God Loves… Himself

The distinction between legal humiliation and evangelical humiliation (as termed by Edwards) is vital to some form of understanding of true humility and then true conversion. He says that “this is a great and most essential thing in true religion.” He then goes on to say “they that are destitute of this, have no true religion, whatever profession they may make, and high soever their religious affections may be.” This distinction, while not talked about in our day much at all if at all, is vital to salvation and sanctification. We must return to the days when men wrestled with Scripture and the nature of their own hearts and others in order that our day would do the same thing.

The quote from below is from Jonathan Edwards’ Religious Affections and the longer quote can be read in the BLOG Humility 36.

“In a legal humiliation men are made sensible that they are nothing before the great and terrible God and, that they are undone, and wholly insufficient to help themselves; as wicked men will be at the day of judgment; but they have not an answerable frame of heart, consisting in a disposition to abase themselves, and exalt God alone. This disposition is given only in evangelical humiliation, by overcoming the heart, and changing its inclination, by a discovery of God’s holy beauty. 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.”

In a legal humiliation the conscience is convinced. This tells us something that we should have known and yet have not taken into account in the most serious of ways. In many methods of evangelism we are told that we are to get sinners to admit that they are sinners. But that is not enough. The unhumbled and unbroken soul can admit that s/he is a sinner and even have the conscience feeling the weight of sin to some degree, but we must not stop there at all. As Edwards notes, and we have looked at in earlier BLOGS on this issue, all will have at least this level of stricken conscience on the day of judgment. But there is no spiritual understanding to go along with this. The conscience, then, is nothing more than what a natural man has. The natural conscience can be pricked with no true spiritual understanding and without the will being bowed to Christ. The natural conscience can be pricked without the inclination being changed and altered at all. In other words, the soul with a convinced conscience is not necessarily a soul that is under a true conviction of sin. We can be under a form of conviction and yet that be no more than a criminal that was caught in the act.

This is vital for men and women in the modern day to grasp for the sake of the souls of others as well as their own. There is a massive distinction between what the unregenerate and non-spiritual soul is capable of and that of the believing soul. The externals may appear to be the same, but inwardly there is a massive difference. But if we are only trained to think according to the externals, we will be guilty of misleading souls and perhaps deceive ourselves. In the modern day Christianity is not seen as the inner life of the soul, but instead it is caught up with morality, good actions, and for a few it is all about doctrine. But true Christianity is all about the state of the heart and of the life of the soul. Edwards forces us to think that way. Humility is of the inward man and not just of the external person as true Christianity is. God does not dwell with the proud.

This is where we see the root of the false conversions of some in Scripture and then many in our day. They were convicted of sin in an external way and yet they were not convicted in the deepest parts of their souls in a spiritual manner. Instead of those evangelizing them trying to discern what is truly going on in the soul, instead they try to get the person to pray a prayer or to do some act of the will. This leads the person with an external conviction of sin to make an external act of faith toward Christ. The person was never truly humbled and so is going on in his or her proud state and never truly come to Christ. The person is never taken into the spiritual realm in understanding, conscience, and affection and so this person’s will is not truly bowed to submit to Christ and so is still in his or her pride. This unhumbled and unbroken person’s inclination has not been altered and so that person still is inclined to self-love and self-esteem in all s/he does and this is not just lack of love to Christ, it is enmity toward Him. Until a person is broken from self-will that person is not ready to seek the will of God. Humility is utterly vital to seek God and for sanctification. Apart from it a person is left in the bondage of pride to the devil.

We are plodding through a few statements of Jonathan Edwards on humiliation of the soul in the context of humility. We have to constantly remind ourselves that humility is not something that self can carry out on itself, but instead it is the work of God in bringing the soul to the end of self. As Edwards points out, there is a way that souls are brought to be humbled in an external sense before God but they do not love that. On judgment day every soul that has ever been created will indeed bow before God in utter helplessness, but all those without eternal life dwelling in their soul will hate ever second of it. So there must be something beyond that. Edwards calls that evangelical humiliation and it is when the soul is broken from its own works and its own ability to do for God but also it loves to abase itself and be in the dust before God out of a sense of His beauty and glory. The soul that has been humbled like this is emptied of self and delights itself in the beauty and honor of God rather than of self.

