon grow filthy in its consummate wickedness.” (Calvin)

Perhaps it cannot be emphasized too much that there must be a mortification of pride in a soul or it will not be saved and it is not saved. Humility is not just a good idea and not just something that is added on so we can think we are more like Christ, but an important aspect of this is the mortification of pride. The unbelieving soul that comes before God on judgment day will have no excuse for its sin and its mouth will be shut. The unbelieving soul on judgment day will confess its guilt and it will cry out for mercy, but none will be shown to it. The devil himself hates God and knows that he is a wicked and vile being, but he is full of self and pride. Let us not imagine the soul that is full of pride even if it is religious pride has been converted by God.

The following quote is taken from The Religious Affections by Jonathan Edwards. The total quote being used can be seen in the BLOG Humility 36.

“Legal humiliation has in it no spiritual good, nothing of the nature of true virtue; whereas evangelical humiliation is that wherein the excellent beauty of a Christian grace does very much consist. Legal humiliation is useful, as a means in order to evangelical; as a common knowledge of the things of religion is a means requisite in order to spiritual knowledge. Men may be legally humbled and have no humility; as the wicked at the day of judgment will be thoroughly convinced that they have no righteousness, but are altogether sinful, exceeding guilty, and justly exposed to eternal damnation-and be fully sensible of their own helplessness-without the least mortification of the pride of their Hearts. But the essence of evangelical humiliation consists in such humility as becomes a creature in itself exceeding sinful, under a dispensation of grace; consisting in a mean esteem of himself, as in himself nothing, and altogether contemptible and odious; attended with a mortification of a disposition to exalt himself, and a free renunciation of his own glory…This is a great and most essential thing in true religion. The whole frame of the gospel, every thing appertaining in the new covenant, and all God’s dispensations towards fallen man, are calculated to bring to pass this effect. They that are destitute of this, have no true religion, whatever profession they may make, and high soever their religious affections may be.”

The soul that loves self and hates God is a soul that has exalted itself in its own mind and desires the honor and adulation of others. This self-centered soul that desires all to be done for it and does all for self is the temple of the devil in the world. So when a self-centered soul that is by definition proud sees that its sin will bring dishonor to self, it will become religious to some degree and perhaps to a great degree. When an unbelieving soul that is full of pride sees that it will go to hell and be put to shame and torment forever, it will desire to become religious thinking that it will receive glory in heaven and not shame. While there is glory in heaven, it is all God’s but the proud soul does not see it that way. The proud soul loves itself and so does not have a hard time believing that God loves it and so it loves God in the sense that it loves those who love it (Luke 6:32). A proud sinner will love God as long as s/he thinks that God loves him or her. But of course that is not true love since the heart has never been changed and God is not loved on the basis of who He is but instead for who the sinner is.

The proud soul that does all for self will become religious and do all for self as well. The proud soul will go to church because it is in the interests of its pride to do so, though indeed it uses other words. The proud soul will study the Bible for the sake of self and all of its prayers are for the sake of self as well. So the proud soul studies the Bible and prays for self and yet it uses the name of God to do so. The proud soul studies theology and becomes quite knowledgeable and so others feed its pride by their comments. The proud soul loves orthodoxy because it now fits in with the elite crowd, but it is still all about self. The proud soul can be a very busy person with church buildings and doing various ministries, but it only does so because of the interests and honor of self rather than the love of God. The proud soul can preach for self in a great orthodoxy as well, though it is proud of doing so.

It is obvious that there must be a mortification of pride or a person is not a converted soul. Until the soul is truly humbled (emptied of the pride of self) it will not have true Christianity at all. A proud soul will utter the words of a prayer but will not have Christ in the soul. A proud soul will make a decision for Christ in some sense but is not humbled to receive Christ Himself in the soul. A proud soul may be very moral but has not been humbled to have the life of Christ in the soul. Until the pride of the soul has been mortified, the soul is still full of self, pride, and the devil. That is not inconsistent with religion, but it is with Christianity and the life of Christ in the soul.

