God Loves… Himself

In terms of the professing Church in our day, it is clear that whatever it is that is really being sought it is by methods and worldly principles. We seek “church” growth by using business principles and ways obtained from Hollywood. Sure, those methods might draw a crowd, but they do not attract God. Whatever else a church is to do, it is to seek God first and foremost. The Regulative Principle of Worship used to stand as something very important in terms of how God was to be worshipped. It has now virtually been dropped into the dust pile of history as it is ignored or simply explained away. Jesus told us very explicitly that God can only be worshipped in spirit and truth (John 4:23-24). In fact, the text tells us that God seeks people like that to be His worshippers. One of the things required to have worshippers like that is for God to make humble worshippers. The humble worshippers of God will look to His Word of self-revelation to find out how He says He is to be worshipped. The humble worshippers will look to His Word of self-revelation to find out how He says churches are to grow. Perhaps there needs to be a Regulative Principle of Church Growth since it is part of the worship of God. But the proud want churches to grow in numbers their own way and they want to worship their own way. But for those who desire to walk with God in worship and church growth they must seek humility first. When we seek to worship God as we want to do so, the god we really worship is ourselves. It is seeking to please self rather than to please God. “But I like it this way” is nothing more than to assert my desires instead of seeking God’s.

“When I look back upon my own religious experience, or round upon the Church of Christ in the world, I stand amazed at the thought of how little humility is sought after as the distinguishing feature of the discipleship of Jesus. In preaching and living, in the daily intercourse of the home and social life, in the more special fellowship with Christians, in the direction and performance of work for Christ,-alas! how much proof there is that humility is not esteemed the cardinal virtue, the only root from which the graces can grow, the one indispensable condition of true fellowship with Jesus.” (Andrew Murray)

Murray calls humility as the distinguishing feature of the discipleship of Jesus. “All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. 28 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. 29 “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. 30 “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Matthew 11:27-30).
This text at least points to the utter necessity of what Murray said. Jesus calls the weary and heavy-laden to Himself. A person has been humbled to some degree to even see that as true. The unbroken proud do not see themselves as weary and heavy-laden as they are still blinded to sin. When a heavy-laden person comes to Christ for rest and is asked to take a yoke upon him, it takes great humility to truly believe those words and take the yoke. But the gentle humble Savior will only teach those in the yoke with Him His gentleness and humility. But of course those are not what the world thinks of as, so those things may bring ridicule and persecution.

A worldly humility is indeed sought in the professing Church by some, but that is not the same thing as a biblical humility. A biblical humility is to be emptied of self and pride, while a worldly humility seeks to bolster self and pride in an external form of humility. A biblical humility is one of the heart and of the soul. It is when the heart is emptied of self and pride. We can see this with the Pharisees. They would humble themselves to fast and pray, and yet it was only an external humility which is what the world has. They fasted and prayed in order to be seen by men which is what self-interest does and what self-love desires. The professing Church must learn to look to Jesus for its teaching and example of humility rather than the world. The world thinks that a humble person will not claim to know any religious truth for sure, but Jesus says that eternal life is to know God.

Humility is a sweet sound in the ear when one thinks of the humility of Christ. Yet humility is so sour to the ear when it is nothing more than what the world puts on. What does God see when He looks at the professing Church? Does He see the beauty of the humility of Christ in the soul or does He see foul and filthy souls of pride who are so proud that they cover themselves with the fig leaves of a false humility which is nothing but pride covering itself with pride? In the worship of the “church” does God see the humble Savior or does He see the rotten hearts of those who pretend to worship Him while they do what they want to do? In the “church” growth methods do we see the ways of Christ or of the proud man? Truly, humility is at the root of it all. May God teach many His ways.

Humility sounds good to some in the world, though only when it is applied to others or at times it wants others to think that self is less than proud. While Scripture teaches us that the greatest is the most humble we still prefer to be thought of as humble rather than to obtain true humility. When a church is looking for a pastor, this is largely ignored. They want a man that is educated, has charisma, personality, great speaking ability, and that can deal with people. But all of those things the natural man can have. Despite the fact that a man can be unregenerate and have all of those things, those are what people look for. They want what is impressive rather than what is utterly necessary for spiritual life. The unbelieving man can have each of the above things in abundance, but only the truly humble will love the people enough to teach the hard things. Only the humble pastor can be effective in the things of God. Only the humble pastor can ever preach the Word of God because he will have understanding that the proud man cannot have. So churches are seeking those who are great in the eyes of the world but are at best spiritual midgets. Perhaps they are seeking the man who is perfect on the outside, but in doing so they are seeking men that God is leaving alone. Those who have troubles are those that God is working on through trials.