The quote from below is from Jonathan Edwards’ Religious Affections and the longer quote can be read in the BLOG Humility 36.

“In a legal humiliation men are made sensible that they are nothing before the great and terrible God, and that they are undone, and wholly insufficient to help themselves; as wicked men will be at the day of judgment; but they have not an answerable frame of heart, consisting in a disposition to abase themselves, and exalt God alone. This disposition is given only in evangelical humiliation, by overcoming the heart, and changing its inclination, by a discovery of God’s holy beauty. 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.”

This disposition of the soul to abase itself and even to delight in the abasement of self, though not as the Pharisees would do it, is a sign of new life in the soul. When Christ lives in the soul, it is His life that comes out rather than the self life of the human being. When a soul is convinced of sin, the disposition of the soul determines (in a sense) what will happen after the soul comes to an understanding of its sin. The conscience is convinced in some, but they have no spiritual understanding, their will is not broken from self, and the inclination of the heart is not changed. The heart that loves itself in its natural understanding, hardened heart of self-will, will only love itself and when it sees something of its bondage in sin it hates it. This does not make the soul love God and it does not lessen the love of the soul for itself. So men are inclined to fight and hate the work on the conscience in bringing conviction. The soul may indeed see some sin because of its conscience and it may even become very religious. This is the kind of soul that may change its belief system and be very faithful in church attendance and even in church activities. But it has not learned to hate self and it has not truly learned to love God. This soul may think that it loves God because it thinks that God loves it. After all, the natural man loves those who love him (Luke 6:32). So we must be careful of ourselves and others who think that they love God only because He loved them first. That in fact is a teaching of Scripture, but it is changing what Scripture teaches on the subject. An unbroken heart will think it loves God if it thinks that God loves it. That can be nothing more than a form of self-love and is not the heart that is broken and is not the heart that has evangelical humiliation.

This teaching of Edwards is utterly vital. It is not vital because he taught it, but because he has captured the biblical teaching on the subject. There is so much deception in the world, the devil is called the deceiver, and then our own hearts deceive us. People latch on to false hopes of salvation quite easily and those who come along with the truth are not viewed too kindly. We are warned to beware of false prophets and they are likened to wolves. We are warned to be careful of those who try to deceive us (see I John and Acts 20:29ff for this too). It is not just any person that realizes that s/he is a sinner and wants to be saved from hell that can be saved, but instead these people have to be broken from all hope in themselves in order to be saved. It is not just any love for God that is a sign of salvation, but instead it must be a love that comes from God and is in the soul. As long as people go around telling others that God loves them and then that will be saved if they believe what was said, we are teaching a false gospel. That is nothing but a person loving what s/he thinks is God because s/he thinks that this God loves them. A person must be broken from loving things because of what it will do to self to loving God because of the glory and beauty that shines out of Him in Christ. This, of course, takes a broken heart and the grace of God to accomplish.

Humility is not just something that people may or may not have as they go on their merry Christian lives, but it is something that they must have. Edwards tells us that this is not an option. A humbled heart is something that is a necessary condition for being a Christian rather than just something that may or may not happen. Again, it is not that a person can work up this humbled heart or evangelical humiliation by his or her own strength and power, but this is a work of grace in the heart. It is a work of grace that God always does to hearts that He is going to dwell in. By definition a believing heart is one that loves God, yet without humility and humiliation of the heart a person will not love God but will instead do all from the love of self and the glory of self.

The quote from below is from Jonathan Edwards’ Religious Affections and the longer quote can be read in the BLOG Humility 36.

“In a legal humiliation men are made sensible that they are nothing before the great and terrible God, and that they are undone, and wholly insufficient to help themselves; as wicked men will be at the day of judgment; but they have not an answerable frame of heart, consisting in a disposition to abase themselves, and exalt God alone. This disposition is given only in evangelical humiliation, by overcoming the heart, and changing its inclination, by a discovery of God’s holy beauty. 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.”

