Humility – Part 2

The Humility of Jesus

“I am in the midst of you as He that serves.” Luke 22:26

In the Gospel of John, we have the inner life of our Lord laid open to us. Jesus speaks frequently of His relationship to the Father, of the motives by which He is guided, of His consciousness of the power and spirit in which He acts. The grace of humility in truth is nothing but the simple consent of the creature to let God be all, in virtue of which it surrenders itself to His workmanship alone. Jesus took the place of entire subordination, and gave God the honor and glory, which is due to Him. What He taught so often was made true to Himself: “He that humbles himself shall be exalted.” As it is written, “He humbled Himself, therefore God highly exalted Him.”

How unceasingly our Lord Jesus uses the word nothing of Himself. The “not I,” in which Paul expresses his relationship to Christ, is the very spirit of what Christ says of His relationship to the Father. “The Son can do nothing of Himself…” (John 5:19); “I can of myself do nothing; My judgment is just, because I seek not My own will…” (John 5:30); “I do nothing of Myself...” (John 8:28).

These words open to us the deepest roots of Christ’s life and work. They tell us how it was that the Almighty God was able to work His mighty redemption work through Jesus. They teach us what the essential nature and life is of that redemption which Christ accomplished and now communicates. It is this: He was nothing, that God might be all. He resigned Himself with His will and powers entirely for the Father to work in Him. He said, “It is not I; I have given Myself to the Father to work; I am nothing, the Father is all.”

This life of self-emptying, of absolute submission and depend-ence upon the Father’s will, Christ found to be one of perfect peace and joy. He lost nothing by giving ALL to God and God honored His trust, doing all for Him, and then exalted Him to His own right hand in glory. Because Christ had thus humbled Himself before God, and God was ever before Him, He found it possible to humble Himself before men also, and be the Servant of all. His humility was simply the surrender of Himself to God, to allow God to do in His Son what He pleased, whatever men around might say of Him or do to Him.

It is to bring us to this same disposition that we are made partakers of Christ. This is the true self-denial to which our Savior calls us; the acknowledgment that self has nothing, except as an empty vessel, which God must fill, and that its claim to be or do anything may not be allowed…that God may be All.

Here we have the root and nature of true humility. It is because this is not understood, or sought after, that our humility is so super-ficial and feeble. We must learn of Jesus, how He is meek and lowly of heart. He teaches us where true humility takes its rise and finds its strength, in the knowledge that it is God who works all in all, that our place is to yield to Him in perfect resignation and dependence, in full consent to be and do nothing of ourselves. This is the life Christ came to reveal and to impart to us. It is a life that is meek and lowly…for this virtue is the root of all virtues and grace, of all faith and acceptable worship…

Jesus was just as humble in His intercourse with men as with God. He felt Himself the Servant of men that through Him God might do His work of love. He never for a moment thought of seeking His own honor, or asserting His own power to vindicate Himself.

Christian, are you clothed with humility? Begin to praise God that there is opened up to you, in Jesus, a heavenly humility …through which a heavenly blessedness, you possibly have never yet tasted, can come in to you.

Humility and Faith

“How can you believe, you who receive glory from one another, while the glory that comes from the only God you do not seek? John 5:44

The promises made to faith are so free and sure; the invitations and encouragements so strong; the mighty power of God on which it may count is so near and free, that it can only be something that hinders faith that hinders the blessing being ours. In our text, Jesus is telling us that it is indeed pride that makes faith impossible. “How can you believe, you who receive glory from one another?” As we see how in their very nature, pride and faith are irreconcilably at variance, we shall learn that faith and humility are at root one, and that we never can have more of true faith than we have of true humility; we shall see that we may indeed have strong intellectual conviction and assurance of the truth, while pride makes the living faith, which has power with God, an impossibility.

