God Loves… Himself

The principle that man makes himself the measure of all things is one that is thoroughly biblical. For example, Isaiah 53:6 tells us that “All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way.” Instead of following God, the pride of man in making his own way is seen. Each person turns to his or her own way and in doing so shows the nature of true sin. Turning to our own way may be seen in gross sin or in committed religion, but each is seeking our own way. The Bible shows the Pharisees choosing their own way in the things of religion when Jesus corrected their interpretations in the Sermon on the Mount. They chose their own way in their interpretations of Scripture that allowed them to be religious for the honor of others and also use religion to lie and take the property of others. That is a very man-centered way of doing things.

“In egocentric religion, we may say, man is the measure of all things-even of God. For God Himself is understood in the light of man. In theocentric religion it is God who is the ‘disposer supreme,’ the final arbiter of all things. Here, man is understood in the light of God. Expressing the difference in specifically religious language, we may say; in egocentric religion, man chooses or ‘elects’ God; in theocentric religion, God chooses or ‘elects’ man.” (Let God Be God! An Interpretation of the Theology of Martin Luther)

Romans 1 also gives the way this happens:

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. 21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals.”

There are the basic things about God that are evident within human beings. In and through creation God’s eternal power and divine nature are understood and leaves all people without excuse. Yet human beings do not honor God and instead suppress the truth about Him and exchange the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man. The pattern is the same in all areas. The truth of God must be suppressed in order for the image of corruptible man to be asserted. In some forms of paganism they will use figures of beings for idols, but this idolatry can also be nothing more than concepts of the mind. Our theology can be idolatrous. Our good works can be idolatrous. Our going to church and doing what is called worship can be idolatrous. These are idolatrous when we are man-centered in what we do. When we are man-centered we have automatically suppressed the truth of God in order to make ourselves the center of things. This is simply a hideous pride to suppress the truth of God in order to make church all about man. Man-centeredness in anything but especially religion is scraping the very depths of pride and idolatry.

Wherever humanism and man-centeredness are found, idolatry is there in some form. Many of the good things that people carry out in various charities and organizations are really vile forms of idolatry. That is because they are from man-centered teachings. Even when we are trying to help our fellow human beings we can be fully given over to the idolatry of man-centeredness. In fact, there is nothing inconsistent with doing great things for human beings and man-centeredness. The Pharisees gave alms to the poor out of their man-centeredness. They would also hide their lies and greed by swearing on various religious things and then trying to find a way out of it. That is man-centered idolatry and nothing less. But what of those that preach on how others should give money to their ministries and that God will give those people even more? What about those that preach that God will heal if others only have the faith and express that faith by giving money? What about those with orthodox creeds who are full of pride over the words and over the fact that they have the truth while others don’t as if that makes them better? What of orthodox preachers who preach so that they will be honored by men? What of those that are proud of how much they tithe? What of those who are proud of their prayers? What of those who are proud of their righteousness or good works? It is all nothing but hideous pride and is to be at enmity with God.

The pride of man is so great that he always thinks of himself first. If he hears that God is love, he thinks that God must love him instead of thinking of the triune God as being love within Himself. If he hears of God being just, he will think of justice according to his standard rather than thinking of it according to the character of God. Man thinks of hell as not being so bad because he thinks of the standard of sin, justice, and wrath in accordance with himself and his own fallen ideas. The pride of man’s heart has so worked that man is now the measure of all things, and yes, even of God. Man is so proud that he has even twisted Christianity to make it man-centered. When man thinks of the cross of Christ, he thinks of what that means for him first rather than what it means for God. When man thinks of the Holy Spirit, he thinks of the things the Spirit can give him. Christianity has thus been diluted if not almost destroyed in modern America by humanism and self-centeredness. That is nothing but pride.

“In egocentric religion, we may say, man is the measure of all things-even of God. For God Himself is understood in the light of man. In theocentric religion it is God who is the ‘disposer supreme,’ the final arbiter of all things. Here, man is understood in the light of God. Expressing the difference in specifically religious language, we may say; in egocentric religion, man chooses or ‘elects’ God; in theocentric religion, God chooses or ‘elects’ man.” (Let God Be God! An Interpretation of the Theology of Martin Luther)

Some might think of Reformed theology as having escaped the ravages of the pride of man, but it has not. Reformed theology can become little more than an intellectual philosophy in the hands of proud man. People who are Arminian or even Pelagian at heart can put the veneer of Reformed theology over their man-centered hearts. The brain can hold to creeds of theology that a man-centered heart has stripped of its real meaning. So a person can walk around with a creed of Reformed theology while having gutted the heart of its God-centeredness. This is to gut Reformed theology of true Christianity. Reformed theology has historically taught on the total depravity of man, but totally depraved human beings can also believe in Reformed theology in a creedal sense while that same depravity can strip it of its inherent God-centeredness and make it man-centered. Thus the truth of total depravity impacts and even strips the meaning of creeds that declare it. The words of the creed can be adhered to while the pride of the depraved heart will strip it of the meaning that the words point to.