Despite the widespread and modern notion that humility only comes from a sight of sin, that was not the teaching of Scripture or all the older writers. It must be admitted that a sight of sin accompanied by grace can lead to a kind of humility, but since Jesus was perfectly humble we can know that there is a humility that is not directly related to sin. We are to be humble simply as created beings. But another reason for this is that true evangelical humiliation comes when the heart is changed and it discovers God’s holy beauty. Until the heart is changed, it will never see the glory of God in its beauty. Only the heart that is spiritual can see the kingdom of God and the spiritual heart is also the only kind that can see the beauty and glory of the kingdom of God. The heart with spiritual sight is enabled to behold the glory of God: “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit” (II Cor 3:18). The discovery of the beauty of God is not by an intellectual argument or deduction, but by the tasting of the Lord that He is good (Psa 34:8). This is the soul that now beholds the beauty of the glory of His grace (Eph 1:5-6) and is simply ravished by that beauty. This is the soul that does not resist humility, but instead desires to be in the dust and admire His glory of free grace apart from the interests of self. But this is also the soul that desires to be full of His glory so that His beauty may be manifested through it.

Edwards’ quote points to the hearts of the men in Scripture. The heart that has evangelical humiliation desires to be lowly and to abase itself, but not for the virtue of it but so that the beauty of God would be seen. Many have seen their helplessness before God and how they are vile and guilty wretches before His glory, but their hearts have not loved that but instead have been forced to it. Instead of being like John the Baptist who tells us that he must decrease and Jesus must increase (John 3:30), these souls love themselves and their honor but simply know that they cannot do as they please. They dislike their helplessness and their inability to do things for God. They dislike the fact that they cannot serve Him and absolutely hate the fact that they are under His wrath. They are humbled in one sense of the word but they have not been emptied of self. But those who have evangelical humiliation have such a love for God and His glory that they have a disposition in the heart to abase themselves in order to exalt God alone. These are the ones that have been brought to an end of their external selves in legal humiliation and then have had their hearts changed so that now they behold the beauty of God. When they see the beauty of God in His holiness and glory, they see the depths of their being a creature and then of being a sinner. They now see that what they love to do is to abase self so that the glory of God will be exalted in themselves. They see that they can no longer seek their own honor if they are going to seek His, so they bow in brokenness before Him as empty vessels. Paul was utterly broken and so sought the glory of God in Christ rather than His own. In our day we are too full of ourselves to be full of the living God. How desperately we need to be humbled.

Humility is not just an outward act, but rather it must come from a disposition of the heart. The natural man can feign and copy an external form of humility, but he cannot change his heart to a true disposition which loves God and abases self. He does not have that heart and so all he does from pride and self. The natural man can know that he is undone and can do nothing to save himself, but he cannot love that from his proud heart. The heart must be changed so that there is a disposition to abase self and exalt God. After all, a true love for God will lead one to repent of all that stands in the way of His glory even if it is the deepest love of self. But a new heart with the disposition to do this is an utter necessity and that is something that must come from God alone. The quote from below is from Jonathan Edwards’ Religious Affections and the longer quote can be read in the BLOG Humility 36.

“In a legal humiliation men are made sensible that they are nothing before the great and terrible God, and that they are undone, and wholly insufficient to help themselves; as wicked men will be at the day of judgment; but they have not an answerable frame of heart, consisting in a disposition to abase themselves, and exalt God alone. This disposition is given only in evangelical humiliation, by overcoming the heart, and changing its inclination, by a discovery of God’s holy beauty. 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.”

In the quote above we will see some vitally important truths regarding true humility, but also things that relate to true conversion and true evangelism. Remember, from the longer quote, that Edwards says that “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 other words, evangelical humiliation or true humility is utterly necessary for a person to be a Christian. The disposition of the heart is changed in evangelical humility which overcomes the sinful heart of pride and self and changes its very inclinations. The unbelieving heart, even if very religious and devoted to outward works and morality, does not love to abase self and so does not love the true glory of God. But the believing heart or the heart that has been born from above has new inclinations. The heart is now inclined away from the love of self and the glory of self to a heart that loves God and His glory. The new heart is now inclined to abase self rather than exalt self as it previously did. It does this, not because it is forced to do so by some external power, but because it has now discovered the glory of God’s holy beauty. It is now ravished by true beauty and glory which is God alone.

