The Beauty of Holiness

Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time

He may exalt you. (1 Peter 5:6).

My favorite chapter in C. S. Lewis’s book Mere Christianity is the one on pride. Appropriately entitled “The Great Sin,” the opening paragraph asserts that pride is the one vice of which “no man in the world is free; which everyone in the world loathes when he sees it in someone else; and of which hardly any people, except Christians, ever imagine that they are guilty themselves.” (p. 121).

 In the Christian worldview, pride is the most damnable of all sins. Its origin is in the heart of Lucifer himself, who led a rebellion against God by saying, “I will ascend to heaven… I will set my throne on high… I will make myself like the Most High” (Isa. 14:12–14). The proud are those who defiantly say to the one enthroned over the universe, “Move over, you’re sitting in my chair!” Pride is the root of every other sin because it lives by the creed, “Not thy will, but mine be done.” Yes, this sin will send your soul to hell faster than greed, envy, lust, or hate.

 But here’s the problem: those who are proud don’t know it. You can’t smell your own stink. Ironically, proud people are often proud of their humility! Pride makes it impossible for us to see our own arrogant egocentrism. Peter Kreeft says it this way: “There are only two kinds of people…the proud, who think they are humble, and the humble, who know they are proud. The only way to become humble is to admit you are proud.” (Back to Virtue, p. 99). This means that perhaps the greatest work of grace God will ever perform in your heart and mine is to enable us to accurately see what pompous little nincompoops we really are.

 The word humble comes from a Latin root (humus) meaning “earth” or “soil.” A humble heart, like fertile soil, creates the proper conditions for all the other virtues to flourish. So, as we begin a new year, let’s ask the Holy Spirit to help us to humble ourselves so that the attributes of Jesus Christ will take root in our hearts and we can reflect His likeness to everyone we meet.

 Writing about humility is like handling a delicate flower; the very act of examining it may cause its destruction! To be honest, I feel unequal to the task. So I’ve invited a saint of God from a previous generation to help us better understand this important subject. In 1859, Andrew Murray wrote a book entitled Humility: The Beauty of Holiness. It’s a classic. The excerpt below is abridged and slightly edited.

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 Humility, the place of entire dependence on God, is the first duty and the highest virtue of the creature, and the root of every virtue. And so pride, or the loss of humility, is the root of every sin and evil…. Hence it follows that nothing can be our redemption but the restoration of the lost humility…Jesus came to bring humility back to earth, to make us partakers of it, and by it to save us. In heaven He humbled Himself to become man. Here on earth “He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death” (Phil. 2:8)…. And now the salvation He imparts is nothing less and nothing else than a communication of His own life and death, His own disposition and spirit, His own humility…. His humility is our salvation. His salvation is our humility…. Humility is the only soil in which the graces take root; the lack of humility is the sufficient explanation of every defect and failure. (pp. 6-7).

 Is it any wonder that the Christian life is so often feeble and fruitless, when the very root of the Christ-life is neglected, is unknown? Is it any wonder that the joy of salvation is so little felt, when that in which Christ found it and brings it, is so little sought? Until a humility which will rest in nothing less than the end and death of self; which gives up all the honor of men as Jesus did, to seek the honor that comes from God alone…. until such a humility be what we seek in Christ above our chief joy, there is very little hope of a religion that will conquer the world. (pp. 11-12).

Brethren, here is the path to the higher life. Down, lower down! This was what Jesus ever said to the disciples who were thinking of being great in the kingdom, and of sitting on His right hand and His left. Seek not, ask not, for exaltation, that is God’s work. Look to it that you abase and humble yourselves, and take no place before God or man but that of a servant; that is your work…. Just as water ever seeks and fills the lowest place, so the moment God finds the creature abased and empty, His glory and power flow in to exalt and to bless…. Jesus, the meek and lowly One, calls us to learn of Him the path to God. And let us believe that what He shows, He gives; what He is, He imparts. (p. 20).

The one infallible test of our holiness will be the humility before God and men which marks us. Humility is the bloom and the beauty of holiness. (p. 31).

The command is clear: humble yourself (see James 4:10; 1 Peter 5:6). That does not mean that it is your work to conquer and cast out the pride of your nature, and to form within yourself the lowliness of the holy Jesus. No, this is God’s work…. What the command does mean is this:...accept with gratitude everything that God allows from within or without, from friend or enemy, in nature or in grace, to remind you of your need of humbling, and to help you to it… See that you do the one thing God asks: humble yourself. God will see that He does the one thing He has promised. He will give more grace; He will exalt you in due time. (pp. 53-54).

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