And to this people you shall say: ‘Thus says the Lord: Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death.’ (Jeremiah 21:8)
Jeremiah had some bad news for the people of Jerusalem. God was not happy with them and he was about to send a famine, pestilence, and war their way. But he gave them a choice.
They could surrender to their enemies and be taken captive, and they would live, or they could resist and fight, and they would die. The choice was between humility and pride.
The way of life is humility. You must humble yourself if you are to surrender to your enemies. Surrender feels like giving up, and it is. The people of Jerusalem had to give up on their own ability to defend themselves and preserve their own lives. They had to trust God to do what they could not do.
The way of death is pride. If you cling to your pride, you will refuse to surrender, and fight on even in the face of sure defeat. Pride is not trusting in God, but trusting in yourself instead.
Adam and Eve faced this same choice. The way of life was to humbly accept that God was their superior, and to obey and trust him. The way of death was to disobey God in a prideful attempt to become gods themselves. They choose the way of death.
For us the gospel is the way of life, but we will never accept God’s good and gracious gift if we stubbornly cling to our pride, thinking we can, and should, be accepted on our own merits. The gospel offends our pride.
Even as Christians who believe the gospel for our justification, we face this same choice between humility and pride every day in our sanctification. Will I humble myself, give up on my own attempts at holiness and submit to God’s Spirit working his power in my life? Or will I, in pride, attempt to work (to overcome sin, or do good) in my own strength? Will I admit my need for the Spirit’s work in my heart today? Or will I attempt to sanctify myself?
To humble ourselves before God is to repent of our god complex…Humility, of course, isn’t some spiritual achievement that merits God’s grace. Quite the opposite. It’s the realization that we can never merit blessing from God. It’s the recognition that grace is our only hope. It’s giving up on ourselves and finding all we need in Jesus. (Tim Chester, You Can Change, p118)
Pride says we can earn God’s favor. It prevents us from enjoying God’s grace. Pride is looking to ourselves instead of Jesus.
Humility is the way of life. Pride is the way of death. Which will you choose today?
Leave a Reply