In legal humiliation all the efforts at humility and religion still come from the old nature of pride and self. Many are too enlightened and proud to be caught up in crass immorality, so they get involved in high society, become religious, or various things that are socially acceptable. But they are still in the bondage of pride and self. All that they do comes from self. So if that heart is enlightened to some degree and that soul sees itself in bondage and sin, it will try to do certain things in order to attain to salvation. But all those are still the efforts of self and all those are still from the natural man with a natural self. All of those things are from the pride and love of self. That old heart in its pride and love of natural self must be overcome and only grace can do that. That old heart must have its disposition and its inclinations changed. In order to do that, however, the heart itself must be changed. A person must become a new creature in Christ and must become a spiritual being. This will only happen when the glory and beauty of God’s glory and holiness are seen. The natural man has no higher motive and affections than self. The spiritual man has seen the true beauty of the glory of God and so now sees the motives and affections of self as truly despicable and hideous. The spiritual one has a heart that is full of God and is ravished by Him. Surely, then, the Gospel of grace alone and the method of evangelism can be seen. If we use the methods of men in evangelism, we will end up with nothing but the natural man living the natural religious life with the old nature of pride and the inclinations of self. The Gospel is good news to those who see the sin of self because it promises a new heart by which they can love God and be turned from that hideous thing in them that is full of pride and self. If ever God opens the eyes of a soul to the horror of its pride and self, they will not be satisfied with a religion of self but will desire to be free from that and to have one that is full of God and His glory.

In the last BLOG we looked at some distinctions between legal humiliation and evangelical humiliation. The main difference that was set out is the sight and sense of the beauty of the holiness of God and His Law. The natural man can have a legal humiliation because he can see that he has broken the Law of God and then fear His wrath. But the spiritual man can have an evangelical humiliation because from a sight and sense of the holiness of God and His Law this person will turn against self rather than against God. The one that has seen God will take the side of God against self. The one that has seen God will adore God and abhor self. The quote from below is a part of a quote taken from the Religious Affections of Jonathan Edwards. The whole quote can be seen in Humility 36.

“In a legal humiliation men are made sensible that they are nothing before the great and terrible God, and that they are undone, and wholly insufficient to help themselves; as wicked men will be at the day of judgment; but they have not an answerable frame of heart, consisting in a disposition to abase themselves, and exalt God alone. This disposition is given only in evangelical humiliation, by overcoming the heart, and changing its inclination, by a discovery of God’s holy beauty. 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.”

In this section of the quote Edwards opens up a few other points about the distinction between legal humiliation and evangelical humiliation. We could also look at this as the distinction between the unbeliever’s humility (legal) and the true believer’s humility (evangelical). While it is the case that for Edwards and virtually the whole Reformed world prior to the mid 1800’s that a sinner must be totally undone within themselves and before God in order to be saved, this is not true in our day. Yet clearly in this point Edwards is saying that people can be sensible of being nothing before God, totally undone, and utterly and wholly insufficient to help themselves and still be unconverted. While these are things that must be done, they are not things that actually convert the person. They are still consistent with having an unconverted nature as can be seen as this is the state of those on judgment day just before they are thrown into the lake of fire.

While these people are made sensible or aware with corresponding affections about what they are sensible of regarding their undone state and their inability to help themselves, they do not have “an answerable frame of heart.” While the person with legal humiliation is “forced” to see self and recognize that s/he is utterly undone and insufficient to save self or help self, their hearts do not love to be humbled before God in that way. Their hearts are still full of pride and self and they do not like to see self in a place that hurts their pride and makes them feel so helpless. But the one that has received an answerable heart is one that corresponds to seeing what it is and loves to humble self before God. The heart that has been humbled in the evangelical humiliation way is a heart that has the disposition to abase itself and to exalt God. This is true humility. It is the very disposition or nature of a heart that has a spiritual nature to love to abase itself in order that God will be exalted.

This does not sound attractive to the modern man and seems so out of touch. However, it is biblical. Those who have no righteousness in themselves or claim to it are truly blessed. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Mat 5:3). Those who are attacked and yet return love are the ones truly blessed. “Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth” (Mat 5:5). Those who see the glory and holiness of God see themselves in truth. “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” (Isa 6:5). The contrite and lowly are those God dwells with and that is the true blessing. “For thus says the high and exalted One Who lives forever, whose name is Holy, “I dwell on a high and holy place, And also with the contrite and lowly of spirit In order to revive the spirit of the lowly And to revive the heart of the contrite” (Isa 57:15). Those who have a heart to love God and His glory understand that it is their own proud and selfish hearts that keeps them from seeing His glory. They desire His glory and not their own so they live and pray to that end: “Not to us, O LORD, not to us, But to Your name give glory Because of Your lovingkindness, because of Your truth” (Psa 115:1). He is their true love and that which prevents the manifestation must go, even when it is self. That is a disposition of the heart that loves God.