“When I look back upon my own religious experience, or round upon the Church of Christ in the world, I stand amazed at the thought of how little humility is sought after as the distinguishing feature of the discipleship of Jesus. In preaching and living, in the daily intercourse of the home and social life, in the more special fellowship with Christians, in the direction and performance of work for Christ,-alas! how much proof there is that humility is not esteemed the cardinal virtue, the only root from which the graces can grow, the one indispensable condition of true fellowship with Jesus.” (Andrew Murray)

Perhaps humility is so little sought after because people seek pastors with worldly qualifications rather than spiritual ones. A pastor that is more concerned about his suit and his hair than the depth of his walk with God is not likely to preach the deep things of God. A pastor that is taken with the external and impressive things is not likely to think much on the subject of humility other than how it can be perceived externally. A non-humble pastor will not truly understand the Gospel since pride is opposite to faith (Hab 2:4). A non-humble pastor will not be shown the things of God since “He leads the humble in justice, And He teaches the humble His way” (Psalm 25:9). Jesus praised the Father for hiding spiritual things from the wise and intelligent and for revealing them to babes. “At that time Jesus said, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants” (Mat 11:25). Since Jesus does not change it seems unlikely that He is now revealing spiritual things to those who are wise and intelligent in their own eyes. The person that wants to be like Christ needs to seek humility at all cost. The local church that wants to be like Christ needs to seek pastors who are truly humble. If they do not, they may find a man with all the external characteristics but who is a midget in the kingdom if he is in the kingdom at all. It is true; in the nation of Israel they had prophets who were not truly prophets. Today we have ministers who are not truly converted.

I have never read of a conference where the subject matter was on humility. If someone did have one, it would probably be a series of lectures on the subject and people would leave thinking they were humble because they had heard about humility and now they knew what it was. For a person to ever have something of true humility that person must seek it and be willing to suffer to obtain it. For a church to seek true humility it must seek it and be willing to suffer to obtain it. Humility will not come through a lecture or a series of lectures. It will not come by reading a book. It will only be obtained by much inner pain as self is denied and then one dies to self. Psalm 25:9 tells us that God is the one that teaches the humble His way. The way to walk with God is to humbly walk with Him. There is no other way to walk with God. As Micah 6:8 instructs us, “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?”

We can at least point to an important connection or correlation. Not many appear to be truly walking with God in our day. Not many churches appear to be walking with God. One reason is that He only walks with the humble. So when we see that not many are seeking true humility, we can know that there is at least a correlation between the two points. God stands in battle alignment against the proud but gives grace to the humble (James 4:6). The greatest grace is to have God Himself in our souls, yet He only walks with the humble. Until people and churches learn to seek humility, they will not have it and so will not have the presence of God in their midst.

It is so hard in a day of vast amounts of information at our fingertips in terms of the internet to focus on how different the acquisition of true knowledge is for the true believer. It is not possible to just look at a few or even several different scholarly commentaries and discern the truth of a passage. It is not possible for a man or woman to exercise great brilliance to discern the truth because spiritual truth can only be taught by the Holy Spirit. It is easy for believers to recognize that the natural man cannot understand the things of God, but it is harder for them to recognize that natural means cannot discover the depths of His glory either. We send men through seminary or other rigorous training methods to learn what human reason and methods can give them, but it is most likely very rare that they are really taught how to seek true knowledge from God. We teach believers in the churches to study their Bibles, but perhaps we are doing nothing but teaching them human methods if we don’t teach them the necessity of true humility. Yes, it is easy to read a book on humility and rest satisfied that we know what it is. But having humility is far different than knowing about it. Having Christ is also far different than knowing about Him.

