God Loves… Himself

Humility is not something that a soul can do to or for itself, but rather it has to do with the emptiness of self in the soul. Apart from this definition or concept of humility at some point we will run into the problem of self being the master of the soul. What does it mean to deny self if it is nothing but self doing the denying? That would be nothing but an act of self doing something for and by self. There can be no true denial of self apart from the soul being emptied of self so that it is not self doing what is thought to be a denial of self. Does the soul have to deny self and take up the cross daily in order to follow Christ as Luke 9:23 clearly tells us? Does the soul have the power in itself to do this or does it need to be emptied of self by grace in order to receive grace to obey?

“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.”

Do we live in the conscious awareness that God is the origin and source of life? Do we really believe what Paul preached to the people at the Areopagus in Acts 17?

24 “The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; 25 nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; 26 and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, 27 that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; 28 for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.”

The humble soul (has been emptied of self) knows that it lives physically each moment by the breath and hand of God. The humble soul realizes that it lives in the same utter dependence upon God in the spiritual realm as well. God made the world and all things in it and that includes the inward part of human beings which is the soul. He is not served by human hands or human souls because He does not need anything. He is the one that gives people their life and breath and all things in the physical realm, but He is also the one that give life to sinners so that they are now believing sinners and now they live each moment by grace alone. As the awakened soul sees that its every breath is by the mercy of God so the believing soul knows that every truly spiritual act is from the grace of God.

For the believer to truly walk humbly with God (Micah 6:8) is for the believer to walk in utter dependence upon God each and every moment. In one sense we live by our breath and by water and food in the physical realm, but God is sovereign over those and we only receive those by His mercy. In another sense we live by faith which receives grace in the spiritual realm. Surely it is obvious that for grace to be grace we are utterly dependent on God to give grace each moment. If it is “in Him” that “we live and move and exist” in the physical realm, then how much more so is it true in the spiritual realm? It is our spiritual nature that is most like God and must have grace each and every moment. We are commanded to worship Him in spirit and truth because He is Spirit and He is truth. As our bodies are upheld each moment by His sovereign hand, so our souls are upheld each moment as well.

It is so easy for some to intellectually know that God is sovereign over the physical things of the world and over other people. It is harder to recognize and submit to His sovereignty over our bodies and circumstances. Then we move to how hard it is for people to submit to the fact that God is gracious to whom He will be gracious in the realm of salvation. But it seems even harder for people to submit to the fact that God is sovereign for each and every movement of the soul as well. We live like grace depends on us and our behavior. But in reality our every spiritual motion depends completely upon Him. Our souls live by grace each moment and humility receives grace.

Humility, while vastly misunderstood and hardly sought after, is at the heart of Christianity. Apart from a humble heart the Christian will not receive grace and so will not grow in grace. Apart from humility there is no love in the soul. Apart from humility there is no true blessedness in the soul since humility is at the heart of the Beatitudes. Without humility there can be no following of Christ who is the Humble Lamb of God. Apart from humility there can be no taking up the cross daily which is necessary to following Christ.

“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.”

In the last BLOG (Humility 11) we started looking at the statement by Andrew Murray from his book on Humility. We looked at how God’s desire in created human beings was to reveal Himself. This should give us a great clue as to the nature of true humility. Another statement which should give us a clue as to the nature of humility is Murray’s point that when God communicated Himself to them He was not giving the creature something which it could possess in the sense that it had charge of it to dispose of it as it pleased. This is truly an insight which strikes at the heart of the modern professing Church. It seems as if people think that God gives them gifts and then it is up to them to use the gift in their own strength and in their own way to make Him look good. People seem to think that they have to force themselves to study the Bible and then to do what it says in their own strength. They seem to think that the balance of the whole world is upon their shoulders. But it is simply not so. God does not give us things to possess for ourselves and He does not give it to us as something that we have charge over and is at our disposal. No, we are to walk by faith each moment. We are to live by the grace we receive through faith.

