Humility: True Greatness

by C.J. Mahaney

I’m a proud man pursuing humility by the grace of God. I don’t write as an authority on humility; I write as a fellow pilgrim walking with you on the path set for us by our humble Savior.

This is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.

Humility draws the gaze of our Sovereign God.

God in His mercy is drawing the Israelites’ attention away from their prideful assumption of privilege as His chosen people and away from their preoccupation with the trappings of religion. These things don’t attract His active and gracious gaze. But humility does.

“God…gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6). Contrary to popular and false belief, it’s not “those who help themselves” whom God helps; it’s those who humble themselves.

John Calvin wrote, “It is evident that man never attains to a true self-knowledge until he has previously contemplated the face of God, and come down after such contemplation to look into himself.”

Humility is honestly assessing ourselves in light of God’s holiness and our sinfulness.

The real issue here is not if pride exists in your heart; it’s where pride exists and how pride is being expressed in your life.

Pride is when sinful human beings aspire to the status and position of God and refuse to acknowledge their dependence upon Him.

Pride takes innumerable forms but has only one end: self-glorification.

CHARLES SPURGEON once preached on the foolishness of pride, calling it “a groundless thing” and “a brainless thing” as well as “the maddest thing that can exist.”

We always want to pay careful attention when that word must appears in Scripture. “Must” points us to something that’s required, something that’s indispensable. “You want to be great?” Jesus is saying. “Well, here’s what has to happen. What’s required is that you become a servant to others; it means nothing less than becoming the slave of everyone.”

As sinfully and culturally defined, pursuing greatness looks like this: Individuals motivated by self-interest, self-indulgence, and a false sense of self-sufficiency pursue selfish ambition for the purpose of self-glorification. Contrast that with the pursuit of true greatness as biblically defined: Serving others for the glory of God. This is the genuine expression of humility; this is true greatness as the Savior defined it.

Ultimately our Christian service exists only to draw attention to this source—to our crucified and risen Lord who gave Himself as a ransom for us all.

Begin your day by acknowledging your dependence upon God and your need for God.

“Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself?”6 That’s profound, and it’s true.

Begin your day expressing gratefulness to God. “Thankfulness,” Michael Ramsey reminds us, “is a soil in which pride does not easily grow.”7 That’s exactly right and we want to cultivate that soil. So from the outset of the day, I want to greet my Savior with gratitude, not grumbling.

Seize your commute time to memorize and meditate on Scripture.

Cast your cares upon Him. The apostle Peter clearly and practically describes for us how we can humble ourselves daily in 1 Peter 5:6–7. First he writes, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God.” Then he shows us how: “casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.” When we humble ourselves each morning by casting all our cares on the Lord, we will start the day free of care. The humble are genuinely care free.

whenever I feel buried under care, the real issue is pride and my self-sufficiency.

acknowledging your need for God; expressing your gratitude to God; practicing spiritual disciplines; seizing your commute time for spiritual benefit; casting your cares upon Him; and above all, reflecting on the wonder of the cross of Christ—are the most effective things you can do to more deeply experience the promise and the pleasures of humility.

The end of each day offers us a unique opportunity to cultivate humility and weaken pride, as well as to sense God’s pleasure. How? By reviewing our day and carefully assigning all glory to God for the grace we’ve experienced that day.

Receive the gift of sleep from God and acknowledge His purpose for sleep.

Study the attributes of God. Study all of His attributes, but I recommend you study in particular what the theologians have identified as the incommunicable attributes of God. These are the attributes of God for which no human reflection or human illustration can be found. They’re attributes that God doesn’t share with us.

Matthew Henry expressed it this way: “The greatest and best man in the world must say, By the grace of God I am what I am, but God says absolutely…I am that I am.”

Study the doctrines of grace. Study the doctrines of election, calling, justification, perseverance—and the effect will be humility. Why? Because the doctrines of grace leave no room for self-congratulation, no room for self-glorification.

Our salvation, from first to last, is truly all of grace—and the effect of this grace understood is humility.

Study the doctrine of sin.

John Owen writes, “There are two things that are suited to humble the souls of men…. A due consideration of God, and then of ourselves. Of God, in his greatness, glory, holiness, power, majesty and authority; of ourselves, in our mean, abject and sinful condition.”