We continue to explore the writings of Jonathan Edwards on this vital subject of humility and humiliation of the soul. This is not what modern people focus on, but it is what the older Reformed writers focused on as they looked to the work of God in the souls of human beings. Christianity is not just about being able to come to a point about believing certain things that are true, but it is about those things that are true being worked in and living in the heart of the believer. Those things are what the spiritual heart consists of. But until a sinner has been broken from his or her own sufficiency and knows from the depths of his or her heart that apart from Christ s/he can do nothing (John 15:5), that person is living by the strength of self. The whole quote from Edwards is given in a previous BLOG, Humility 36. What follows is a short quotation from the larger quote.

“Evangelical humiliation is a sense that a Christian has of his own insufficiency, despicableness, and odiousness, with an answerable frame of heart. There is a distinction to be made between a legal and evangelical humiliation. The former is what men may have while in a state of nature, and have no gracious affection; the latter is peculiar to true saints. The former is from the common influence of the Spirit of God, assisting natural principles, and especially natural conscience; the latter is from the special influences of the Spirit of God, implanting and exercising supernatural and divine principles…

In the former, a sense of the awful greatness of his law, convinces men that they are exceeding sinful and guilty, and exposed to the wrath of God, as it will convince wicked men and devils at the day of judgment; but they do not see their own odiousness on account of sin; they do not see the hateful nature of sin; a sense of this is given in evangelical humiliation, by a discovery of the beauty of God’s holiness and moral perfection.”

The last BLOG (Humility 37) was spend in looking at what evangelical humiliation is in terms of what a Christian has of his own insufficiency, despicableness, and odiousness. Legal humiliation, however, can be confused for the true evangelical humiliation. A person may have aspects of evangelical humiliation but only have the outward aspects of it and not have true evangelical humiliation. In the modern day the external things are seen as what is true. Yet there are things, according to Edwards, that are peculiar to true saints. Gracious affections are what true saints have, though they may be confused by some of the externals with legal humiliation. The Spirit of God does give legal humiliation but in that there is nothing more than what can be done with the natural man. These things are common because many people have them. Natural conscience can go a long way in legal humiliation. But in evangelical humiliation there is the special influence of the Spirit and this goes far beyond what the natural man can do. In this the Spirit actually implants and exercises supernatural and divine principles. In legal humiliation the Spirit works on the conscience of man, but in evangelical humiliation the Spirit implants the divine life in the soul of man. The soul is humbled and broken from self and becomes united to Christ and the Spirit dwells in that soul. That soul then bears the fruit of the Spirit and Christ lives in and through that soul. It has the divine life in it.

In legal humiliation it is possible to see something of the greatness of God and to have a sense of the awful greatness of His law. The natural man can have a sense of what it is to break a law and then of the terrible danger that he is in because of what justice will do. The natural man can have great terrors in thinking of the wrath of God to come. It does not take a new heart and a spiritual discernment to understand that we have broken the law of God in some way and to fear the punishment to come. As Edwards points out, wicked men and the devils will know on judgment day that they have sinned against God and will suffer His wrath forever. They will have a great fear and their affections will be at a great height at that time. But they do not have a sense of their own odiousness because of sin, but it is the punishment for sin that is odious to them. The natural man will hate the punishment that sin brings, but he will not see the hateful nature for sin itself. The natural man only sees things according to his natural state and so he really views sin in terms of what it does for him or to him. The spiritual man, who has evangelical humiliation, has a sense and sight of the beauty of God in His infinite and perfect holiness. The spiritual man sees sin as it is against God and against the beauty of His holiness. The spiritual man has a sense of his own odiousness because of sin rather than just the odiousness of the punishment for sin. The spiritual man takes the side of God and pronounces judgment on self rather than on God and His holy Law. Only the spiritual person has evangelical humiliation because only the spiritual person can see the beauty of God’s holiness. This is to say that only those who have a new heart and a sense of the holiness and glory of God will have true humility. Humility is to be empty of self and then to be full of the glory and presence of God. It is truly beautiful.