When man becomes the real center or measure of all things, the very nature of sin is in control to some degree. The pride of man’s heart will make himself the measure of human beings, the creeds, the Bible, and then God. There is no end to what the pride of the human heart will desire. After all, the promise Satan made to Eve was that she would be as God. The pride of the heart of humanity is such that all do desire to be as God. This is seen in religion and in Christianity as well as if not more than other places. The desire for man to be God is seen in man making himself, his reason, and his morality as the measure of God rather than Christ who is the perfect image of God. To understand God man must go by the standard of measure of God’s self-revelation in the Bible and especially in Christ. Rather than man being conformed to Christ as the image of God, fallen man in his pride tries to twist the truth of God until He is conformed to the image of man. As one ancient put it, “God has created man in His own image and man has returned the favor.”

The Pharisees were masters of this great sin through the use of the Old Testament and their writings. Modern man has perhaps outstripped the Pharisees in the extent and degree in which this is done. In modern forms of Christianity God is no longer the absolute sovereign of the universe that only shows men favor by grace alone, but instead He is now the divine genie by which men can gain riches and honor for themselves if they will just jump through certain hoops. Man does not like the will of God being supreme over him, so he decides that his own will is the final arbiter for himself. Man does not like the fact that the Bible teaches election which means that God must choose a man from His own will, so he turns things around so that man now elects God by a choice of man’s will. Those who are more orthodox know that God has something to do with salvation, so they let Him provide most of salvation and then try to talk others into seeing Christ as acceptable to them rather than declaring that God from sheer grace must make man acceptable to Himself through Christ. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is by grace alone, but man in his pride and self-centeredness always leaves himself something to do as the final arbiter of his own salvation. Thus we have those who are Reformed in creed essentially gutting Reformed theology by practicing forms of evangelism that are man-centered and dependent on the choice of man in reality. How idolatrous pride is.

Jeremiah 17:9 speaks to how “The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?” It is a verse that most who have been to even a relatively conservative church have heard. It is a verse that many have heard of, but it is not a truth that we really deal with much at all. We don’t want to deal with our own hearts to discover the abyss of deceitfulness that is in them. We don’t want to see the desperate sickness of our own hearts. While it is true that the sinfulness of man can be seen by looking at how wicked people become without as they degenerate into all sorts of sinful behavior apart from God, it is not as easy for us to see how wicked people can become within the confines of religion. The Pharisees became very wicked even while upholding many orthodox beliefs. Let us not assume that our age (and perhaps ourselves) has escaped their error. They used religion and even their belief about God to excuse sinful behavior and hide sin from their own hearts. They denigrated God because they were dealing with the things of God. Without realizing it they (man) became the measure of God rather than God being the measure of man. Our age has done the same thing as well.

“In egocentric religion, we may say, man is the measure of all things-even of God. For God Himself is understood in the light of man. In theocentric religion it is God who is the ‘disposer supreme,’ the final arbiter of all things. Here, man is understood in the light of God. Expressing the difference in specifically religious language, we may say; in egocentric religion, man chooses or ‘elects’ God; in theocentric religion, God chooses or ‘elects’ man.” (Let God Be God! An Interpretation of the Theology of Martin Luther)

In the modern version or perversion of Christianity man has indeed become the measure of God. We will say hard things about the world as it does that, but we don’t realize that is exactly what we are doing as well. Our way of “doing church” is more about man than God. We want people to be comfortable coming to church and we will go to great lengths not to offend them so that they will like it and come back. What lengths do we go to in order that God may come to church and not leave? We just assume that God will be there since we have Bibles and offer things we call prayers. But should we just assume that? The church has become weak because it has made man the measure of a success. Let us not imagine that any particular denomination or theology has the corner on that practice. The standard of Reformed theology today is also that we are to be more concerned with being gracious and winsome than anything else. That can be nothing more than making man the standard and a tacit admission that we want to please men rather than tell them the truth about a God whose wrath they are under.

When people start churches, what is their focus? Isn’t it getting people in the door? They do evangelism to get people in the door. They do discipleship programs to get people to stay. They do worship a certain way to reach a certain group of people. They go to certain neighborhoods and try to fit in. The messages are watered down under the guise of making things practical or that people cannot understand theology or the deep things. What is this but making man the measure of all things? We are not evangelizing in order to make God acceptable to people, but it is to tell people the message of the living God and that they must repent of perish. We are to disciple because all are commanded to deny self and follow Christ. We are to worship because God is worthy and we can only truly worship if we love Him and our worship is done in spirit and in truth.

