Humility, An Unnoticed Neighbor

“And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.’” - 1 Corinthians 1:30 – 31

The person who thinks himself humble is the model of pride, and the person that others say of, “He is humble” is the man full of pride wanting to be thought of as humble. The person who is humble is the one who is not thinking of himself at all and therefore not causing you to think of him either unless by envy. The humble person is free for the enjoyment of God and the happiness of his creatures. He sees his life as drop of water flowing from a long mountain spring. He knows apart from that spring he is nothing and the direction of his life is originated and carried by the spring. However he is only an insignificant drop in the stream to reflect the spring’s glory. Those who experience the refreshment of the stream, who see beauty reflected in its properties, who benefit from it abundance, power or gentleness, do not notice or acknowledge the drop or even enjoy the drop. And the drop is okay with that. “Humility is of the essence of the "new creature." (Thomas Brooks)

The way to humility is through the doorway that leads to a house of mirrors where we acknowledge that we really are proud. When we are lead through that doorway and look in the mirrors and only see others sins then we are delusional. But where the grace and mercy of God is given the horrors of our pride are seen in our lives and the effects our prideful hearts have had on others. “We learn humility by a deep discovery of what we are; by an opening up of the corruption, the weakness, the wickedness, of our fallen nature.” (J.C. Philpot) But in his grace he does not leave his own just inside the doorway in a horrific room of mirrors. He leads us beyond the mirrors to the cross, the place of humiliation and our path of humility. Jesus went the way of humility to the place of exaltation that we may go with him in the way of the cross to the realm of glorification. At the cross we see our sin being punished horrifically in the body of Christ as he suffers the wrath of God. And at that cross is made the promise to all who trust in him as a sin bearing Savior, “Today you will be with me in paradise.” Yet we remain, put into Christ and he has become to us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and glorification that we may take up our cross and follow him as he leads us to paradise. And all our excellencies are in Christ and belong to Christ and so we boast in Christ and him crucified for he has rescued us from the horrors of pride and misery and death. And his mind has become our mind because we are in union with him and have fellowship with him through the Spirit, and the fruit he bears in us is humility. In this we live for the love of God and his creatures as drops in a stream flowing from the Spring.

Listen to John Flavel (1627 – 1691) the English Presbyterian minister as he brings us to humility through Christ, “All our excellencies are borrowed excellencies. Therefore there is no reason to be proud of any of them. What infallible insolence and vanity would it be for a man who wears the rich and costly robe of Christ’s righteousness, in which there is not one thread of his own spinning but all made by free grace and not by free will to jet proudly up and down the world in it, as if he himself had made it and he were beholden to none for it. O man thine excellencies whatever they are, are borrowed from Christ. They oblige thee to him that he can no more be obliged to him who wearest them than the sun is obliged to him that borrows its light or the fountain to him that draws its water for its use and benefit. Well then let the sense of your own emptiness by nature humble and oblige you the more to Christ.” (John Flavel 1627 – 1691). And the Apostle Peter as he commands humility, threatens the proud and encourages the humble, "All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because God opposes the proud but
gives grace to the humble." (1 Peter 5:5) May God grant us grace for the humility of Christ in his body at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.