“When I look back upon my own religious experience, or round upon the Church of Christ in the world, I stand amazed at the thought of how little humility is sought after as the distinguishing feature of the discipleship of Jesus. In preaching and living, in the daily intercourse of the home and social life, in the more special fellowship with Christians, in the direction and performance of work for Christ,-alas! how much proof there is that humility is not esteemed the cardinal virtue, the only root from which the graces can grow, the one indispensable condition of true fellowship with Jesus.” (Andrew Murray)

Matthew 18:1-4 and several other passages that teach the same thing seem to be ignored in our world: “At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” 2 And He called a child to Himself and set him before them, 3 and said, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 “Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” This text teaches us that there must be a humbling take place before a person is converted, and then it teaches us that the greatest person in the kingdom is really the most humble. It is not the greatest professor at seminary and it is not the most popular preacher. It is the most humble. This is something that is simply beyond the modern approach to the evangelism, to methods of church, and to sanctification. It is not exciting and the results (if gauged by numbers) would not be all that high. People would rather be thought of as humble rather than to really be humble. It is easier to get people to think we are humble than it is to be broken from our self-righteousness and pride in order to be humble. It is also the case that if we grow in humility that instead of others liking us they might hate us. The most humble One in history was hated and then crucified. Perhaps humility is something that is far different than imagined in the modern day.

If we reflect on what Andrew Murray has written about humility, we can see that he is right. Of course he was writing around one hundred years ago, but surely we can see that things have gotten worse rather than better. How little we see of humility and how little do we see a stress on humility. For example, I just looked on Ebay and looked to see how many books there were on humility. There were only 111. Without a specific count, my guess is that there are fewer than ten different books about humility and just several of each book. On the other hand, when I looked to see how many books were on love, I found over 50,000. I decided not to peruse the whole list, and I am sure that there are many fiction books there as well, but surely that makes a point. While the Bible does speak of the vital nature of love, the world has a lot to say about love too. Yet the world knows nothing of the life of humility since it knows nothing of the life of Christ in the soul. It is possible to obtain what the world calls love without humility, so we can see what happens in a church when we accept the world’s idea of love. Yet for true Christianity we must also know that without humility there is no true love at all. Paul taught that there nothing a Christian can do without love that has any real benefit, and yet without humility there is no true love.

As we begin to think of this concept a little more, does Scripture mention the humility of Christ or of the love of Christ more? Did Jesus teach more about humility or about love? It has been established several times that Jesus taught three times more on wrath and judgment than He did on love and heaven. Though Paul taught us that the greatest thing is love, yet Jesus taught us that the most humble person is the greatest in the kingdom. Did they contradict each other? Of course they did not. Instead the best solution would be to see the two as working hand in hand. The most humble is the one that loves the most and in that way is most like Jesus which is true greatness.

In the last BLOG we looked at the beauty of God and how His glory is His true beauty. It is only the humble soul that will see His true glory (John 11:40) and it is only the humbled soul that His glory dwells in and shines in and through. This is a fundamental but often overlooked truth, and perhaps it is because Christianity has been overcome with rationalism in some ways. We would like to think that because we can think of His glory that we can see His glory. While there is a rational aspect of His glory, if we just leave it there we will not behold the true glory of God because that part cannot be rationally apprehended. The beauty of God must be seen in the soul and only the humble will be ravished with His beauty rather than their own. Until the soul is humbled from its pride the soul will be more concerned with its own honor and beauty than God’s.

“If Jesus is indeed to be our example in His lowliness, we need to understand the principles in which it was rooted, and in which we find the common ground on which we stand with Him, and in which our likeness to Him is to be attained. If we are indeed to be humble, not only before God but towards men, if humility is to be our joy, we must see that it is not only the mark of shame, because of sin, but, apart from all sin, a being clothed upon with the very beauty and blessedness of heaven and of Jesus. We shall see that just as Jesus found His glory in taking the form of a servant, so when He said to us, ‘Whosoever would be first among you, shall be your servant,’ He simply taught us the blessed truth that there is nothing so divine and heavenly as being the servant and helper, of all…When we see that humility is something infinitely deeper than contrition, and accept it as our participation in the life of Jesus, we shall begin to learn that it is our true nobility.” (Andrew Murray)

If we approach this from the rational point of view, we will see some things in biblical texts that are admirable. We will see Jesus washing the feet of the disciples and have a rational admiration for that. But if our souls are being humbled, we are then enabled to behold the glory and beauty of Jesus in doing that. The world saw no beauty in Jesus though many of them saw miracles and received free food and wine. The world saw nothing all that attractive about Jesus. He was, after all, externally speaking nothing but an average Jewish male. But to God and to those with the humble eyes of faith, they are enabled to see the beauty of God in Him.

Isaiah 53:1 – “Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? 2 For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, And like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty That we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him. 3 He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.”