Man has become the measure of what sin is in the sense that sin is only bad if it hurts or harms another person. We have made man the measure of sin in the sense that we develop our own standard of what is right or wrong according to our own reason rather than the word of God. Man is the measure of sin when we ask how something can be wrong rather than whether it glorifies God or not. Man is the measure of sin when we think that if we are not violating any external commands we can do pretty much as we please.

Man has become the measure of Bible study when the Bible is studied with the main idea of helping man in life. Man is the measure of teaching when we focus our teaching on how man can overcome certain problems. Man is the measure when we tell him that he must esteem himself to do good rather than do all in the power of grace and to the glory of God. Man is the measure when he determines what is true about God based on what his fallen reason can come up with as a rational basis for God. In other words, God has left the professing Church and we have replaced Him with the idol built up in our own image. Such is the great danger of making the idol of self the standard. When we are there, we will always think God is here. The true God, however, has long since departed.

It seems that Christianity today is under a dark cloud of self (pride). We are only moved for Christ for reasons of self. We go to church if it pleases self enough. We want what is called worship to please me rather than God. We want the preaching to be light and entertaining. We want the atmosphere and the furniture to be just right. When we sing we want it to make us feel good. When we pray it is all about the things of self. Down deep we still believe that if we are holy enough God will give us the things we want. Does deep we still believe that if we will be holy enough and pray enough God will give us growth of the church and perhaps revival. Even in the most spiritual things the orthodox in creed have such low thoughts of God when it comes to living. Our worship and our prayers are all very proud when for self rather than God. To pray in the name of Christ means far more than just tacking His name on at the end of a prayer,” but it is to pray without any self-reliance or hope in self. Prayer based on self (even partially) rather than Christ is nothing but pride. True prayer is based on Christ’s righteousness with Him as the goal and motive. It is to pray moved by Christ and seeking His glory out of love rather than anything of self.

“It is also a question to which the answer [fellowship with God] does not lie finally with me. Nothing that I may do or become can decisively ensure my standing with God. I cannot establish a claim to His favour or control His dealings with me. He is not to be moved by my merits or worthiness or by anything else of mine. On the contrary, I am moved by Him. I am moved to both seek fellowship with Him and to strive to do His will-not for the sake of any benefit I may derive therefrom, but simply and solely because such is His good pleasure and my unconditional obligation.” (Let God Be God! An Interpretation of the Theology of Martin Luther)

In daily life and in prayer it is so hard (impossible by the efforts of self) to realize that the answer does not reside within self. It is possible to desire something of fellowship with God based on the desires of self rather than the life of Christ within the believer. But it is so contrary to our being born dead in pride and self-centeredness to understand that we have no claim on the favor of God or how He deals with us. The truth of the matter is that we are totally dependent on the hand of sovereign grace for each and every thing. We are not in hell only and simply because of His good pleasure and not because of any worthiness or merit we have. We have no claim on God and no way to establish a claim on Him through Christ but by grace and grace is always based on the character of God and not anything a human being can do. But a proud heart constantly looks to self for ways to obtain grace.

It is so hard for those bound within a self-centered view of humanity, nature, and of God to think of cause and effect relationships as being God-centered. We think that if we are holy then God will give us what we want rather than God will give us holiness in order to make us like Him and He is the greatest gift of all. True holiness is only found in love for God and the manifestation of His glory. If we think we are being holy when we are trying to get something from Him, then it is most likely that our very holiness is the height of our pride. The inward desires and motives of the heart can be nothing but the pride of self seeking to manipulate God. Ephesians 2 gives the pattern of God (true cause and effect) in all things: “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.” God shows mercy because of His great love. His love is based on Himself and not anything found in human beings because there is nothing but sin found in human beings. God makes sinners alive by grace and God moves sinners to holiness and love by His grace. The purpose of God in these things is to manifest the surpassing riches of His grace toward sinners in Christ Jesus. So God is moved by Himself with the ultimate goal of Himself. When we desire God to be moved by self rather than Himself, that is nothing but the horrors of pride in us.

God is not moved by what is in us unless we can claim that God is moved by our sin, but He is moved by love for His own glory. After all, to be truly holy God must be moved by His own glory rather than our sin. We are moved to seek fellowship with Him because it is God moving within us. When God moves within us, our hearts are moved for His glory and pleasure rather than self. When self desires God, it desires God for self. Psalm 115:1 is the cry of the heart that is moved by God. “Not to us, O LORD, not to us, But to Your name give glory Because of Your lovingkindness, because of Your truth.” Self must become repugnant to us by the work of the Spirit moving us to love God. It is only when we have turned from pride and self to love God that we truly fellowship with Him.