If God did give us our gifts and even grace in the soul which would be under our own charge and at our disposal, then He would have given Himself and His sovereignty over to the whims of human beings. We would be something like Simon in Acts 8 who wanted the gift to give the Holy Spirit in his own power. We would be able to give grace to ourselves whenever we wanted it. We would not need to walk by faith because we would simply live by what we had already received. If Simon had what he said he wanted, then he could simply be the sovereign over who received the Holy Spirit. That would simply be another way of wanting to be like God. But the Christian is blinded to the ways that s/he wants to be like God. When we want to live by our own strength rather than grace, we want to be like God. When we think that faith is something we can come up with in order to get God to do what we want, that is another way we want to be like God. When we think that if we can be good as a way to get God to do something for us, that is a way we want to be like God. When we think we can live the Christian life by our own strength plus some grace, that is a way we want to be like God. When we study the Bible looking to our own spirituality or intellectual abilities to give us understanding, this is a way we want to be like God. When we pray in such a way as to inform God what He needs to do or what we want Him to do, that is a way we want to be like God. When we “do” church according to our own desires and methods, we are being like God.

Humility, on the other hand, is when the soul is emptied of self and so it looks to God to do what He commands it to do. The humble soul sees its own nothingness and looks to God for the strength to do even the smallest of things. The humble soul looks to God to give it understanding when it studies the Bible because it is His Word and He alone can give us a true spiritual understanding. The humble soul prays to God for His own glory and desires to be full of His glory on the basis of grace alone. The humble soul is truly emptied of self and so looks to God for its strength in all things. The humble soul recognizes its poverty and knows that it can do nothing apart from Christ (John 15:4-5). The humble soul knows who works in it “both to will and to work for His good pleasure” (Phil 2:13). The humble soul looks to God for grace to do all things because He alone is the strength of the soul for all.

There is no power in the human soul that can cast out self unless it is the power of the living Christ and the fruit of the Spirit. If we think we can humble ourselves past the point of giving up trying to humble ourselves and bowing to Him alone who can humble us, we have yet to see the power of pride and self in our own hearts. When Scripture says that we are to humble ourselves, it does not mean that we have the power to humble ourselves to the depths that is needed. But to humble ourselves is when we give up our own efforts to drive out self and cast ourselves (so to speak) into the arms of Christ to do this work Himself.

In opposition to the above paragraph, however, we find many modern people telling us that humility is nothing but a choice. We simply make a choice to choose others over self or to think lowly of self. But it should be self-evident that a person that chooses others over self could be proud of that if s/he has not been emptied of self. It can be a very selfish and proud choice to choose others over self. It can also be a sign of a very proud person that is proud of how s/he thinks somewhat lowly of self. Even the Pharisees could not have missed all the teaching in the Bible about humility. But in some way they defined it so they could accomplish it and even think they were humble. A soul that is proud enough to feign humility when fasting is a soul that is very proud and wants others to see its humility. The spirit of the Pharisee is alive today and it is alive in every son and daughter of Adam. It is only by the work of Christ in the soul in emptying the soul of self that true humility can be in the soul. But the Pharisee lives today in the professing Church and seeks greatness for self by trying to be the most humble. When self seeks greatness for self, it can know that it is not truly humble.

One of the great errors of the modern day is the thought that human beings can serve God by doing something for God. That is totally bogus. The issue is whether the human being has power within self to do something for God or whether it is only the soul that is empty of self that God fills with Himself to manifest Himself through. “Listen” to these profound words of Andrew Murray:

“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.”

This statement is full of theology and is dripping with experiential Christianity. It also shows the beauty and the wonder of humility. Jesus told us more than once that the greatest is the most humble. Murray answers the question of why that is true here. The reason that the most humble is the greatest in the kingdom is because the purpose of a human being is to be empty of self so that God can manifest His glory through that soul. The humble soul has more of God and the glory of God shines through the humble soul far more than proud souls who despite their great gifts think highly of themselves and their giftedness. God did not and does not give human beings gifts in order to exalt themselves, but He gives them gifts so that they may exalt Him. After all, they are to love Him with all their being.

