Sunday Leftovers (9/16/07)

The heart of pride is not only the exaltation of self, but even more tragically, it is the diminishing of God. As Thomas Watson has noted, "pride is the greatest sacrilege; it robs God of his glory."

Every prideful act is a defiant gesture of the inadequacy of God, and the self-exaltation of self. This was at the heart of the Pharisees' obstinate rejection of Christ (exemplified by their questions in John 8). But these particular sins of the Pharisees were not the only ones infected by pride. All sin is the manifestation of a desire that seeks satisfaction in something other than God. All sin is an expression of the heart that says, "I have a better understanding of what is good, satisfying, and God-glorifying than God Himself."

And so it is that not only do the Pharisees succumb to pride in their every sin. So do I.

In every sin I commit, I am admitting that my affections for God are weak and that my yearning for the preeminence of me is supreme.

This is evil.

It's not a character flaw. It's not a deficiency. It's not something I will outgrow. It is evil.

According to Christian teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil is Pride. Unchastity, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere flea-bites in comparison: it was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind." [C. S. Lewis]

Pride approaches with its destructive forces every time we question Scripture instead of submit to it with statements like, "I don't think it means that…;" "I know it says ______, but surely that doesn't mean _______;" "I know it says ______, but it only says it one time…;" or "but that is not a sin that is troublesome for me…"

Pride says "I am preeminent in importance and God is subservient to my best interests." One of the better explanations of it ways given by A. W. Tozer a generation ago:

Sin has many manifestations but its essence is one. A moral being, created to worship before the throne of God, sits on the throne of his own selfhood and from that elevated position declares, 'I AM.' That is sin in its concentrated essence." [A Knowledge of the Holy.]

And this is a daily reality for every man everywhere, whether he willingly acknowledges it or not.

Sunday Leftovers (6/24/07)

The cross is God's "foolish" work to extricate pride from our lives.

Now don't misunderstand; by that it is not meant that men should not boast. Not only do all men boast, but all men should boast. The question is not whether or not we should boast. The question is whether we are boasting in the right thing. So God's "foolish" work is to remove all ungodly boasting.

And all ungodly boasting is any kind of boasting that does not have God as its object. Or put another way, there is nothing any man can do to commend himself before God (1 Cor. 1:29), so the objective of the "foolish" cross is to remove any such boasting.

Most men will readily acknowledge, at least superficially, that they are prideful. But most of us do not recognize the extent of our pride and what that pride really is and looks like. John Piper has some helpful insights about our pride:

• Pride is boasting in self and not the Lord.
• Pride is taking credit ourselves for what God alone can do.
• Pride is relying on self and not God.
• Pride is feeling sufficient in our own strength and not in God's.
• Pride is the disinclination to admit that we are mere earthen vessels so another gets the glory.
• Pride is the unwillingness to admit weaknesses that may accent the power of God.

And when you combine all these "attributes," what you find is that pride is a source of confidence and trust — that which we boast about (ourselves, usually) is that which we trust. And that is why most boasting is idolatrous sin. And that is why God is so faithful to ruthlessly and "foolishness" uproot it from our lives.


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A helpful resource in understanding the concept of the cross from the eyes of Jews and Greeks is Donald Green's article, The Folly of the Cross.