The last BLOG (Humility 36) consisted mainly in a quotation from Jonathan Edwards and his efforts to distinguish between a legal humiliation and an evangelical humiliation. It ended with this quote: “They that are destitute of this, have no true religion, whatever profession they may make, and high soever their religious affections may be.” This quote gets at the importance of true humility and then of how awful it would be if the devil in his deceitful scheming brought a false idea of humility in the Church. Edwards also said that “This is a great and most essential thing in true religion.” That which is essential to true religion will change that religion if it is absent. For example, we are told that the doctrine that the Church stands or falls on is justification by faith alone. That is true. However, if true humility is necessary for there to be true faith, then we can see how deceitful it would be for some to have an idea that they can have faith apart from true humility. It can also be seen how it would change the whole idea of justification if sinners could have true faith and yet retain their pride. In the next several BLOGS we will look at how the quotes from Edwards in the prior BLOG (Humility 36) point to a great lack in our day.

“Evangelical humiliation is a sense that a Christian has of his own insufficiency, despicableness, and odiousness, with an answerable frame of heart. There is a distinction to be made between a legal and evangelical humiliation. The former is what men may have while in a state of nature, and have no gracious affection; the latter is peculiar to true saints. The former is from the common influence of the Spirit of God, assisting natural principles, and especially natural conscience; the latter is from the special influences of the Spirit of God, implanting and exercising supernatural and divine principles…”

Edwards first sets out to give an idea of what evangelical humiliation is for this is most essential to true religion. A person must have, then, “a sense of his own insufficiency, despicableness, and odiousness, with an answerable frame of heart.” To be true to the bigger context of Edwards’ work on Religious Affections, he is saying that this is a necessary sign of conversion. True and gracious affections will always have an evangelical humiliation. If a person has not been humbled so as to have evangelical humiliation, then that person’s affections will be for self rather than flow from and to God through Christ. True gracious affections will be for God primarily. Romans 7:24, as it gives us this from the heart of Paul, seems so stress this in him as well: “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?” This is also the teaching that Paul gave in Romans 4: “But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness” (v. 5).

While this type of thinking does not fit with the modern approach of always trying to say good things about people to make them feel good about themselves, it is nevertheless far more biblical to esteem Christ rather than self. Until a person is driven from his own sufficiency to see that s/he is utterly insufficient for anything spiritual from self, that person will not trust in the sufficiency of Christ alone. One can stress the sufficiency of Christ for years and years, but until a man sees his own utter insufficiency he will not look to Christ alone as fully sufficient. The proud heart will always look to self for some sufficiency in self, but once it is broken from its own sufficiency it knows that it must have another who really is sufficient. This is true Christianity and this is what the modern generation must learn from the older generations. We must teach people that they need to go to Christ but we must also teach them how God draws them to Christ. Part of His drawing grace is in working in people the knowledge and then felt knowledge of their own utter insufficiency. This is part of His means of grace.

How hard it is for the proud soul to admit that s/he is despicable in the sight of God. How hard it is for the nice, proper, and polite person to admit that self is odious to God. But even more, the soul needs to arrive at the point where the self (natural man, sinful self, proud self) is despicable and odious to itself in the depths of its own soul. This is when we begin to see sin as sin. This is when we begin to see that the very worst thing that can be said about us is that we are sinners. This is when we begin to understand that the worst thing a human being can say to us is far better than what we are in the eyes of God in and of ourselves. The heart of humility can only begin when a person sees him or herself as a creature with no rights in the presence of its Creator. The heart of the person that sees what true humiliation before God is sees itself as a sinful creature in the presence of its Creator with no rights at all. God owes that sinful creature nothing but His omnipotent and eternal wrath. The humbled creature recognizes that as true because it now sees itself for what it is in His sight. Until the soul sees how insufficient it is as a creature and then sees itself as being truly despicable and odious to God because of sin, it will not understand grace. The intellect can grasp the doctrine, but until the heart is humbled it will not have grace dwelling in it.