The world despised Him and His cross. The world still despises the cross and when Christ is truly presented they still despise Him. When the truth of Christ is watered down to where they think of Him as centered on them and in a non-threatening way to their self-rule, they will speak of Him as a good teacher. One way to think of this is seen in John 5:44, though admittedly it is a painful view: “How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God?” Here is a devastating view of the self. The natural human soul desires to receive glory from men rather than the glory that is from God. One reason for this is that it puffs up the human soul to receive glory from others and yet the glory of God humbles it into the dust.

The cross is despised because it is so humbling to the pride of men. Many teachers in the modern day have taken the true meaning of the cross away and now say that is shows how much God values man and so how much we should value ourselves. But that misses the whole point entirely. The cross shows how wicked and sinful human beings really are and it displays the true glory and beauty of God. It tells us about the beauty of grace and love. The cross puts the beauty of the justice of God on display. While on the cross the glory of God shone brighter than ever before and proud souls hate it unless it is watered down or the focus is taken off of the glory of God. The cross is a hideous place in one sense and yet in another it is ravishingly beautiful because of the beauty of God on display there. Christ is not esteemed when the truth of who He is and what He has done is held forth unless it is watered down and changed into a man-centered system. Only a humble soul can see the glory and beauty of God and bow to the God displayed there and want nothing more than to be like the Jesus who shone with such beauty and glory.

While it may sound sexist, many women spend a lot of time with their physical appearance with the desire to attain some form of beauty. This is not to say that many men don’t, but it would probably be acknowledged by most that more women than men do this. There does seem to be in people a desire for beauty. However, the true beauty of the human being is the soul. I Peter 3:3 “Your adornment must not be merely external– braiding the hair, and wearing gold jewelry, or putting on dresses; 4 but let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God. 5 For in this way in former times the holy women also, who hoped in God, used to adorn themselves, being submissive to their own husbands.” The true beauty of a person is of the soul. The humble soul is marked by the beauty of heaven which is Christ in the soul.

“If Jesus is indeed to be our example in His lowliness, we need to understand the principles in which it was rooted, and in which we find the common ground on which we stand with Him, and in which our likeness to Him is to be attained. If we are indeed to be humble, not only before God but towards men, if humility is to be our joy, we must see that it is not only the mark of shame, because of sin, but, apart from all sin, a being clothed upon with the very beauty and blessedness of heaven and of Jesus. We shall see that just as Jesus found His glory in taking the form of a servant, so when He said to us, ‘Whosoever would be first among you, shall be your servant,’ He simply taught us the blessed truth that there is nothing so divine and heavenly as being the servant and helper, of all…When we see that humility is something infinitely deeper than contrition, and accept it as our participation in the life of Jesus, we shall begin to learn that it is our true nobility.” (Andrew Murray)

Humility is not casting the eyes down and pretending not to be proud, but it is the emptiness of self while being full of Christ. While we are humbled and shamed in one sense by our sin in the presence of God, but we must see that true humility is the most beautiful thing the human soul will put forth because in that the glory of God shines in Christ who shines through the soul with Christ. Psalm 51:17 teaches us that “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.” There is no sacrifice or service that the soul can give to God but instead it is to be a sacrifice to God. This is when the heart is broken of its own self-sufficiency and its own pride and it bows to the Lord empty of self asking for the Lord to use it.

What each person must ask him or herself is why God is beautiful to him or her. If God is only beautiful to the soul because of something He does for self, then the person is still focused on self too much and is missing the true glory and beauty of God. In the context of speaking of God’s glory, Jonathan Edwards says this: God is God, and distinguished from all other beings, and exalted above ’em, chiefly by his divine beauty. They therefore that see the stamp of this glory in divine things, they see divinity in them, they see God in them” (Religious Affections, Yale edition, p. 298). The glory of God is also the beauty of God. For a person to see the true glory of God is for that person to see something of the beauty of God in it. It is this beauty of God in His glory that ravishes the soul and makes it long for a desire the glory of God.

The soul that longs for true beauty will never be satisfied with any other form of beauty but that of the glory of God shining in and through its soul. When God looks upon a soul, if He is going to see true beauty He must see His own glory and beauty shining there. This is why it is so vital to be a true sacrifice to God. It is only the broken and contrite soul that is emptied of self and comes to the Lord in humility. It is only the soul that is emptied of self as its idol that can have God as its God. It is only when the soul is truly broken from a form of unity of love with itself that it can have unity in love for God. In the soul that is truly broken from self and Christ then dwells in that soul, the glory of God dwells. But we must remember that the glory of God is not to be separated from the beauty of God. When Jesus Christ dwells in the soul of a human being, the beauty of God dwells in that soul as well.