Notice the reason for creation in the first sentence. God created human beings in order to reveal Himself. To do that He communicates Himself to them in accordance to what they are capable of receiving. Souls that are full of themselves have no capacity for the glory of God because they are full of their own glory. Souls that are full of themselves have no room (so to speak) to receive the goodness of God. Souls that are full of their own spiritual works and abilities have no room to receive true grace. We can understand Micah 6:8 which teaches us what God requires: “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?” When the soul walks humbly with God it is emptied of self and God fills that soul with Himself. It is the humble soul alone that can walk with the God who will not give His glory to another to be used for man’s self-centered purposes in man’s self-love. True humility leads to true glory.

If God would open the eyes of our soul and let us see what the works of pride have wrought in the earth during the history of man, we would also see our own hearts in a new way. We might begin to see how our own pride has brought a lot of destruction into the lives of others and our own, though to see pride in its ugliness is to see it as it is against God. All the things that we have blamed on others we might see our own self and pride as enough blame to bring us to our knees. We would begin to understand that we have used others as a way to serve self. We would see that we have used all things in the service of self. We would see that we have used religion in the service of self. We would see that we have used God in the service of self. Our hearts would be amazed to see how wicked our hearts are in their pride. We would then begin to beg God to tear pride from our hearts and grant us humility. Humility is not just something that we can add on to make us better people, it is to be emptied of pride and self and then to be filled with the life of Christ. When Christ is present self and pride must be gone, yet where self and pride are Christ will be absent. The quotes below are from a recent but unnamed book that I am using as a background in an effort to show how the world has infiltrated the professing Church. These are ways for pride to take on the appearance of humility and yet still live and control the soul.

“[1] In this study, you’ll be learning about the character trait of humility…[2]You’ll learn that God rewards humility. [3] You’ll study about an angel and some people who allowed pride to enter into their hearts, and you’ll see what happened to them because of it….[4] You’ll also study about the punishment for pride…[5] To humble yourself means to make yourself low. How do you make yourself low? You make yourself low by not thinking more highly of yourself than you think of others. You make yourself low by putting others first-above yourself…[5] Humble people are selfless people….[6] Humble people admit that they have faults and weaknesses. [7] Humble Christian people admit that they are nothing without God. They admit that apart from God, they can do nothing.”

In quotes [5] – [7] above it has some appearance of Philippians 2:3-8:

“Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; 4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. 5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

Indeed humble people are selfless people, but then again if it self trying to appear selfless it is still nothing more than the pride of self in the presence of God. It is true that humble people admit that they have faults and weaknesses, but truly humble people do more than just admit it. Even the most wicked men in the world will admit that they have faults and weaknesses. It is no measure of spirituality or humility for people to simply admit that they have weaknesses. Humble people also admit that they are nothing without God and admit that apart from God they can do nothing. But this is also what a lot of wicked people admit as well. Madonna used to pray (perhaps still does) that God would bless her and help her as she performed. I have heard of a bank robber who would pray that his robberies would be successful. They were admitting that apart from God they could do nothing.

The real issue is not just admitting it, but actually living it. Jesus did tell us very clearly that apart from Him we could do nothing (John 15:4-5). This teaching is in the story of the vine and the branches. There is no spiritual fruit worked in and through our souls that does not come from Christ. No human being can do anything spiritual unless it is given to him or her from Christ. The spiritual life is not in studying the Bible enough, praying enough, and then doing some good things, it is in being dead to self and having the life of Christ in the soul who then works His fruit in and through us by the Spirit. Spiritual pride is able to do virtually anything the Bible commands in terms of the externals. But it can never die to self so that all that would be done through it would come from Christ in true love. When Christ went to the cross He went there out of perfect love to the Father or it would not have been perfect obedience. For that Christ to live in us, we must die to self and pride. For us to die to self and pride means that we must give up trying to kill self and pride and simply look to grace alone to empty us of ourselves.

The issue of humility is so vital that a step in the wrong direction at this point is a step away from Christianity because of the inextricable link between humility and the glory of all that God does by grace. The world has transported its false and man-centered thoughts about humility into the professing Church. When humility is left in the hands of human beings to work in themselves as a virtue, then what is called “grace” is also left in the hands of men because God gives grace to the humble. We are working with a few quotes from a recent but unnamed book that I am using as a background in an effort to show how the world has infiltrated the professing Church. The results and ramifications have been enormous, are presently enormous, and will continue to be enormous.