We have been looking at pride and how religion can be man-centered without people even recognizing it. God can be thought of as man-centered and men can think of all that religion entails as centered upon them. There is virtually nothing in Christianity as far as its teaching or its practices that proud men cannot focus on themselves and turn it into man-centered religion. In man-centered religion God becomes one that is bought and manipulated by men depending on what they can believe and do. Once one begins to see how the depraved hearts of human beings take things that are centered upon God and center them upon themselves, the teaching of the Bible on the depravity of man becomes even more obvious. The proud hearts of human beings are so blinded by the love of self that they can intellectually adopt orthodox creeds while their hearts are far from the living God.

“In theocentric religion, on the other hand, God is the sovereign and unquestionable Lord of man’s existence. He confronts man with compelling authority; and in His presence there is no place left for egoism in any form. He cannot be regarded here as the One from whom I expect either the fulfilment of my desires or the reward of my deserts. The question of my relationship to Him is not even in the remotest sense optional, dependent on my wishes or sense of need. It is a matter of urgent and imperious necessity.” (Let God Be God! An Interpretation of the Theology of Martin Luther)

Man can even call God sovereign and yet think of this from a man-centered perspective. This is to say that the proud hearts of human beings will use words and phrases that sound God-centered but they will have twisted the meaning in their hearts to where man retains some control. We can think of God as sovereign but want Him to control others for our own purposes. We want Him to be sovereign over all things, but we stop His sovereignty at the door of our own hearts. There seems to be a type of Reformed thinking today that uses the historic language of the sovereignty of God and yet does not want God to be sovereign over the heart. It is able to retain the language and appearances of the sovereignty of God, but in shutting the door at the level of my own heart it remains a man-centered view of God. It is okay to a proud heart like that to think of God as sovereign over creation and over other people, but we retain a freedom for ourselves which is to say we still think we control God to some degree.

The proud heart of man retains lordship over himself (at least in the deep recesses of the thoughts of the heart) and thinks that he can obey God or not at his own will. He simply has not realized the depths of the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Apart from Him we can do nothing (John 15:4-5). The heart that has not dealt with its own pride and the glory of God will even accept those verses intellectually, but it will not accept those practically. Jesus Christ is absolute Lord over all hearts and the entire spiritual realm. We can do absolutely nothing in the spiritual realm apart from the inner work of Christ in our soul. That is humbling at the least, yet a man-centered approach to that denies this teaching in a practical way. The proud heart refuses to give up its pride. Pride and self will not die to pride and self unless Christ puts them to death. This is so hard for the proud and man-centered heart to give up. It will believe anything in order to keep from dying to self so that Christ will be absolute Lord of that heart. It will do anything in order to keep from dying to self so that Christ will be absolute Lord of that heart.

As the quote above says, “in His presence there is no place left for egoism in any form.” Here is a statement of magnificent proportions. If this statement could only be understood within Christendom it would be like a massive earthquake hitting an area with primitive buildings. The forms of Christianity that are so prevalent today are man-centered in theology and in methodology. If Christendom came to more than just an intellectual understanding of the extent of the sovereignty of God much of its man-centeredness would fall to the ground and be despised. It would be something like Job 42: “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; But now my eye sees You;
6 Therefore I retract, And I repent in dust and ashes” (vv. 5-6). Theology and creeds can simply be something like hearing of God by the ear. But when we come into His presence we retract (literally, loathe myself) and repent in dust and ashes. There is no room for pride and self in any form in the presence of the living and sovereign God.
Isaiah 6 also shows us how man responds when he sees God as He is in His sovereignty and holiness: “Then I said, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts” (v. 5). Isaiah had no place left for his pride or self. He had no place left for a religion that depended on him and his works and merits. Isaiah had no room for anything or anyone but the glory of this great God. He was utterly undone and had nothing but grace to look to. What happened to pride and self in Isaiah? In the presence of God there was no room left for those things. He was emptied of self.

As we think through the ramifications that pride and self-centeredness have for the modern versions of Christianity, it is becoming even clearer that the modern professing Church has lost the very core of Christianity. The core of Christianity is indeed Christ and the cross, but if we water Christ and the cross down into a form of humanism we no longer have Christ and the cross. The Christ and the cross that are being taught today in many places are man-centered and are little more than a form of humanism. Christ came to deliver sinners from themselves and give them over to new hearts that love God. He does not leave them in their state of pride and self-centeredness and simply give them more rules and things to do that fill self with more pride.