Human souls are to image forth the glory (and beauty) of God in all they do. If we are to do that, the ugliness of sin and self must be turned from. The only way to be turned from self is to be humbled. If we truly love God and long for Him to look upon us as His image and for Him to see His glory shining back at Him, we must be humbled. But if we desire for other human beings to see the beauty of God in and through us, we must also desire true humility. But there is also no middle ground as we either want others to see our beauty or to see His. We must be humbled.

It must be impressed into the soul that desires true humility that this is only found in the recognition and submission of the soul in light of who God is. While there is a form of humility that the human soul must have in light of its sin, and indeed that is the kind that most focus on, perfect humility is seen in Christ and He was perfectly sinless. The degree of humility that a soul will have is directly related to the absence of self and the presence of the life of Christ in the soul. The Lord Jesus humbled Himself to take human flesh to Himself and then humbled Himself while in human flesh to go to the cross (Philippians 2). That same Lord will work humility in the souls of those He lives in because that is the life He works in souls. A true believer in Christ is one that will grow in humility because the life of Christ will work that in the soul.

“If Jesus is indeed to be our example in His lowliness, we need to understand the principles in which it was rooted, and in which we find the common ground on which we stand with Him, and in which our likeness to Him is to be attained. If we are indeed to be humble, not only before God but towards men, if humility is to be our joy, we must see that it is not only the mark of shame, because of sin, but, apart from all sin, a being clothed upon with the very beauty and blessedness of heaven and of Jesus. We shall see that just as Jesus found His glory in taking the form of a servant, so when He said to us, ‘Whosoever would be first among you, shall be your servant,’ He simply taught us the blessed truth that there is nothing so divine and heavenly as being the servant and helper, of all…When we see that humility is something infinitely deeper than contrition, and accept it as our participation in the life of Jesus, we shall begin to learn that it is our true nobility.” (Andrew Murray)

We read the words and perhaps hear them occasionally that the greatest in the kingdom is the most humble. But it does not settle down into our souls very deeply. We continue to think of greatness in terms of how the world defines it. The world defines greatness as fame, money, outward success, power, and the ability to lead in how it defines leadership. So the professing Church has bought that type of thinking and swallowed it whole. That has lead to churches looking for men with powerful or charismatic personalities, it has conferences looking for men who are famous, and so it has both the churches and conferences looking for men who fit the model of the world. Yet Scripture is so clear that the greatest is the most humble.

There are people in the churches who are busy doing things, but that in and of itself does not mean that they are humble and being like Christ. People can stay busy in the churches because of pride. They can do those things, even menial things, with a desire to get attention or to think of themselves or have others think of them as humble. Humility is not found in what a person does in and of itself, but in the motives and desires in doing them. Jesus is the supreme example of humility and so we must look to Him and His motives in what He did. We can find these in Scriptures about Him but also in the Scriptures that have His teaching.

Matthew 5:14 – “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; 15 nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. 16 Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”

John 11:4 – “But when Jesus heard this, He said, ‘This sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it.’…40 Jesus said to her, ‘Did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?’ 41 So they removed the stone. Then Jesus raised His eyes, and said, ‘Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. 42 I knew that You always hear Me; but because of the people standing around I said it, so that they may believe that You sent Me.'”

John 14:31 – “but so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commanded Me. Get up, let us go from here.”

Humility is to be emptied of the motives of self and to truly desire to love God which includes a desire for His glory to be manifested. The life of Christ was the glory of God on display. John 1:14 tells us that Jesus was the very tabernacle of the glory of God. John 1:18 says that Jesus came to put God on display or explain Him. All the teaching and all the miracles pointed to the glory of God. Even when Jesus was pointing to Himself He was doing so because He was the very outshining of the glory of God (Hebrews 1:3). True humility, then, is to use self as a temple of the living God and to seek His glory out of love for His glory. It is not to use God to attain honor for self.