“[1] In this study, you’ll be learning about the character trait of humility…[2]You’ll learn that God rewards humility. [3] You’ll study about an angel and some people who allowed pride to enter into their hearts, and you’ll see what happened to them because of it….[4] You’ll also study about the punishment for pride…[5] To humble yourself means to make yourself low. How do you make yourself low? You make yourself low by not thinking more highly of yourself than you think of others. You make yourself low by putting others first-above yourself…[5] Humble people are selfless people….[6] Humble people admit that they have faults and weaknesses. [7] Humble Christian people admit that they are nothing without God. They admit that apart from God, they can do nothing.”

It is very dangerous to think of humility as simply making yourself low as in [5]. It is simply something that self does. According to that line of thinking, it is to make yourself low by not thinking more highly of yourself than others and then to put others above yourself. This is nothing but another way that pride can hide itself in the hearts of human beings. As long as we think of self doing the work, it is self doing the work. This is something that has been stated several times before and will be stated over and over. It is something that our hearts must learn and must be reminded of over and over. As long as it is self doing the work it is not the Spirit of God. So when the self is making itself low, it is self still doing the work and admiring itself in being low. It is one way that pride can hide itself in the heart in the form of humility.

Another way that pride hides itself in the form of humility is when it tricks itself into thinking that it is not thinking more highly of itself than it thinks of others. Pride is such a chameleon in that it will change into any color and anything in order to hide itself from others and then self. When self in its pride hears that to be humble it must not think more highly of itself than others, it sets out a way for its pride to attain humility. Now, of course, that is not how self presents these things to self, but that is the reality of it. The pride in our hearts does not want to admit pride because it hurts our pride to think of ourselves as prideful. So we find ways to keep our pride by hiding it in some form of humility. If we are working hard at not thinking more highly or ourselves than others, then pride will be hidden except when it escapes and makes us proud of ourselves for thinking of others before self. But of course if it is just pride hiding itself we are simply using others as a way to hide our proud hearts from ourselves.

The last point from [5] above is that “You make yourself low by putting others first-above yourself.” This one is again rather obvious. Pride wants to humble itself and so it simply puts others first. It allows others to go before it in a line at a store. It looks after certain things of others first. However, unless God has put pride to death in our souls and the life of humility which can only be the life of Christ in the soul is there, pride will feed on putting others first. It is still a way for self to be first. Our pride will be built up and grow at a rapid rate while it deceives us into thinking that we are putting others first. Apart from the life of Christ in the soul there is no way for self to put others first because it will be self doing it. It is also true that a human being should never put others first, but it is always out of love for God that we put others above ourselves. But we are never to put others before God.

Philippians 2:3 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; 4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. 5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Let me start by restating a comment from the last BLOG. If [2] from below is based on the idea that grace is what the human soul is able to come up with (by obtaining humility), then the devil has turned the idea of grace into something that human beings can at the very least assist themselves in obtaining. That would change the biblical concept of humility into a human concept of works or a way to obtain grace. The quotes below are from a recent but unnamed book that I am using as a background in an effort to show forth the true beauty of the grace of God.

“[1] In this study, you’ll be learning about the character trait of humility…[2]You’ll learn that God rewards humility. [3] You’ll study about an angel and some people who allowed pride to enter into their hearts, and you’ll see what happened to them because of it….[4] You’ll also study about the punishment for pride…[5] To humble yourself means to make yourself low. How do you make yourself low? You make yourself low by not thinking more highly of yourself than you think of others. You make yourself low by putting others first-above yourself…[5] Humble people are selfless people….[6] Humble people admit that they have faults and weaknesses. [7] Humble Christian people admit that they are nothing without God. They admit that apart from God, they can do nothing.”