In the last BLOG we started looking at the importance of knowing at least some of the distinction between legal and evangelical humiliation in terms of evangelism. It is dangerous just to get a person to agree that s/he is a sinner and to do something on that basis. Being aware of the fact that one is a sinner is far from even being legally humbled for sin, but being legally humbled for sin is far from the evangelical humiliation that is necessary for salvation. Legal humiliation in some degree can be nothing more than the work of self, but evangelical humiliation can be nothing but the work of God in the soul by grace. So it is utterly vital that we become physician assistants to the soul while the Great Physician does His work in converting them. It leads to eternal destruction when the patient or the physician assistant takes the scalpel from the hands of the Great Physician to do the work in His place. That is precisely what we do when we stop short of evangelical humiliation.

The following quote is taken from The Religious Affections by Jonathan Edwards. The total quote being used can be seen in the BLOG Humility 36.

“Legal humiliation has in it no spiritual good, nothing of the nature of true virtue; whereas evangelical humiliation is that wherein the excellent beauty of a Christian grace does very much consist. Legal humiliation is useful, as a means in order to evangelical; as a common knowledge of the things of religion is a means requisite in order to spiritual knowledge. Men may be legally humbled and have no humility; as the wicked at the day of judgment will be thoroughly convinced that they have no righteousness, but are altogether sinful, exceeding guilty, and justly exposed to eternal damnation-and be fully sensible of their own helplessness-without the least mortification of the pride of their Hearts. But the essence of evangelical humiliation consists in such humility as becomes a creature in itself exceeding sinful, under a dispensation of grace; consisting in a mean esteem of himself, as in himself nothing, and altogether contemptible and odious; attended with a mortification of a disposition to exalt himself, and a free renunciation of his own glory…This is a great and most essential thing in true religion. The whole frame of the gospel, every thing appertaining in the new covenant, and all God’s dispensations towards fallen man, are calculated to bring to pass this effect. They that are destitute of this, have no true religion, whatever profession they may make, and high soever their religious affections may be.”

It should chill us to the depths of our souls to realize the depths of the knowledge of sin that the unbelieving soul will have on the day of judgment and yet not be converted. It does not take knowledge of sin alone to be saved, and it does not take a moral change alone to be saved. It takes a mortification of the pride of the heart which is the essence and heart of sin. If the pride of the heart is not mortified, then the person turns from the sins of self in open sin to the sins of self in religion. The same self that flowed out in pride in the acts of outward sin will be the same self that flows out in the acts of religion. Unless that proud heart is mortified, pride remains alive and in control of the heart. God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. So the proud live in their pride whether religious or not and the proud will die with non-mortified sin in their heart whether religious or not. Unless pride is killed in the heart by grace it is the life of the soul that will be sent to hell for eternity. God hates pride and He will not bring it to heaven to dwell with Him for eternity. For the person with pride in the heart that person must know that his or her pride must be mortified by grace so when the body dies the soul with grace will live with God forever. God saves souls to the glory of His grace and pride is the exact opposite of that. Apart from evangelical humiliation the soul is full of pride and self and will remain that way under the wrath of God for eternity. On judgment day the soul will realize that it will suffer for eternity, but also that it is just for it to do so.

Oh how we need to wake up in our day to see the awful stench that pride is in the nostrils of God. It is not that He will smile dotingly on us as some parents and grandparents do when they see sin in younger folks, but He sees the deadly poison of pride in the hearts and He hates it. He will not allow a proud heart into heaven as that pride is nothing less than the poison of the devil. If He allowed pride into heaven then He might as well allow the devil in and then heaven would no longer be heaven. Oh no, the Lord Jesus who was perfectly humble must be the life in the souls of all who would enter into the presence of God that the Lord may look upon them and see His own glory shining in Christ who is the life of His people. One ounce of pride would destroy that. So we must see the utter necessity of an evangelical humiliation in our own souls and the souls of others. It is not an option despite what the unmortified pride in our hearts and the hearts of others will say. Salvation is to be saved from self and its pride.