“Eudemonism means that my desires and needs, whether temporal or spiritual, are the fundamental inspiration of my quest for acceptance with God. I seek God in pursuit of my own interests. Impelled, for instance, the fear of hell and hope of heaven, or by a yearning for present peace of heart and mind, I seek God no less for my own satisfaction than if I sought material advantages at His hands. In egocentric religion, fellowship with God depends ultimately on man’s achievement and is sought ultimately for man’s own ends. God is characteristically conceived in terms of the answer to human problems and needs.” (Let God Be God! An Interpretation of the Theology of Martin Luther)

The state of the heart of human beings is exceedingly deceitful. It takes the Word of God to set the truth before its eyes and it takes the Holy Spirit to open the eyes and allow them to see spiritual things. A person can be very involved in religious things and essentially be absorbed in the things of self. A person can be a minister and be absorbed with the things of self. A person can be a very orthodox minister and be absorbed with the things of self. A person can be a very nice, kind, and even caring person (outwardly) and still be primarily concerned about the things of self. In Philippians 2 we have Paul wanting to send the people a minister, but he had no one to send them. In verses 20-21 he tells them this: “For I have no one else of kindred spirit who will genuinely be concerned for your welfare. 21 For they all seek after their own interests, not those of Christ Jesus.” Evidently Paul wanted to send them a minister or someone who would train them in the faith but the only ones he knew about were concerned with the interests of self rather than the interests of Christ. Would he have anyone to send today?

This is another way of saying that what inspired these men in the ministry were their own desires and perceived needs. Perhaps they wanted more respect and renown, a bigger and better package, or perhaps more authority in the church. But all that they were doing in seeking God was to use Him to seek their own interests. It may also be the case that these men were interested in building treasures in heaven. Now the Bible does teach us about building treasures in heaven, but one can have an unbiblical idea of those things too. It is no better to seek treasures in heaven for the wrong reasons and of the wrong kind than it is to seek to build earthly treasures. It is nothing but pride to seek self in heaven or on earth. It is entirely godless and it is to be full of pride to seek God only for the things of self or the advancement of self. It is idolatry to seek God for the desires and things of self. In the Old Testament we can see how the Israelites tried to use idols and false gods to protect them from their enemies and to get their crops to grow. That is plainly idolatry as they were using false gods to get what they wanted.

Can we say that it is less idolatrous to use the true God to get what we want? One might argue that we only have half the problem of the Israelites. They used false gods and sought the things of self. Now we have the true God as we seek the things of self. Some will even go so far as to say that God is glorified in giving us what we want and desire. That is entirely hideous in its deception. We are clearly told that we must deny self in order to follow Christ rather than to seek Christ in order to have self fulfilled and its desires met. The desires and so-called needs of self are wicked and sinful and yet we think God is glorified if He fulfills those wicked desires? If God does give us over to hardened hearts and allow those sinful desires for self to be fulfilled He is acting in judicial punishment. Yet we pack the church buildings by telling people that God will meet all their needs and will fulfill their desires. Orthodox people will tell others to believe the right things and believe God to give them what they need. But where is the power and life of the living God in the soul? Where is the utter denial of self and the interests of self so that God will fill the soul with Himself which is what is truly good? Ministers who are concerned with the interests of self will teach others in a way that makes it sound like God will fulfill their interests as well. A minister that is only concerned with self-interests is a very proud person and is a hireling rather than a true shepherd.

In the last BLOG the focus was on how pride is seen in Eudemonism. The soul in the blindness of its pride will seek the fulfillment of its own desires and needs by seeking God. It is true that people do not claim this and will even strongly deny it, but when the desires of the heart are for God to fulfill self that is pride. It is using God to seek the things of self and that is true even in the things of religion. It is so easy for the devil to deceive people into thinking that they are seeking God in religious things when they are doing things for self. The pride that blinds eyes to moralism also blinds eyes to Eudemonism. Jeremiah 17:9 warns us that “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; Who can understand it?” In many ways it is only pride in a human heart that thinks it can understand the human heart when God says that a human cannot understand the heart.