The Gospel is the Gospel of grace and nothing but grace. “He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved” (Eph 1:5-6). “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
7 so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Eph 2:4-9). Whatever humility is, it must fit with the idea of grace presented in these passages of Scripture. Grace is based on the character of the triune God and He shows grace based on Himself rather than on the works or merit of human beings. In order to receive grace as grace, then, a person must be emptied of any idea of merit or works to obtain grace.

From [3] above (in light of the other statements) we can see wrong ideas of pride and of humility. What we must understand about pride in the heart is that we don’t have to allow pride in the heart. The natural human being is full of pride. The heart exudes pride in all that it thinks and does. Humility, then, is not just something that can be put on here and there, but it requires a new heart. For the believer who has a new heart the devil constantly wants the believer to look to self, merit, works or something that is not in line with God’s free and glorious grace. But when we think of allowing pride to enter the heart, pride is not something that can be defeated by the self of the human heart. The human heart must bow in humility before God and ask Him to take pride from the heart. The battle is constantly over what I can do and what grace can do. Pride, as Jesus instructed His disciples regarding demons, can only be cast out by prayer and fasting (Mat 15:17-21).

The last part of [3] and then [4] tend to have the same idea. It is not that it is wrong to think that God punishes pride, but we must be careful of how we think of these things. As we can see from Romans 1:18-32 God punishes sin by hardening the heart and turning it over to more and more sin. The nature of sin is that it leads to its own punishment and even more punishment. God does not always specifically work to cause bad things to happen to people because of pride, but bad things happen to people when they are proud. A heart that has pride will be turned over to more and more pride. A proud heart will excuse and justify its own sin. So it is left to more and more sin. But a proud heart may not recognize what is happening to it especially if God gives the soul external things.

One way we can be led astray by thinking in terms of [3] and [4] is that we can be led to think that humble people have good things happen to them and proud people have bad things happen to them. This is not the way that God has set out. Instead He disciplines those He loves and brings hard and fiery trials on them to teach and train them. If we are not careful, we will think that God is punishing us when in fact He is working in us so that we may share His holiness (Heb 12:10). God may leave the proud to themselves and they may have an easy life full of outwardly good things. If a person is deceived into an outward and self-centered humility, that can be eternally fatal.

In an effort to look at a biblical view of humility, I will be setting out some erroneous views and contrast those with the biblical view. In the last BLOG I quoted from a recent book that gives a modern view of humility, but one that is desperately wrong. I will repeat the quotes below and then get into some discussion on the statements. I will insert numbers so that the statements will not have to be repeated. The hope is that by setting out false views in contrast to the truth that the truth will be seen even more clearly. But the errors that so pervade our day in biblical dress will be seen for what they are. If the devil is able to steal the idea of humility and mix his poison in it, he will reign in the professing Church under the guise of biblical truth. This is really that serious. Once the idea of humility is changed, then grace becomes something far different and salvation and sanctification become by works.

“[1] In this study, you’ll be learning about the character trait of humility…[2]You’ll learn that God rewards humility. [3] You’ll study about an angel and some people who allowed pride to enter into their hearts, and you’ll see what happened to them because of it….[4] You’ll also study about the punishment for pride…[5] To humble yourself means to make yourself low. How do you make yourself low? You make yourself low by not thinking more highly of yourself than you think of others. You make yourself low by putting others first-above yourself…[5] Humble people are selfless people….[6] Humble people admit that they have faults and weaknesses. [7] Humble Christian people admit that they are nothing without God. They admit that apart from God, they can do nothing.”

In [1] above we can see the issue raised about humility being a character trait. A few BLOGS ago some verses from Proverbs were given. Three of those verses will be listed below:

Proverbs 15:8 – “The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD, But the prayer of the upright is His delight. 15:29 The LORD is far from the wicked, But He hears the prayer of the righteous. 16:5 Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD; Assuredly, he will not be unpunished.”

