Written with piercing clarity and deep devotion, Humility: The Beauty of Holiness reminds us that the highest glory of the creature is to be nothing in itself, that God may be all.
Let me show you humility is not an optional virtue, but the very foundation of the Christian life. Drawing from Scripture and the life of Christ, I shall demonstrate how true holiness flows from lowliness of heart, and how only the empty of self can be filled with the fullness of God.
Whether you are seeking renewal in your walk with Christ or longing for a deeper experience of His presence, this timeless message will challenge, convict, and comfort you with one central truth: the way down is the way up.
Chapters
Introduction
1 - Humility: The Glory of the Creature
2 - Humility: The Secret of Redemption
3 - The Humility of Jesus
4 - Humility in the Teaching of Jesus
5 - Humility in the Disciples of Jesus
6- Humility in Daily Life
7 - Humility and Holiness
8 - Humility and Sin
9 - Humility and Faith
10 - Humility and Death to Self
11 - Humility and Happiness
12 - Humility and Exaltation
13- A Secret of Secrets: Humility the Soul of True Prayer
LORD JESUS! MAY OUR HOLINESS BE PERFECT HUMILITY! LET THY PERFECT HUMILITY BE OUR HOLINESS!
LORD JESUS! MAY OUR HOLINESS BE PERFECT HUMILITY! LET THY PERFECT HUMILITY BE OUR HOLINESS!
Lord Jesus, may our holiness be perfect humility. Let thy perfect humility be our holiness.
There are three main reasons we should seek humility. Because we are created beings, because we are sinners, and because we are saints.
First, humility fits us as creatures. We see this in the angels, in Adam before the fall, and in Jesus as the son of man.
Second, as fallen sinners, humility is the only way to return to our proper place before God.
Third, as saints, humility is the result of grace. As we are overwhelmed by God's great love in saving us, humility becomes the highest joy and worship we can offer.
In much Christian teaching, the link between humility and sin has been overstressed. Overstressed means experiencing a level of mental, emotional, or physical stress that is too high to cope with comfortably.
Some have even wrongly claimed that we must keep sinning to remain humble.
Others think self-condemnation is the key to humility. This has harmed the Christian life.
Many believers have not been clearly shown that even apart from sin, it is natural, beautiful, and joyful to be nothing so that God may be everything.
We must see this. It is not sin that humbles us most, but grace. The soul that sees its sin and turns to God, fixing its gaze on His glory as Creator and Redeemer, will then find its true place in deep humility before Him.
Here, I have mainly spoken of the humility that is ours simply because we are God's creatures.
One reason is that the link between humility and sin is already well known in Christian teaching. But even more, I believe we cannot live the full Christian life unless we also learn this other side of humility.
If Jesus is truly our example in loneliness, then we must understand the foundation of His humility, what it rested on.
There we find the ground we share with Him and the path to grow into His likeness.
If we are to be humble, not only before God, but also toward others. If humility is to be our joy, we must see that it is not merely a mark of shame because of sin.
Even without sin, humility is a robe of beauty and blessing, the very nature of heaven and the very nature of Jesus Christ Himself.
Just as Jesus Christ found His glory in becoming a servant. So when He told us, "Whoever wants to be first among you must be your servant," He was revealing a great truth.
There is nothing more divine or heavenly than serving and helping others.
A faithful servant who knows his role takes joy in meeting the needs of his master or his master's guests. A faithful servant who knows her role takes joy in meeting the needs of her master or her master's guests.
In the same way, when we see that humility is far more than just feeling sorry for our sins and begin to live it as sharing in the life of Lord Jesus Christ, we will understand that humility is our true greatness.
Living as servants of all is the highest purpose for those made in God's image.
As I look back on my own walk with God and on the church throughout the world, I'm struck by how seldom humility is seen as the true mark of a follower of Jesus Christ.
In our preaching and daily life, in our homes and relationships, even in close fellowship with believers, and in the work of Christ, there is much to show that humility is not held as the highest virtue.
It is not seen as the root of all other graces, nor as the one essential condition for real fellowship with Lord Jesus Christ.
That it can be said of some who claim to seek deeper holiness that their pursuit has not led to deeper humility should be a solemn warning to every earnest Christian.
Whether such criticism is fully deserved or not, our lives must plainly show that meekness and loneliness of heart are the chief marks of those who truly follow the meek and lowly Lamb of God.
CHAPTER 1
HUMILITY: THE GLORY OF THE CREATURE
Humility, the glory of the creature. They shall cast their crowns before the throne, saying, "Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power, because You created all things, and by Your will they existed and were created." Revelation 4:11.
When God created the universe, His purpose was to share His perfection and joy with His creatures.
Father God wanted to reveal His love, wisdom, and power by filling created beings with as much of His goodness and glory as they could receive. But this gift was never meant to make the creature independent, able to possess life or goodness apart from the Father God. Not at all.