In the last BLOG on humility we looked at the fact that legal humiliation has no spiritual good in it and yet it is necessary to make room for evangelical humiliation. In other words, a soul can go far in this way and yet be deceived to stay in that thinking that it is true salvation. Yet as long as the soul does not have evangelical humiliation, it is without saving grace and the life of Christ in the soul. It has merely been brought down closer to a state of reality from its great heights of pride that it lived in previously. The one with mere legal humiliation has indeed been broken from much of the self that it has trusted in for morality and salvation previously, but the beauty of God Himself who only dwells in souls by grace alone is not in that soul.

The following quote is taken from The Religious Affections by Jonathan Edwards. The total quote being used can be seen in the BLOG Humility 36.

“Legal humiliation has in it no spiritual good, nothing of the nature of true virtue; whereas evangelical humiliation is that wherein the excellent beauty of a Christian grace does very much consist. Legal humiliation is useful, as a means in order to evangelical; as a common knowledge of the things of religion is a means requisite in order to spiritual knowledge. Men may be legally humbled and have no humility; as the wicked at the day of judgment will be thoroughly convinced that they have no righteousness, but are altogether sinful, exceeding guilty, and justly exposed to eternal damnation-and be fully sensible of their own helplessness-without the least mortification of the pride of their Hearts. But the essence of evangelical humiliation consists in such humility as becomes a creature in itself exceeding sinful, under a dispensation of grace; consisting in a mean esteem of himself, as in himself nothing, and altogether contemptible and odious; attended with a mortification of a disposition to exalt himself, and a free renunciation of his own glory…This is a great and most essential thing in true religion. The whole frame of the gospel, every thing appertaining in the new covenant, and all God’s dispensations towards fallen man, are calculated to bring to pass this effect. They that are destitute of this, have no true religion, whatever profession they may make, and high soever their religious affections may be.”

Men may be legally humbled and yet have no true humility. Words can deceive us and so we must be careful. As there is a common knowledge of religious things, so there is a spiritual knowledge of religious things. So legal humiliation of the soul is something that can happen to natural men and yet those men still not have true humility that goes along with saving grace. As Edwards points out here, on judgment day there will be many people who will be thoroughly convinced of their sin and of their lack of righteousness. When standing before God and they will see the depths of their own sinfulness and know that they are justly exposed to eternal damnation and know for sure that they are utterly helpless before God. Yet despite all of that the pride in their hearts will remain virtually untouched in terms of the pride being mortified or killed. Pride must die in us or we will perish.

This points us to great danger in the methods of evangelism in our day. If we even realize that a person must be broken from pride in some way and not get the person to just realize that s/he has sinned, we may stop with a form of legal humiliation and try to get the person to pray a prayer or to make some act of commitment. We will evangelize people much differently if we realize that they have to be truly broken from their pride in order to have the life of grace in their souls. We cannot just stop with a person realizing that s/he is a sinner, and we cannot just stop with a person coming to a realization that s/he has no hope in self. We must know that a person is not converted until the person has been changed by grace and loves to exalt free grace rather than self. A person is not converted until that person has what Edwards describes above as parts of evangelical grace. A person can have much of natural religion and be very religious, a preacher, and a Pharisee and not be converted. Jesus taught us that unless a man is turned and receives the kingdom as a little child that person will not enter the kingdom (Mat 18:1-4). Those verses mean something and they have a very important meaning that we will do well not to ignore as so many have done for so long. Edwards is giving us at least part of that meaning in setting out evangelical humiliation. Unless a soul is broken from the self and not just understand that self is helpless to save self, it will not receive the kingdom of God as the kingdom of God. The soul that is in bondage to the kingdom of the devil which consists in self-love, self-sufficiency, and self-centeredness will have a Christ to save it from hell but not from self which is its great idol and love. The soul that is legally humbled is still in the bondage of self-love. The soul that has evangelical humiliation is free in the bonds of love to God. The difference is eternal.