“But the same egocentric motive [“I give to you, that I may get something back from you”] can be exhibited equally, if less obviously, at much more refined levels… Eudemonism means that my desires and needs, whether temporal or spiritual, are the fundamental inspiration of my quest for acceptance with God. I seek God in pursuit of my own interests. Impelled, for instance, the fear of hell and hope of heaven, or by a yearning for present peace of heart and mind, I seek God no less for my own satisfaction than if I sought material advantages at His hands. In egocentric religion, fellowship with God depends ultimately on man’s achievement and is sought ultimately for man’s own ends. God is characteristically conceived in terms of the answer to human problems and needs.” (Let God Be God! An Interpretation of the Theology of Martin Luther)

While it may be hard for religious people to see their own pride and very hard for very religious people to see their own pride, yet the heart must see its own pride in order to really deal with it. The Pharisees did not see their own pride and yet it was so obvious to others and it is very obvious to us too. But our own pride is not as easy for us to see. As the Pharisees pride blinded them to their own pride so the pride of modern people blinds them to their own pride as well. Pride in our own hearts will magnify the pride of others and be willing to point it out for all to see, but that same pride minimizes its own pride and does not think that others see it.

The proud Pharisee would go out and pray, yet his prayer was not to God but was really to himself. “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. 12 ‘I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.'” The Pharisee thought of this as a real and genuine prayer. He looked down on the tax collector who was nothing but a sinner in the eyes of the Pharisee. The Pharisee could not see that his religious pride was worse than all that the tax collector could do. Religious people still don’t get it either. When they have pride in their hearts, their prayers are really to themselves and are not true prayers to God. It may be the case that they use correct religious language. It may be the case that they use the name of God. It may be the case that they pray in the name of Christ. But if they have pride in their hearts, they are praying to themselves and not to God.

The heart that is full of pride seeks God only for some advantage, but in doing so that heart is really seeking the benefits of self rather than the glory of God. Whatever the soul does that seeks some benefit or advantage from God that soul is doing nothing but seeking self. It is utterly wicked for a vile piece of clay to use God to seek the things of self when the clay is commanded to use self for the purpose of manifesting the glory of God. When the proud soul seeks self in religion (even if a very religious person) it is exactly the opposite of holiness and is seeking the very essence of sin. The essence of sin is pride and self-centeredness while the essence of human holiness is being emptied of pride and self and full of the Spirit so that the soul seeks the glory of God out of true love. A soul that is full of the vomit of hell (pride and self) is a soul that is just like the devil. It is a soul that does not love God and without love for God there is no likeness of God and no holiness.

When the proud soul is seeking God in order to obtain things from God for self, it is so clear that a soul like that seeks fellowship with God primarily for some benefit it thinks it can obtain from God. God Himself is not the goal, but He is only a means to a greater end. In that case God is ultimately thought of, regardless of the creed, as an answer to human problems and needs. If we seek God only to get out of hell, then He is only sought as an answer to what I see as a need. Thus we see how preaching and evangelism can be practiced with God as nothing more than an answer to a human problem or need. How vile for human beings to treat the all glorious God like that.

In the last BLOG the focus was on how pride is seen in moralism and legalism. The soul in its pride and self-centeredness of pride will attempt to be good in order to have fellowship with God or to get God to do something. This is not what people will verbalize, but it is the language of pride when moralism is stripped of its fig leaves. Take off the fig leaves of moralism and what it is hiding is nothing but the foul image of the devil which is pride and self. The problem, however, is that pride hides itself from us. Pride is so wicked that it will try to hide itself from those that have it. Since pride hides under the fig leaves of moralism, it is also trying to hide moralism from the soul as well. Jeremiah 17:9 warns us that “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; Who can understand it?” Only God can show us our hearts in its true despicable nature and take away the blindness of the proud eyes and the fig leaves of moralism to show us our true nakedness.

But the same egocentric motive [“I give to you, that I may get something back from you”] can be exhibited equally, if less obviously, at much more refined levels… Eudemonism means that my desires and needs, whether temporal or spiritual, are the fundamental inspiration of my quest for acceptance with God. I seek God in pursuit of my own interests. Impelled, for instance, the fear of hell and hope of heaven, or by a yearning for present peace of heart and mind, I seek God no less for my own satisfaction than if I sought material advantages at His hands. In egocentric religion, fellowship with God depends ultimately on man’s achievement and is sought ultimately for man’s own ends. God is characteristically conceived in terms of the answer to human problems and needs. (Let God Be God! An Interpretation of the Theology of Martin Luther)

Eudemonism (sometimes eudaimonism) was a philosophy of the ancient Greeks and is also a philosophy of every proud heart that is controlled by pride and self. The idea came from Aristotle and the idea of human flourishing. The idea of flourishing can become nothing but the seeking of pleasure. Some stressed sensual pleasures while others stressed the absence of material things. Those within Christianity eventually stressed the idea that true happiness is found by focusing and meditating on God. The distinction between objective character (morality or virtue) as sufficient for happiness was disputed by those who thought that the subjective (happiness) state was a satisfactory life. Clearly, then, the battle for happiness is something that all strive for and many argue about.