The proud love their own humility and hate the pride of others, but the humble hate their own pride and love humility when it is seen in others. It is also true that the proud can hate being thought of as proud and so hide their pride from others and even themselves with an external form of humility. When people are proud of self, it is hard for them to think that their view of self is inflated or overly exalted. Pride is what blinds us to our own pride. Yet there are differing kinds of humility and one that unbelievers can have without being converted. It is a necessity that people be careful in thinking through these things. If humility is necessary to true faith and salvation by grace alone, then the devil will be hard at work to deceive people about what true humility really is. It is a way that he can attack the Gospel itself without even mentioning the Gospel by word. In this men can hold to the great truths of the Reformation in doctrine and yet be deceived by their own hearts because they do not have a true humility.

In his classic work Religious Affections, Jonathan Edwards sets out that true humility is a sign of true conversion.

“Evangelical humiliation is a sense that a Christian has of his own insufficiency, despicableness, and odiousness, with an answerable frame of heart. There is a distinction to be made between a legal and evangelical humiliation. The former is what men may have while in a state of nature, and have no gracious affection; the latter is peculiar to true saints. The former is from the common influence of the Spirit of God, assisting natural principles, and especially natural conscience; the latter is from the special influences of the Spirit of God, implanting and exercising supernatural and divine principles… In the former, a sense of the awful greatness of his law, convinces men that they are exceeding sinful and guilty, and exposed to the wrath of God, as it will convince wicked men and devils at the day of judgment; but they do not see their own odiousness on account of sin; they do not see the hateful nature of sin; a sense of this is given in evangelical humiliation, by a discovery of the beauty of God’s holiness and moral perfection. In a legal humiliation men are made sensible that they are nothing before the great and terrible God, and that they are undone, and wholly insufficient to help themselves; as wicked men will be at the day of judgment; but they have not an answerable frame of heart, consisting in a disposition to abase themselves, and exalt God alone. This disposition is given only in evangelical humiliation, by overcoming the heart, and changing its inclination, by a discovery of God’s holy beauty. 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.”

“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.”

True humility is perhaps spoken of some in the modern day, but true humility is not stressed as it should be in the places that it should be. Chesterton once said something to the order that the modern day has misplaced humility. It has put humility in the realm of knowledge (epistemology). In other words, we are taught to be humble by saying that we can’t be sure that we have the truth. But the Bible teaches us that “the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life” (I John 5:20). Pride kills true understanding and knowledge. True humility gains access to the truth because God loves the humble and shows them His ways.

True knowledge and understanding only come from God. This can be seen by the prayers of the writers of Scripture as well as the writings of Scripture. The proud study Scripture as if depends on them and on their own wits and labor. A proud person who is religious enough may offer prayers to God to help him in his studies, but he does not do the study in prayer. He may recognize the need to pray for help, but he does not pray and study in a way that demonstrates that he really understands the need to seek understanding from the Lord. The proud may see a need for the help of the Lord, but they don’t understand that all spiritual understanding comes directly from the hand of the Lord and His work in the soul. All the bread of life comes from Him. All truth comes from Jesus Christ who is Truth Himself. All spiritual knowledge is from the Spirit. We are utterly dependant on Him for truth.

Psalm 25:9 He leads the humble in justice, And He teaches the humble His way.

Psalm 119:34 Give me understanding, that I may observe Your law And keep it with all my heart.

Paslm 119:73 Your hands made me and fashioned me; Give me understanding, that I may learn Your commandments.

Psalm 119:125 I am Your servant; give me understanding, That I may know Your testimonies.

Psalm 119:169 Let my cry come before You, O LORD; Give me understanding according to Your word.

Proverbs 2:6 For the LORD gives wisdom; From His mouth come knowledge and understanding.

Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding.

Proverbs 9:10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

Humility is utterly necessary for spiritual knowledge because the Lord only teaches the humble. The proud can come up with a lot of academic knowledge of religion and of God, and they can also come up with a lot of morality and personal ethics. But to know the ways of the Lord and to truly see His glory a person must be emptied of self in true humility. The proud are blinded to truth and to the glory of the Lord. The proud see a certain glory in the things of God but it is not the glory of God, but rather it is the glory of self. So the proud can have a delight in knowledge gained as the Bible and religious and moral things are studied, but the delight is from the things of self rather than the things of God. The proud loves those who love him, and surely this does not stop at just people. But since the love of the proud is all about self, anything that contributes to the self in the eyes of the proud that person will love. For some reason spiritual (religious) pride is the worst kind of pride, yet it is the kind of pride that inundates churches. People are proud of being members, of how long they have been members, of how long they have supported missions, how long they have had this or that duty. One can be proud of almost anything. But one thing that is utterly necessary for spiritual understanding and practice is humility. We see this from the prayers of the Psalmist in the verses above. It if from the Lord that understanding comes and He must give it.