Since God is always living, always present, and always working, upholding everything by His power, creatures can only exist in a constant state of total dependence on Him.
Just as God created everything by His power, so He must sustain everything at every moment by that same power. The creature must not only look back and say, "God made me." It must also live each moment as an empty vessel ready for God to fill and use, finding its purpose and joy in being nothing so that God may be all.
The life God gives is not a one-time gift. It flows constantly from Him by His power.
And so humility, a heart of complete dependence on God, is the first and highest duty of every created being. It is the root of every other virtue.
And so pride, the loss of humility, is the root of all sin and evil. It was when the angels who later fell began to admire themselves with pride that they disobeyed and were cast out of heaven into darkness.
In the same way, when the serpent breathed his pride, the desire to be like God into the hearts of Adam and Eve, they also fell from their high place and brought all the misery into which humanity is now sunk.
In both heaven and earth, pride and self-exaltation are the doorway, the beginning, and the curse of hell.
All this is to show throughout eternity that pride can cast the highest angels down to become devils, while humility can lift fallen flesh and blood up to the thrones of angels.
This is the great purpose in God raising a new creation out of a fallen kingdom of angels.
It exists in a conflict between the fire and pride of the fallen spirits and the humility of the Lamb of God until the last trumpet declares through all eternity that evil begins only in pride and ends only in humility.
Here is the truth. Pride must die in you or nothing of heaven can live in you.
Under this banner, give yourself holy to the meek and humble spirit of Jesus Christ.
Humility must be planted or there can be no harvest in heaven.
Do not see pride as just an unworthy temper, nor humility as only a modest virtue.
Pride is death. Humility is life.
Pride is hell. Humility is heaven.
The more pride you have, the more the life of fallen angels is in you.
The more true humility you have, the more the Lamb of God dwells in you.
If you could see what each stirring of pride does to your soul, you would beg everything around you to tear that viper out of you. Even if it cost you an eye or a hand.
If you could see the sweet divine, transforming power of humility, how it drives out the poison of your nature and opens your soul for God's Spirit to live in you. You would rather choose to be the foot tool of all the world than be without the smallest measure of it.
Therefore, the only possible redemption is through the restoration of humility, the original and rightful relationship of the creature to God.
That is why Jesus Christ came to bring humility back to earth to make us share in it and to save us through it.
In heaven, Jesus Christ humbled Himself to become a man. The humility we see in Him on earth was already His in heaven. He brought it with Him here. He humbled Himself and became obedient to death. His humility gave His death its saving power. Through that humility, we are redeemed.
The salvation Lord Jesus Christ gives is nothing less than sharing in His life and death. His heart, His spirit, His \humility.
That humility is the foundation of His relationship with the Father and of his saving work.
Jesus Christ took the place of mankind and fulfilled man's calling as a creature by living in perfect humility.
His humility is our salvation.
His salvation is our humility.
So the life of every believer must be marked by this same humility showing that we have been delivered from sin and restored to our true place before God.
Only with humility can we remain in God's presence or enjoy His favour and power.
Without humility, there can be no steady faith, no real love, no lasting joy or strength.
Humility is the only soil where all other graces can grow.
Without humility, every failure can be explained.
Humility is not just one virtue among many. Humility is the root of all because it alone puts us in the right position before God and gives Him room to be all in us.
God has made us as rational beings so that the more clearly we understand the true nature and absolute need of a command, the more willing and complete our obedience will be.
The call to humility has often been overlooked in the church today because its true meaning and great importance have not been fully understood.
Humility is not something we bring to God or something He simply gives to us. It is the deep awareness of our total nothingness that comes when we truly see that God is everything. In that awareness, we give God the space to be all in us.
When a creature understands that this is true greatness, that with heart, mind, and will, he or she is to be a vessel in which God's life and glory can work, then he or she sees that humility is just accepting the truth of his or her place as a creature and giving God His rightful place.
In the lives of sincere believers, especially those who seek and claim holiness, humility should be the clearest mark of their sincerity.
Yet, it is often said that this is not the case. One reason may be that the church members in both teaching and example has not given humility the central place it deserves. And this may go back to a deeper cause.
Though sin is a strong reason for humility, there is a greater and more powerful reason still.
The one that humbles angels, that humbled Jesus Christ, that humbles the holiest saints in heaven. It is this, the very nature and joy of the creature is found in the humility and nothingness that gives God the freedom to be all.
This is the first and greatest truth about our relationship to God.
I am certain many Christians would say their experience has been like mine. We have known the Lord Jesus Christ for years without truly realizing that meekness and lowliness of heart are meant to be the defining marks of a disciple just as they were of the master. Lowliness means the state or quality of being low in rank, status, or position, or having a humble and modest nature.
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