We need only think for a moment what faith is. Is it not the confession of our own nothingness and helplessness, and surrender while waiting to let God work in our lives? Humility is simply the disposition, which prepares one for living on trust. And all self

seeking, self-will, self-confidence, and self-exaltation, is just that which keeps us from fully entering into the kingdom, or possessing the things of the kingdom, because it refuses to allow God to be what He is and must be - our All in All.

Faith seeks the glory that comes from God. As long as we take glory from one another, and seek the glory of this life, the honor and reputation that comes from men, we do not seek, and cannot receive the glory that comes from God.

Humility and faith are more nearly allied in Scripture than many know. We see it in the life of Christ. There are two cases in which He spoke of a great faith. He marveled at the faith of the centurion who spoke these words, “I am not worthy that You should come under my roof.” The other is of the mother of whom Jesus spoke, “O, woman, great is your faith!” and it was she who accepted with grace the name of ‘dog’ and answered the Lord, “Yea, Lord, yet the dogs eat of the crumbs.” When one is nothing before God, it removes every hindrance to faith and makes its only fear lest he/she should dishonor the Lord by not trusting Him wholly.

Here is also the cause of failure in our pursuit of holiness. We had no idea to what an extent pride and self were still secretly working within us, and how God alone could cast them out. We did not realize that humility must be the root-disposition of every prayer and every approach to God as well as of every dealing with man; and that we might as well attempt to see without eyes, or live without breath, as believe or draw near to God or dwell in His love, without an all-pervading humility and lowliness of heart.

Have we perhaps been making a mistake in taking so much trouble to believe, while all the time there was this old self in its pride seeking to possess God’s blessing and riches? Let us seek earnestly to humble ourselves under the mighty Hand of God that He may exalt us in due time. The cross, the death, and the grave, into which Jesus humbled Himself were His path to the glory of God. They are our pathway as well. Let our one desire and fervent prayer be to be humbled with Him and like Him and accept gladly whatever can humble us before God or men; this alone is the path to the glory!

There are those who have blessed experiences, and are the means of bringing blessing to others, and yet are lacking in humility. You ask, whether these do not prove that they have true, strong faith, though they also desire glory from men. They may indeed have a measure of faith, in proportion to which, with the special gifts given them, is the blessing they bring to others. Yet a deeper humility would without doubt bring a deeper and fuller blessing. The Holy Spirit dwelling in the fullness of grace, and especially that of humility, through them would communicate Jesus in power, holiness, and steadfastness not before seen.

“How can you believe, you who receive glory from one another?” Beloved, nothing can cure us of the desire of receiving glory from men, or of the sensitiveness, pain, and anger, which come when it is not given, but giving ourselves to seek only the glory that comes from God. Let such glory be everything to us. Then we will be freed from the glory of men and of self, and be content and glad to be nothing. Out of this nothingness we will grow strong in faith, giving glory to God and we will find that the deeper we sink in humility before Him, the nearer He is to fulfill the every desire of our faith.

Taken from Humility, by Andrew Murray

“…It is a mark of the deepest and truest humility,” says a great saint, “to see ourselves condemned without cause, and to be silent under it. To be silent under insult and wrong is a very noble imitation of our Lord. O my Lord, when I remember in how many ways You did suffer, who in no way deserved it, I know not where my senses are when I am in such a haste to defend and excuse myself.

Is it possible I should desire anyone to speak any good of me, or think it, when so many ill things were thought and spoken of You? What though we are blamed by all men, if only we stand at last blameless before You!” Alexander Whyte

“A man can counterfeit love, he can counterfeit faith, he can counterfeit hope and all the other graces, but it is very difficult to counterfeit humility. You soon detect mock humility. They have a saying among the Arabs that as the tares and the wheat grow they show which God has blessed. The ears that are blessed bow their heads and acknowledge every grain, and the more fruitful they are the lower their heads are bowed. The tares lift up their heads erect, high above the wheat, but they are only fruitful of evil.

If we only get down low enough, God will use us to His glory.”

D. L. Moody

He that is down need fear no fall; he that is low no pride;

He that is humble ever shall have God to be his guide.

John Bunyan