Eudemonism has taken root within the churches today while clothed in biblical language. It is clothed under the term of “happiness” as well as the terms of “peace” and “joy” as well as others. It is clothed under biblical verses that speak of God giving us the desires of our hearts. It is clothed under theology that says if we have joy in the name of God then that joy glorifies God. But if we seek joy for the goal of self even if we say it is for the glory of God, then we are seeking self and this is nothing but pride and self-seeking. If we determine what to do from a sense of peace, then it can be that we are determining what is right and wrong from our own desires and our own subjective feelings. The state of peace in the heart may only be showing me that the battle between the Word of God and my pride over this issue has been decided. My relief may be from nothing more than my mind finding an excuse to disobey God. Whenever I seek God for the purpose of something else I am guilty of the wicked expression of my pride in the idolatry of self.

Virtually all that hold any semblance to believing the Bible as the Word of God will agree that seeking God for material things is sinful and prideful. That is to treat Him as nothing more than a divine genie and to think that we can bribe and manipulate Him to do what we want. How wicked it is to have a conception of the Almighty such as that! Yet we don’t see it as the same thing when we seek Him for peace or contentment. We praise Him to others because He gives me peace as if that is all He is good for. Indeed the Scripture speaks of “all my springs of joy are in You” (Psa 87:7). Yet that does not give us the excuse to seek God for the purpose of joy in and of itself. Do we seek God as a means of the achievement of self? Do we seek God primarily for our own ends even if our mouths say other things? Do we think of God’s purpose as the answer to our needs and problems? Isn’t that hideous pride wrapped in religious language? Isn’t that nothing but the vile nature of self being expressed under religious clothing? Do I truly seek joy from God so that His joy in Himself may be manifested or is it that I just want to be happy? Our very desire for peace and joy can be used by pride to deceive ourselves as to our salvation and our sanctification. Some seek God for wealth, yet some seek God to make them happy. Both are idolatrous notions.

The pride of human beings is expressed in differing ways. The human heart is born in pride and self-centeredness, though it is expressed in various circumstances. Regardless of the circumstances, the human heart will express its pride and self-centeredness some form. Pride and self-centeredness can be expressed in open rebellion and flagrant sin. But they can also be expressed even more in the ways of religion. Pride and self-centeredness are very much at home in stringently orthodox and very conservative churches, but also those who are steeped in liberalism as well. Pride is pride and self-centeredness is self-centeredness regardless of how they are expressed. They are at the heart of all sin. The hearts of human beings are so full of pride that they think that they can purchase favor with God. Those who issue an outright denial of this will also try to manipulate God by saying the right words or doing the right thing in order that God will be on their sides. This is nothing but the very height of pride.

“But the same egocentric motive [“I give to you, that I may get something back from you”] can be exhibited equally, if less obviously, at much more refined levels. It finds characteristic expression in the moralism, or legalism, or the eudemonism which, commonly going hand in hand, are to be observed in many otherwise widely differing forms of religion. Moralism means that my moral and spiritual attainments are regarded as decisive for the establishment and maintenance of the religious relationship. I have to do or become something in order to enable God to regard me with approval and in this way secure my standing with Him. My good and meritorious works, for example, or my personal holiness, however conceived and acquired, are assumed to be the essential basis and guarantee of my acceptance with God… In egocentric religion, fellowship with God depends ultimately on man’s achievement and is sought ultimately for man’s own ends. God is characteristically conceived in terms of the answer to human problems and needs.” (Let God Be God! An Interpretation of the Theology of Martin Luther)

Many people are willing to express in words that their spirituality depends on their morality and works. How many, while not admitting in express language, will utter things that show that they look to their own morality and works in order to maintain something of a religious relationship. But what we don’t see so clearly are those that have enough training in the Bible to know that moralism and legalism are wrong. However, the denomination they are in or the teachers they have listened to have hidden those things with religious language. Perhaps they have identified biblical words with unbiblical ideas. Perhaps they think they are biblical and are simply uninstructed. For example, there is a massive difference within denominations and individuals as to what grace really is. Yet so many will confess to others that they believe that they are saved by grace and the two will go on their way thinking they agree when in fact they are virtually polar opposite in meaning.