The humble have been taught of God to seek Him for true wisdom and understanding. They know how each passage of Scripture has walls set around it to hide the true meaning of it from the proud and no one but the Lord Himself can open doors through those walls. The proud assume that they can just study the word with some tools they have learned and they will learn all they need to know. They don’t see any real walls there that their tools (language, hermeneutics) cannot overcome. But the humble know that true spiritual knowledge and understanding will only come from the Lord when the soul has been broken from its self-interests and self-sufficiency. The humble know that pride is like wearing blinders or a hood to understanding, and so they have learned to pray and seek the Lord for humility in order to understand His word. Humility is an utter necessity to reading the Bible.

John Gerstner once said that if you could be insulted you could not read the Bible. He didn’t mean that a person had no ability to read the words of the Bible. He didn’t mean that a person could not read the Bible with no benefit or that a person should not read the Bible. He was saying that the Bible is frank and straight. It speaks the worst things to human beings that can be said. It does take a humble soul to read the Bible if that person is going to take the Bible seriously and not try to avoid the meaning by turning and twisting things to avoid the brunt of what it says. It is hard for a proud soul to read about the glory of God as the central message in the Bible and then try to build up self with that, but many do that anyway. Humility is necessary for reading and understanding the Bible. Humility is necessary for a soul to be changed to be like Christ who was the most humble person in history.

Micah 6:8 – “He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?”

The Pharisees thought that the requirements of God had to do with the lists of hundreds of laws that they kept. Perhaps they twisted this verse to a different meaning, and Jesus did mention the heart of this verse to them at one point. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others” (Mat 23:23). The scribes and Pharisees tithed from their gardens and yet did not practice justice, mercy, and faithfulness. A proud person is ultimately quite unconcerned about justice for others, though he desires what he would call justice in one sense for self. A proud person can keep the external laws of God and be very stringent in keeping those laws, but the proud person will not truly be concerned with things like justice and mercy. The proud person can be part of carrying out things like public justice and public mercy in certain areas, but that will only be for show. The person is a very self-centered person and God knows that heart. Only the truly humble walk with God and so actually do justice and love kindness and mercy.

Isaiah 57:15 – “For thus says the high and exalted One Who lives forever, whose name is Holy, “I dwell on a high and holy place, And also with the contrite and lowly of spirit In order to revive the spirit of the lowly And to revive the heart of the contrite.”

Only the humble can walk with God. This is one of the basic and yet simple requirements in Scripture. Adam walked with God in the Garden. Enoch walked with God and then was taken. The disciples walked (literally) with the humble Jesus who taught them about humility in word and in life. In several places in the Gospels Jesus said that His words and the words of Scriptures were hidden to people. While He spoke in parables, Matthew 13:13 give us the words of Jesus on why He spoke in parables: “Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.” Without totally denying the modern view that Jesus spoke in parables in order to have simply stories from daily life to make things plain, He says clearly that He spoke in parables to hide the truth as well. He would give these parables in His public teaching and then in private He would say what they meant.

Jesus absolutely blasted the religious elite of His day (time on earth) for their hard hearts and not understanding the Scripture. They were a proud group. They were proud of their academic training in Scripture and they were proud of their outward works. They were so proud that they prayed in order to be seen by men and that was the motive in all of their other religious works too. It takes a lot of pride to blind a soul to itself to where it will pray in order to be seen by men rather than the God who sees in private. The Pharisees were so proud that their whole religious life was one of pride and self, but their pride blinded them to that. They memorized Scripture in order to wear a show of that on their garments. They were truly a group of self-centered and proud people .

All that the Pharisees did was for self. All that the Pharisees did was from pride and that pride blinded them. Their knowledge indeed puffed them up with self. When they studied the Bible it was not from love for God and so that they could know God and be conformed to His likeness. Instead, out of pride they studied the Bible for the purposes and ways of self. Apart from humility all people are like the Pharisees. We study to show ourselves approved and knowledgeable to men. We study in order to obtain honor from men or perhaps to think well of ourselves. Humility is absolutely necessary to read the Bible so that we will be changed instead of change it.