If humility is nothing but a character trait that the soul (as in [1] above) puts on by the efforts of self, we can see that the prayer of the upright is the person with enough character traits. If the LORD hears the prayer of the righteous, yet righteousness is obtained by a person working to obtain character traits, then prayers are answered on the basis of the righteousness obtained by self-effort. If those who are proud in heart are abominations to the LORD, yet humility is obtained by the effort of self, it is by the works of self in obtaining humility that we are not an abomination to the LORD. What we have to understand is that the word “character” can be meant in different ways. If character is simply those things that we have to work up, then much of the Bible is built on human works though that is not how it is presented. If humility is a character trait, then the ramifications are enormous. Scripture tells us that God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble. If humility is a character trait to put on by human self-effort, then God gives grace to those who exert self-effort enough to put on humility. Put simply, that destroys any idea of the biblical teaching of grace. The grace of God is sovereign grace or it is not grace at all.

Romans 11:6 is a determining verse on the matter: “But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace.” If we think of humility as something we work up and are in control of, then we have made grace out to be that which comes by our works and so grace is no longer grace. If [2] from above is based on the idea that grace is what the human soul comes up with, though many would admit that God must help it, then the devil has turned the idea of grace into something that human beings can at the very least assist themselves in obtaining. Instead of just assuming that humility is a virtue that the soul can obtain by some self-effort helped along by the grace of God, we must look to the Scripture for the truth of what grace is and what humility is. We cannot understand one without the other. What is obtained by works will never obtain grace.

Philippians 2 has the core issue of humility. “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” Humility is to be emptied of self. If we are emptied of self it cannot be self doing the work and self cannot obtain humility to receive grace or grace would not longer be grace. The soul must be emptied of self by grace so grace is always grace.

Humility is so misunderstood in our day and probably because we live in a spiritually dark days. We live in a time that has more information and data than at any time before. But that is not the same as a deep understanding of divine things. Many movements have arisen to help in raising children. Quality information for that is good as well. However, how many of these things are built on solid theology? I listened to video series in the last two years by a “raising kid’s guru” and found the man to be a Pelagian in his theology. Even assuming that his techniques worked in terms of getting kids to obey, can we assume that the Pelagian theology behind those techniques are teaching us biblical methods to raise kids? External morality apart from Christ is idolatry. Raising kids to be externally moral is most likely nothing more than acts of idolatry. We might want the kids to be moral so that we can be seen as good parents and feel good about ourselves. If we get the kids to some form of external behavior based on wrong theology and wrong attitudes, we have helped create a Pharisee in ourselves and in them.

In a fairly recent book (2001), written as a Bible curriculum for children for church or school (it shall remain unnamed to protect the guilty), the first chapter has statements like these in the first page of the first lesson:

“In this study, you’ll be learning about the character trait of humility. You’ll learn what humility is, and that pride is the opposite of humility…You’ll learn that God rewards humility. You’ll study about an angel and some people who allowed pride to enter into their hearts, and you’ll see what happened to them because of it….You’ll also study about the punishment for pride…To humble yourself means to make yourself low. How do you make yourself low? You make yourself low by not thinking more highly of yourself than you think of others. You make yourself love by putting others first-above yourself…Humble people are selfless people….Humble people admit that they have faults and weaknesses. Humble Christian people admit that they are nothing without God. They admit that apart from God, they can do nothing.”

The statements as stated above can have some good in them, but if humility is taken as nothing more than a choice and as nothing more than a character trait that a human puts on, then the statements above demonstrate a system of thinking that has a proud heart deceiving itself into thinking that it is humble. Is humility a character trait? Again we have to ask ourselves what that means. If a person’s character is something that s/he adds to and develops by hard work, then humility will be seen as an attitude that the person works on to develop in self or perhaps as changes in the self that hard work can attain. It will probably not be denied that this can only happen by grace, but that is simply stating that it is by grace rather than having humility by grace alone. However, stating that humility is by grace is different than actually obtaining humility by grace. It is part of the blindness of the age that we live in that thinks that believing something is the same thing as obtaining what we believe.

Let me use one example to show how awful it is to assume something of character rather than actually being what we assume. Preachers are very different from one another and the preaching of those preachers can also be very different. However, every single preacher in the world is either humble or proud to some degree. We can imagine a very proud preacher that wants to appear humble. We can then think of that preacher saying things in the sermon to amuse and impress other fallible sinners. If we have any spiritual sense about us, we know that if a preacher preaches to amuse or impress human beings for self-centered purposes that the preaching is actually very wicked. A proud man will be opposed by God in his very preaching. A proud man will not receive grace for preaching. It is a wicked thing for a man to try to impress himself or others by his preaching. The goal of preaching must be so that God would be glorified and human beings would then love God and be used to glorify Him.