Down deep in our hearts do we really trust in Christ or in the fact that we are moral people? One of the main thrusts of the Bible is to deliver people from any trust in themselves and their own morality in order to trust in Christ alone as the One who justifies and as the One who sanctifies. It is not just that He sanctifies, but He is the sanctification of the believer (I Corinthians 1:30). Our morality must be the fruit of the Spirit which will only come when we are abiding in Christ and He is abiding in us. Apart from Christ we can do nothing spiritual or please God in any way (John 15:1-11). A person can be justified by Christ and still look to self in sanctification in ways that s/he has not repented of. This is remaining pride in the soul. This pride in the soul will ruin all progress in true sanctification. If a person thinks that his or her morality is pleasing to God, then that person is looking to the flesh for what the Spirit alone can do. If a person things that his or her morality is how fellowship with God is maintained, then that person trusts in the flesh from pride rather than humbly receiving all from God.

The Bible teaches that salvation is from faith to faith which is to say it is from received grace to received grace. Pride is the polar opposite of faith and so pride will always reject true grace which has no help from humans at all. Let us look at the real nature of pride in this. If I am seeking morality in order to have fellowship with God or if I think morality gives me fellowship with God, then I am seeking God for selfish and self-centered reasons. I am seeking God by another way than by Jesus Christ and according to pride rather than grace. Moralism and legalism are hideous acts of idolatry committed by the soul. They are acts of self seeking the goals of self rather than abiding in Christ seeking the glory of God out of love for God. Moralism and legalism are acts of pride that are at enmity with God. I Cor 16:22 says that we are eternally cursed if we do not love the Lord, not if we are not moral.

In the last BLOG we looked at another quote from the book Let God Be God! An Interpretation of the Theology of Martin Luther by Philip Watson. We also looked at how the modern professing Church has let humanism and egocentricity in the doors in biblical clothing and it is an idol that has taken over. It is much the same that Balaam did in counseling Moab on how to get the Israelites to commit idolatry and so God fought the Israelites. See the last BLOG, Pride 22, for more on that. The devil cannot defeat God directly and so he fights God by getting at the people of God. The way that devil gets at the professing church is to get it involved in idolatry and God will turn from that church. Let us not imagine that this takes God by surprise and that the devil is outsmarting God. This is all part of God’s eternal to manifest His glory which is the ultimate good. Here is a shorter quote from the above listed book which was taken from the longer quote in the last BLOG.

“I find it exceedingly difficult to rid myself of this illusion and allow God really to be the centre, that is, really to be God. Egocentricity in religion is seen perhaps at its simplest and crudest in that conception of sacrifice which is expressed in the formula do ut des. I offer my gift in order to win the Divine favour and so to obtain what I wish from the Divine power. But the same egocentric motive can be exhibitedequally, if less obviously, at much more refined levels.”

“Do ut des” in Latin means “I give that you may give”. In other words, “I give to you, that I may get something back from you” (American Heritage Dictionary). If we look in our hearts with brutal honesty, we will see our own motives. It is not just that we do something for God to give us something even greater back (crass forms of charismatic teaching), but down in our hearts we want God to be pleased with us if we do these things. Perhaps some even think that if we can just come up with the faith God will reward us with salvation. Perhaps we tithe with the secret desire to obtain the favor of God for something else. Perhaps we think that by being good God will give us a perfect spouse or work in the one we have to be better to us. Maybe way down in our hearts we think that by our doing things a certain way God will bless us or do something for us. Perhaps it is even to bless a ministry. But this is the heart of human beings that have not been delivered from self-centeredness and pride.

Imagine the depths of the odious pride of the heart that thinks it can give God something, bribe Him, or perhaps to manipulate Him in some way. All that God gives is of His goodness and comes by grace. What can a mere speck of dust give to the infinite Creator who owns all things anyway that would move God to do something?

Romans 11:33 – “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! 34 For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, OR WHO BECAME HIS COUNSELOR? 35 Or WHO HAS FIRST GIVEN TO HIM THAT IT MIGHT BE PAID BACK TO HIM AGAIN? 36 For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.”

I Chronicles 29:14 – “But who am I and who are my people that we should be able to offer as generously as this? For all things come from You, and from Your hand we have given You. 15 For we are sojourners before You, and tenants, as all our fathers were; our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no hope. 16 O LORD our God, all this abundance that we have provided to build You a house for Your holy name, it is from Your hand, and all is Yours.”

Psalm 50:10 – “For every beast of the forest is Mine, The cattle on a thousand hills. 11 I know every bird of the mountains, and everything that moves in the field is Mine. 12 If I were hungry I would not tell you, For the world is Mine, and all it contains.”

These texts show us that we can earn nothing from God. If we try to earn something from Him, we are not those that live by faith which receives grace. Habakkuk 2:4 teaches us that pride and faith are opposites: “Behold, as for the proud one, His soul is not right within him; but the righteous will live by his faith.” Faith receives grace and grace can find no motive within God but the character of God Himself as triune. It is the very epitome of pride to even think we can in some way move God to do something for us unless it is in the name of Christ by grace.