Humility is more than just a word, but it refers to that which is necessary for a soul to have Christ. It is not just something that a person can fight with self to obtain; it is that which is beyond the power of self to do since humility is the absence of self or the emptying of the soul of self. It is more than just something a person does in order to live, but instead it has to do with the life of the humble Savior in the soul. The proud want to exalt self and do all for the sake of self, but the truly humble hate the remnants of slavery to self and desire to be free from self in order to be instruments of His glory in the world. The proud want to be full of self and the desires of self, but the truly humble want nothing else than to be nothing so that God may be all to the soul.

“The Christian life has suffered loss, where the believers have not been distinctly guided to see that, even in our relation as creatures, nothing is more natural and beautiful and blessed than to be nothing, that God may be all; or where it has not been made clear that it is not sin that humbles most, but grace, and that it is the soul, let through sinfulness to be occupied with God in His wonderful glory as God, as Creator and Redeemer, that will truly take the lowest place before Him.” (Andrew Murray)

Even within the professing Church the desire to be a celebrity seems to drive much of what happens. It happens in local churches when some want to lead music, present dramatic plays, special music, and many times even in the preaching. It happens beyond the local church in concerts, plays, and in conferences with famous speakers or speakers who want to become famous. There is also the desire to be known as an evangelist or author. There can be a drive to be a famous professor. There can be the desire to grow a church so one can write a book on the issue, speak at a conference on it, or perhaps get a bigger church. The issue, regardless of the desire for fame, is that of a heart that wants self to be honored and exalted in this world.

Andrew Murray puts his finger on the same vitally important point that Jesus made over and over again. The greatest is the most humble. The true blessedness of the believer is to be empty of self and nothing so that God may be all. The Pharisees were focused on self in all they did and in that they picture much of what is going on within the professing Church today. “Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, were listening to all these things and were scoffing at Him” (Luke 16:14). Jesus has just told them that “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth” (Luke 6:13). As someone has said, “history teaches us that we do not learn from history.” The Bible also teaches us that sinners do not learn the real lessons of the Bible. Lovers of money today also scoff at the idea that they cannot serve God and money. So ministers, ministries, and all sorts of other things continue to rake in the big bucks while thinking that they are serving God and not money. The Pharisees did not see themselves as lovers of money and of honor and so many today don’t see it either.

The Pharisees loved to pray in order to be seen by men (Mat 6:5). They loved to do so-called ministry so that they could be honored. If you asked them why were doing those things, they would have said that they were doing them out of love for God or out of duty to God. So there are many “doing ministry” today that would certainly have the right answers to give when asked of their motives. But one thing is severely lacking in all of this. That is, as Murray said, to be nothing. Jesus told us not to let our left hand know what the right hand was doing. We are to do our good deeds in secret and have Him as the love of our hearts. The humble heart that loves God only wants God to get the glory and does not want self to be honored at all. The soul that has been emptied of self no longer desires self to receive honor because the love of God dwells in that soul and its focus is toward God and God alone.

One great difference between a false humility and a true one is that a false humility has not truly learned at the foot of true grace. True humility only comes as a result of grace in the soul. The Law will humble a person before God so that it knows that it cannot save itself, but grace actually saves the soul and delivers it from the guilt of sin, the punishment of sin, and the power of sin. The Law will humble a person in one sense externally, yet grace empties the soul of self and then imparts to that soul the life of Christ which is a humble life. The soul that has been broken by the Law and by grace is not a person that desires celebrity status in God’s name. It is a soul that loves to be nothing in itself that it may be full of Him and wants His glory to shine through it. It is a soul that will shun fame and the honor of men in order to focus on God. If fame does come to the truly humble, it will flee from it inwardly knowing that this could lead to being a spark of pride in the heart. It hates pride and desires to flee it at all costs.

The idea that the chief care of the soul and its happiness is to be an empty vessel is profound beyond words to describe. We are commanded to be holy as He is holy, yet this says that the highest virtue of the soul is to present itself as an empty vessel. We are commanded to love others as Christ loved, yet Murray tells us that the highest “virtue” of the soul is to present itself as an empty vessel. Is Murray being completely unbiblical or is he giving us an approach to the Christian life that is thoroughly biblical and virtually lost in our day? I believe the latter. We might also think of virtue as that which the soul obtains by the work of grace in the soul rather than its own works.