Now, surely it is obvious that if we raise our children and they become externally moral in an effort to please their parents, themselves, and other people that they are idolaters in their very external morality. Scripture teaches us that knowledge makes us proud (I Cor 8:1), but do we often think that knowledge of morality can also make us proud? Scripture teaches us that there is nothing we can do that does not have love that is of any benefit (I Cor 13). Do we think of this in terms of our own morality and the morality of our children? We must also realize that it is not love for God to be moral or the Pharisees would have been moral in all their externalized religion. But it is only when the love of God abides in us and we love God and what we do is a manifestation of His love in us is our morality then truly moral. If we teach external morality rather than internal love then this can be nothing more than the same attitude of the Pharisees. If we teach a humility attained by human effort, we are teaching pride instead.

In the last BLOG we looked primarily at the need for humility in Bible study. Perhaps that is a new subject or one that has not been thought of a lot by many, but surely it points us to the utter need for humility in Bible study. If we are not humbled, which is to be emptied of self and pride, we will do Bible study for self and pride. If we do not have the presence of the Spirit in us in power sharing love for God with us, we will do our study out of love for self. Apart from a deep humility we will do our study in the power of self rather than the power of grace. The same thing is true of prayer. If we are not humbled, we will pray from love for self and pray for the things of self. We may offer religious platitudes or from self-love and pride know that we are to pray in a spiritual manner, but we will not pray out of a broken heart and love for God and His glory. When we pray from the power of self, that is idolatry. When we pray out of love for self, that is idolatry. When our prayer is for self, that too is idolatry. Surely, then, it is obvious that humility is utterly necessary for true prayer.

Daniel 10:12 – “Then he said to me, ‘Do not be afraid, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart on understanding this and on humbling yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to your words.'”

If it is the case that all we do in the strength of self and for the purposes of self is idolatry, then it is obvious that most of the prayers in our lives have been nothing less than idolatry. This is simply to say that apart from humility prayer is an idolatrous act of the soul. Perhaps what follows will sound harsh, as if what was said previously was not, but we need to hear things like this in order to be awakened from our proud and self-centered slumbers. The verses below tell us very clearly that our prayers may be nothing but an abomination to the LORD.

Proverbs 15:8 – “The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD, But the prayer of the upright is His delight.”

Proverbs 15:29 – “The LORD is far from the wicked, But He hears the prayer of the righteous.”

Proverbs 16:5 – “Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD; Assuredly, he will not be unpunished.”

Proverbs 28:9 – “He who turns away his ear from listening to the law, Even his prayer is an abomination.”

When these verses are looked at as a unit, it should hit us very hard. We might try to squirm out of 15:8 and 15:29, but know that pride is a wicked thing to the LORD and so the sacrifice of the proud and the religious activity of the proud are abominations to the LORD. The Law (28:9) prescribes humility. When we turn away our ear from that, it tells us that even our prayers are abominations. All the other things are too, but even the most religious and spiritual thing we do is an abomination to the LORD. Without humility our prayers are abominations to the LORD. This is not something to play games with or to ignore, but it tells us that we must pursue humility at all costs. Every moment that we are not humble we are not seeking God but self in all that we do. It takes our religious actions and makes them nothing but abominations to God. Humility is not a subject that we can just ignore or put on the back burner except to our eternal peril.

We can imagine a person in a deep and dark jungle praying to a statue. We know that is idolatry. But what about us when we are praying to ourselves and for ourselves? “The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector” (Luke 18:11). It is certainly possible to pray to ourselves because without humility we are not praying to God though we may use His name as the Pharisee certainly did. The Pharisee was his own god in this prayer despite the address to the living God. Our prayers can also have the same focus that the Pharisee had and as such they are to ourselves as well. Matthew 6:5 also says this: “When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.” Prayer for the purposes of self means a prayer that is not to God. Surely our desperate need for humility before and during prayer is seen. Apart from humility we are nothing more than the Pharisees. Even if we don’t use the same words the Pharisees did, we can still have that attitude in our hearts.