Along with increased knowledge there must also be grace-motivated application of truth and grace-empowered obedience to truth. Only then will we experience Christ’s liberating power from the sin of pride.

So for the rest of your life, take time to study the attributes of God, the doctrines of grace, and the doctrine of sin, and play as much golf as you can. And laugh, really laugh. Because funny stuff is happening all around you. (Sometimes because of you.)

Identify evidences of grace in others. This means actively looking for ways that God is at work in the lives of other people.

When you become familiar with the fruit of the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit and learn to recognize their manifestation, suddenly you will be aware that God is at work everywhere! Look anywhere and you’ll see evidences of God’s activity, evidences of grace. What a joy and privilege it is to discern this activity in the lives of those we love and care for—and to draw their attention to how God is at work in their lives.

I can fully and personally agree with these words of Charles Spurgeon: I believe in the doctrine of election, because I am quite certain that, if God had not chosen me, I should never have chosen Him; and I am sure He chose me before I was born, or else He never would have chosen me afterwards; and He must have elected me for reasons unknown to me, for I never could find any reason in myself why He should have looked upon me with special love.

We were called. God’s prior activity has brought us to where we are today. The same is true of every believer we encounter. We must remind ourselves, This individual has been previously acted upon by God.

In counseling, when I meet with a couple experiencing unresolved conflict in their marriage, I sometimes start out by asking the husband and wife to identify evidences of grace each has observed in the other’s life. If either of them cannot do this, then I’ve already identified the root problem: One or both are bitter and self-righteous. Their perspective needs adjusting if there’s any hope of resolving the existing conflict.

When’s the last time you specifically and sincerely informed your child of an evidence of grace that you’ve observed in his or her life? If it’s been longer than a week, it’s been too long.

So let’s emulate Paul’s humble example and be preoccupied with the divine perspective that makes possible the deepest affection for others, as well as effective service and ministry to them. And in the process, we’ll be cultivating authentic humility—a heart more concerned with God’s glory than our own, and more intent on serving others than ourselves. This indeed is the posture of humility to which God looks.

Encourage others each and every day

Among believers and their families in the church of Jesus Christ, there’s to be no decay-spreading communication of any kind, in any form, at any time, by anyone.

We’re all in need of grace. There’s no one you know who doesn’t need more of it. And God has so composed His church that when we’re together in a larger corporate gathering or in a small group or even in casual conversation, we can both receive grace and communicate grace through the exchange of edifying and appropriate words.

Before I correct someone, I need to prepare for it by asking, How can this correction give grace? That doesn’t mean that we avoid giving correction or that we trim the truth in correction. But we must prepare to give grace when we correct, and we must give hope in the midst of correction.

Never correct without reminding the individual, at some point, of the gospel. Any conversation including correction must also include the gospel, because biblical correction is incomplete apart from the gospel.

The fact is, it shouldn’t be difficult for me to bring in the gospel when correcting my son, because the one correcting him is the worst sinner he knows; and the one doing the correcting would in no way want to be corrected without somebody giving him hope. And hope is always found in the gospel.

Let’s experience afresh the transforming power and potential of this command and promise, so that increasingly a higher percentage of our twenty-five thousand words each day are soul-edifying, life-transforming, God-glorifying words of encouragement.

Peter Davids writes: No matter how extensive one’s scriptural knowledge, or how amazing one’s memory, it is self-deception if that is all there is. True knowledge is the prelude to action, and it is the obedience to the Word that counts in the end.4

Mere knowledge of Scripture is not the pinnacle; it’s only the prelude to active obedience, and that’s all that ultimately counts. This truth is present in our Savior’s words: “If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them” (John 13:17). It’s not complicated! Only obedience is sufficient. Only our grace-motivated obedience and application of holy Scripture can produce growth in godliness.

Respond humbly to trials.

three prominent marks of anyone who’s truly humble before God. Such a person is (1) prayerful before God, (2) waiting on God, and (3) rejoicing in God.

Waiting is not resignation; waiting is an active trust in God to provide fulfillment in His perfect timing, according to His ultimate purpose of glorifying His Son.