“The creature has not only to look back to the origin and first beginning of existence, and acknowledge that it there owes everything to God; its chief care, its highest virtue, its only happiness, now and through all eternity, is to present itself an empty vessel, in which God can dwell and manifest His power and goodness.” (Andrew Murray)

Other than some of the ancient Greeks and people like Nietzsche, most have thought of humility as something desirable. It is true they did not understand humility in the Christian way, but there was something that of it that they desired. Even though unbelievers do not understand the depths of pride, they are still repulsed by those who are openly proud. Within professing Christianity humility (in name) is thought to be desirable by all. So it is possible to desire humility (at least some form or definition of it) in order to impress others or for non-Christian motives. The Pharisees fasted and prayed in order to be seen by men, so it is certainly possible to desire to be seen as humble in order to impress others. Do I desire to be humble that I may think well of myself? Do I desire to be humble so that others will think well of me? Do I want to be humble in order to please my spiritual pride? Do I desire to be humble simply because it feeds my spiritual pride in wanting to be biblical and it is in the Bible? If I desire humility in name rather than what it really is for reasons other than to seek the face of God and His glory I desire it for self-centered reasons and that is the opposite of true humility.

Instead of desiring humility for the reasons of self, even if it is for religious self, true humility is the absence of self which brings us to the quote from Andrew Murray. True humility is to present ourselves to God as an empty vessel. God has created all things for His own glory and it is only the humble soul that is emptied of self can be full of His glory and do all with holy intentions and love for His glory. The spiritually proud soul can desire the glory of God in one sense and do things to the glory of God in that sense, but the proud soul in doing that can be much like the Pharisees who did all they did to be seen by men or to please themselves.

The reason that humility is so important is that unless the soul is emptied of self it will do all it does (even its religious actions and duties) for self. In other words, there is no true biblical holiness apart from the soul being emptied of self in order that the love of God may dwell in and through it. If the soul is not emptied of self and filled with the only love in the universe, that soul will do all things out of love for self. As I Corinthians 13:1-3 declares with power, there is nothing that any person can do apart from love that is worthy anything at all.

1 Corinthians 13:1 – “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.”

The true happiness of the soul according to the modern world is to be full of self and to feed self all it desires. The true happiness of the soul if one learns it from Scripture is to be empty of self, continue to deny self daily, and then to be full of the presence and power of God. This is the message of the Beatitudes which teaches poverty of spirit, mourning, meekness, and a pure heart as the way of true blessedness. The Beatitudes and humility teach what true blessedness and happiness (inner joy) really are. Instead of being people who are full of self looking around how to fill self with what self wants whether it is in religion or the world, we are to be those who seek the emptiness of self and pursue Him so that He will dwell in us and manifest His glory in and through us. After all, we say that we love Him and His glory with all of our being. That is only possible if we are emptied of self.

The soul either lives and acts by the power and love of self or it lives and acts by the power and love of God. The proud soul lives and acts out of love for self. The proud soul can be very religious and can even be a pope or a preacher. The proud soul that lives and acts by the power and love of self can imitate virtually all outward Christian acts. The proud soul can also imitate many of the inward things of Christianity though only on the outside. The proud soul can also be very deceived and even convince itself that it is spiritual. But the humble soul has been emptied of self and can do nothing apart from what it receives from its vine who is Christ (John 15). The humble soul sees itself as an empty vessel which is empty of self and needs to be full of God. While it is true that on the outside one might not see much difference between those that live by the power of self and those that live by the power of God, there is a massive difference on the inside. The reign of self is really to be like the devil while the reign of God in the soul is to have the life of Christ in the soul.

“God wished to reveal Himself in and through created beings by communicating to them as much of His own goodness and glory as they were capable of receiving. But this communication was not a giving to the creature something which it could possess in itself, a certain life or goodness, of which it had the charge and disposal. By no means. But as God is the ever-living, ever-present, ever-acting One, who upholdeth all things by the word of His power, and in whom all things exist, the relation of the creature to God could only be one of unceasing, absolute, universal dependence. As truly as God by His power once created, so truly by that same power must God every moment maintain. The creature has not only to look back to the origin and first beginning of existence , and acknowledge that it there owes everything to God; its chief care, its highest virtue, its only happiness, now and through all eternity, is to present itself an empty vessel, in which God can dwell and manifest His power and goodness.”