What about preachers and their prayers? Do they just pray to do their duty and get through the service? Do they pray to get an amen from the people? Do they pray to get people to think highly of them as they pray? What is their highest motive in prayer? What is their greatest love in prayer? We can’t just pray. The point that I am trying to drive at is that we must all be humbled or our prayers are an abomination to God. Humility is that important.

Humility, when it is thought of, is thought of as an add on here and there, but not really all that necessary. We know that we are not to be proud, and so we think we are humble if we are not overly proud. But humility is so misunderstood in our day that it is most likely not even recognized. Yet it is utterly necessary for true spiritual life. It is utterly necessary for Bible study and for prayer. Dare it be said that it is utterly necessary for true preaching? We live in a day where it is thought that we are to fill our heads with knowledge by studying the Bible, ask God for the things we want, and then practice the Bible by going to church, being moral, and perhaps a few other good things. But we miss the utter necessity of humility to do those things in truth.

James 1:21 – “Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls.”

Daniel 10:12 – “Then he said to me, ‘Do not be afraid, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart on understanding this and on humbling yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to your words.'”

In the verse in James above we see the need to receive the word in humility. In Daniel we see how that being humble before God in prayer is necessary. It is probably rare for us to recognize the pride in our hearts when we study the Bible and pray or do religious things. We don’t understand how wicked our hearts are in our pride to presume to go to the Scriptures in order to understand them and do so in reliance upon our intellect and ourselves. The Scriptures can only be understood when God gives us understanding by grace. How dare we think we can understand any spiritual nugget apart from Him? Do we really think that we can understand spiritual things by simply studying it as unbelievers do their books? If one wants to understand the message of God in the Bible, the soul must be humbled first and foremost.

Studying the Bible is nothing more than an act of pride in many cases. We go to it in pride as if we can understand it apart from the grace of God and we go to it to gain an understanding of something so we can appear spiritual in the eyes of others. In other words, we go to it in pride and are trying to learn something for the sake of our pride. In that case we are seeking ourselves rather than God and as such we are idolaters in our Bible study. We would not argue that the Pharisees were wicked and sinful men in their seeking themselves in their religious activities, but we don’t realize that we are just like them when we seek ourselves in our Bible study. The Pharisees sought the honor of men in what they did, but so do we when we want to impress others with what we have learned.

We are also idolaters in our Bible study because we study out of self-love rather than love for God. One can also study the attributes of God and many other things simply out of self-love. The point is that the truly humble soul will study the Scriptures out of love for God with a desire for God and His glory. The proud do Bible study in order to exalt self and to obtain honor for self in spiritual things rather than a desire to love God. That is nothing more or less than to bow before the shrine of self and do homage to self. Proud preachers study the Bible in order to develop a sermon in order to gain honor for their knowledge or perhaps their piety. Preachers study their Bible so that they can present something at a conference in order to get others to think highly of them. That is idolatry as well. This is to say nothing of the fact that they are to preach out of love for His glory and honor rather than their own. This is one reason that there is so much spiritually weak preaching today. Preachers are full of themselves seeking things for themselves and as such they do not preach in His power. The Great Commandment is to love God with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength. If we do Bible study out of the strength or energy that comes from anything else other than love for God, we are doing it for pride and self and as such we are idolaters.

We commit idolatry when we do our Bible study when we look to self rather than grace. The believer is to live by grace and understand that s/he can do nothing apart from grace. The works that a believer does must be understood as having their root in grace and not as a work for something. Whatever we do that is not in humility is done in pride. God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. God opposes our Bible study and our preaching when they are done in pride rather than in humility seeking Him. Our most cherished religious actions are idolatrous unless we are humbled first. It is not enough just to do them because just doing them is most likely pride. We must set our hearts to humbling ourselves before God that He would truly humble us and show us grace to His glory.