As we continue to look at the vital importance between legal humiliation and evangelical humiliation, we should take note that we are looking at the difference between the ugliness of the devil shining in the soul with the beauty of Christ shining in the soul. The devil is the original self (self-centered opposed to God-centered) in the universe which was the poison that he injected into the human race when he deceived Adam and Eve. Jesus Christ, on the other hand, shines forth with the beauty of non-self or humility. The devil loves religion when it serves his hideous purposes of self. We see the contrast with Jesus who loved God even when the Father poured out His wrath on Jesus while He was on the cross suffering for the sins of others. While the devil desired to be like God, Jesus who was eternally and fully God humbled Himself to take human flesh. Then while in that human flesh He humbled Himself to go to the cross. The difference between the devil and Jesus are quite clear. They are also quite clear when looked at in their children. The children of the devil do all out of a love for self and that includes religious and moral activities. The children of God do all out of love for God because self has been renounced and denied.

The following quote is taken from The Religious Affections by Jonathan Edwards. The total quote being used can be seen in the BLOG Humility 36.

“Legal humiliation has in it no spiritual good, nothing of the nature of true virtue; whereas evangelical humiliation is that wherein the excellent beauty of a Christian grace does very much consist. Legal humiliation is useful, as a means in order to evangelical; as a common knowledge of the things of religion is a means requisite in order to spiritual knowledge. Men may be legally humbled and have no humility; as the wicked at the day of judgment will be thoroughly convinced that they have no righteousness, but are altogether sinful, exceeding guilty, and justly exposed to eternal damnation-and be fully sensible of their own helplessness-without the least mortification of the pride of their Hearts. But the essence of evangelical humiliation consists in such humility as becomes a creature in itself exceeding sinful, under a dispensation of grace; consisting in a mean esteem of himself, as in himself nothing, and altogether contemptible and odious; attended with a mortification of a disposition to exalt himself, and a free renunciation of his own glory…This is a great and most essential thing in true religion. The whole frame of the gospel, every thing appertaining in the new covenant, and all God’s dispensations towards fallen man, are calculated to bring to pass this effect. They that are destitute of this, have no true religion, whatever profession they may make, and high soever their religious affections may be.”

The souls that have legal humiliation still have nothing in them that is spiritually good because there is nothing in legal humiliation that is has the nature of true virtue in it. True virtue, as set out in I Corinthians 13:1-8, is Christian love which begins with a love from God and then to God. It is a love that is shown not because the other person is worthy or has merit, but because it is the love of God in the soul. So a person brought low enough to see that self cannot help self at all is not necessarily a person that has love in the soul. But the person that is a believer has evangelical humiliation and so is a soul with the beauty of the grace of God in the soul. Legal humiliation can be in a very religious person and yet with no saving grace (like the Pharisees). Yet legal humiliation is useful and even necessary. A person must be brought to despair of self and all the help that self can give (legal humiliation) in order to be driven out from self so that Christ would dwell in that soul by grace (evangelical humiliation).

As Edwards points out in his quote above, it takes a common knowledge of religion in order to have a spiritual knowledge. God uses the word of God preached to bring the light that only the Spirit of God can bring into the soul. It takes some degree of legal humiliation to bring the soul down from the height of its own self-sufficiency to even see its need of total grace. The proud soul may see its need of help, but the proud soul is blinded by its own pride and cannot see how dead and helpless it is. The proud soul must have some legal humiliation for it to begin to seek the Lord for grace. Until the natural man has legal humiliation and is broken off from his pride to see that it is grace alone that saves, that man will look to self in some way to help self. As Habakkuk 2:4 tells us, the proud man’s soul is not right within him, but the righteous man lives by faith. Pride stands in opposition to faith so the soul must be broken from its pride in order to make room for faith. Humility is not just a name for something that a person may or may not have, but instead it is something that must be there for faith and love to be in the soul. The Lord works in mysterious ways many times, but in this there is a logical causation in most cases. He works a legal humiliation in the soul in order to prepare for the grace of evangelical humiliation which is true humility.