The last of the quote above is massively important to understand humility and the Christian life. If we understand humility as that which the soul can do for itself, then we will understand the Christian life a lot differently than we will if we see that humility is to be emptied of self so that it can be an empty vessel to be filled with God Himself who dwells in the truly humble soul. If the chief care of a soul is to be an empty vessel, then that is polar opposite to the chief care of the soul to be doing things out of self and self-love. If the chief care of the soul is to be an empty vessel which is to be empty of self, then surely it is self-evident that much of modern professing Christianity in its focus on self is opposite to biblical Christianity. The soul that must deny self in order to take up its cross and follow Christ will utterly abhor the teaching that we must love self in order to love others and then Christ.

As we gaze across the landscape of modern professing Christianity, we don’t hear the teaching that the chief happiness of the soul is to be an empty vessel. We hear that the soul must do this and that and it must buy this and that in order to become what God had planned for it and so God can bless it. But what we don’t hear is that God Himself is the greatest and only true blessing of the soul. God can give many things to unbelievers and do nothing but increase their eternal punishment. But when God gives Himself to the soul, He is then giving what is truly good to that soul. The only true and substantive joy in the universe is the joy that is within the Trinity and what He shares of that with His children. Until the soul is emptied of itself it will never know what true joy really is.

The humbled or emptied soul that comes to God and asks for Him to make it an empty vessel is the soul that understands how utterly dependent it is on God. The soul that has been emptied of self is the only kind of soul in the universe that will now be the dwelling place of God and therefore a place where God will manifest His goodness and His power. In the thinking of the older writers the love and grace of God flowed from His goodness. So in that line of thought the soul that is an empty vessel (true humility) is now full of the love and grace of God. It is this soul that depends on nothing but the power of God rather than the power of self. It is this soul that is moved by the love of God in it rather than the love of self. The humble soul that is emptied of self is a soul that now has the very joy and love of God in it (John 15:11; 17:13, 26) and would not trade that for anything or even all things in the world. The humble soul knows what it means to have a joy that is inexpressible and full of glory (I Peter 1:8). The humble soul knows what true life is while those with the life of self are really living death. How can one begin to utter words to get across to people who are full of self and are taught that to be full of the love of self is the best Christianity can offer? Humility (an empty of self vessel) is what God works in souls so that they can have Himself and share in His life. How can words even begin to describe that? Taste and see that the Lord is good.

It is humbling in one sense of the word to think of just how utterly dependent the soul is on God and His grace. It is humbling in the sense that it makes one see just how weak and powerless the creature is. But humility is the emptiness of self. A person can be humbled in a modern sense of the word and still be full of self. To truly be humbled, then, is for the creature to be emptied of self to the degree that it now lives by grace received each moment from God. Indeed the humbled soul knows that God upholds it each moment, but it also lives by grace received each moment since the power of God for the strengthening of the soul comes to the soul only by grace.

“God wished to reveal Himself in and through created beings by communicating to them as much of His own goodness and glory as they were capable of receiving. But this communication was not a giving to the creature something which it could possess in itself, a certain life or goodness, of which it had the charge and disposal. By no means. But as God is the ever-living, ever-present, ever-acting One, who upholdeth all things by the word of His power, and in whom all things exist, the relation of the creature to God could only be one of unceasing, absolute, universal dependence. As truly as God by His power once created, so truly by that same power must God every moment maintain. The creature has not only to look back to the origin and first beginning of existence , and acknowledge that it there owes everything to God; its chief care, its highest virtue, its only happiness, now and through all eternity, is to present itself an empty vessel, in which God can dwell and manifest His power and goodness.”

It was God that brings each soul into existence. It is mysterious to the human mind of how souls come into existence, but that does not mean that just because it is mysterious that we cannot know anything about it.

“13 For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. 14 I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well. 15 My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; 16 Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them.” (Psalm 139).

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, And before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.” (Jeremiah 1:5).

God knew more than the physical features of those who were writing, He knew them and had even ordained all their days before they were born. The same power that created these bodies and these souls is the same power that keeps them in existence each moment. The same power that brought them into existence is the same power that has ordained each day and each event of each day. The same power that brought them into existence is the same power that has to regenerate them and bring spiritual life into their souls:

18 “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might 20 which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly place” (Ephesians 1).

This power that brought spiritual life is also the same power that Paul prayed for the believers to have in Eph 3:

16 “that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. 20 Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us.”

It is clear that it is the power of God that works to create souls and then it is His power that gives them spiritual life in regeneration and then upholds them each moment. This power only comes by grace. The soul that truly sees these things and bows low before this God is one that lives by grace alone which is to say that it lives by the grace it receives. Receiving the power and love of God is grace. The soul must be humble to live in utter dependence.