The importance of the teaching of Jonathan Edwards on the distinction between legal humiliation and evangelical humiliation cannot be overstated. This is so vital and yet seems to have been lost for quite some time. The distinction drawn here is between the religiously unconverted and those who are truly converted. The distinction he makes, then, is really the difference between eternal life and eternal death. Those with nothing more than legal humiliation will have nothing but that which they have worked in themselves and so they have not been delivered from the life of self and so have death in them. Those with a true evangelical humiliation of the soul have that which grace has worked in the soul and they have eternal life dwelling in them. Legal humiliation is the life of self being brought to see something that a natural man can see. Evangelical humiliation of the soul is what happens when Christ Himself dwells in the soul and opens it to the spiritual truths of the glory of God.

“In a legal humiliation, the conscience is convinced; as the consciences of all will be most perfectly at the day of judgment; but because there is no spiritual understanding, the will is not bowed, nor the inclination altered. In legal humiliation, men are brought to despair of helping themselves; in evangelical, they are brought voluntarily to deny and renounce themselves; in the former, they are subdued and forced to the ground; in the latter, they are brought sweetly to yield, and freely and with delight to prostrate themselves at the feet of God.”

It is important to understand that even though a person is brought to despair of helping self in legal humiliation, that is not an infallible sign of conversion. Indeed a person must be brought to despair of helping self in order to trust in grace alone, but just having a form of despair of helping self is not a sign of salvation in and of itself. The command of Jesus was to actually deny self and not just come to a point of despair of helping self. In evangelical humiliation the soul must go much deeper. It must renounce self and deny the rights of self as self-centered to exist. If self is not renounced, then Christ will be renounced in reality. If self is not denied its rights, then Christ will be denied His rights. So this is not just some small issue that bounces around the periphery of salvation, it gets to the very heart of justification by faith alone because it gets to the issue of resting in Christ alone. Until the soul despairs of any hope in itself, it will not look to Christ alone as its only hope. Until the soul despairs of self as having any merit or help, it will not rest in grace alone. But it is also true that until the soul voluntarily denies self it has not been renewed with life from above and so does not have eternal life or Christ in the soul. In legal humiliation the soul is, as it were, brought to a point and forced to see that it cannot help itself, but in evangelical humiliation the soul renounces self without force but with freeness and joy renounces self as the enemy of the soul. Self is denied with joy and even detestation because Christ is the king and life of the soul and all pretenders to His throne and kingdom in the soul must be rejected.

In legal humiliation there is no spiritual understanding and so those who are brought to despair of self don’t see the beauty of what is happening and are in a sense have this forced upon them. They do not arrive at this despair of self willingly, and in fact they hate it. Their self-centered inclinations have not been altered in the slightest and though they are forced to see that they cannot help self, they don’t like it even a little and the enmity they have against God in their hearts is still there. The will of this person has not been bowed to where this is a delight to him or her, but instead the will is still stubborn and obstinate against God. One thief on the cross was still obstinate in death even though his guilt was obvious and he was dying a just death. The other thief submitted to the truth and simply wanted to be with Jesus when He came in His kingdom. The first thief saw the truth but hated it. The second saw the truth and bowed to it.

The believing soul loves to bow with delight and prostrate itself at the feet of God. It loves to be in the dust so as to deny self and the honor to self so that His glory would shine through it. The soul that has evangelical humiliation longs to be in the dust rather than to be honored on this earth. Its desire is to delight in the glory of God as it shines through it and for others to see His glory rather than its own. This soul sees that as long as others look at it and want to honor it that others will not be looking to the glory of God. So this soul longs to be in the shadows of the limelight so that Christ would stand forth. The truly humbled soul that has denied self hates it when self gets attention because that is attention taken from Christ. The truly humbled soul has delight in being forgotten or even despised if the glory of God shines through it. That is, after all, what the concept of true humility consists of. It is the emptiness of self. It is not just pretending that self is nothing; it is the nothingness of self in the sight of God.