God’s answer to my pride

Some people have a rough time with their self-image. I just read a novel about a person wrongly accused of murder. He had a sad past and was continually told that he was an evil child, an evil youth, and an evil adult. After fifteen years in jail, he considered himself an evil man even after he was proven innocent. Eventually, he acted out this image of himself and killed someone.

I grew up under the care of loving parents who supported and encourage me, but I’ve talked to peers who were not so fortunate. One of them told me that no matter what she did as she grew up, it was never good enough. Out of that background, she struggles with the grace of God. How could she be acceptable with all her shortcomings? She knew that Christ gave her His righteousness, but has trouble ‘feeling’ the reality of it.

Yet even with a supportive upbringing, I can grasp a bit of what this self-abasing does and where it comes from. I want to feel as if I deserve the goodness of God and recognize the root of it is pride. Even without a background that produces a lack of self-worth, pride messes with God’s message of grace. Instead of joyfully and freely accepting His gift of salvation, my sinful human heart will try to ‘do something’ or ‘be somebody’ so that I can boast.

Throughout the Bible, God addresses pride as sin yet answers it in a surprising way — with unconditional love. No matter what I am or have done, or what I’m not and haven’t done, He loves me and while I am a sinner, He sent Jesus to die for me.

However, God also challenges my pride with the way He wants me to live. When I read passages like the following one, I realize that God’s thoughts are nothing like the way I think, or how my friend thinks, or how that fictional character in prison thinks. God’s love for us is not about what we do or do not do, or about what we deserve. It is not like the doting love, or the never-satisfied demands we experience in our upbringing. Parents may or may not reflect the love of God, but if they do, it is partial at best. For us, Jesus Christ is the example . . .

“Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.” (1 Peter 2:18–25)

God’s ways are not like human ways. We want a good boss, just and fair treatment, but Jesus trusted His Father so much that He willingly accepted all that happened to Him. He didn’t try to prove Himself and was not driven to ‘do something’ or ‘be somebody’ so He could win, come out on top, or even boast. Instead, He accepted God’s will for Him and was willing to be utterly humiliated rather than defend Himself. He didn’t fight back.

As today’s devotional reading says, they lifted him up on the Cross and hanging between heaven and earth, they watched him die. Christ ‘He Himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree.’ “The sword of God’s justice was drawn against him and the cup of wrath was poured out upon him. He took the place of the guilty, became the guilty, and bore the penalty of guilt that we deserve. The Son of God was crushed to death beneath the wheel of divine justice.”

This is the truth that needs to go from mental assent to deeply into the way I think and live. God punished his Son for my sin and will never punish me for sin. The justice of God will not allow the same crime to be punished twice; His righteousness will not allow the same debt to be paid twice. The law, God’s justice and righteousness punished all my sin in Christ and He will never punish me.

“Blessed is the man (and the woman) against whom the Lord will not count his sin.” (Romans 4:8)

^^^^^^^^^

Jesus, pride has no place in Your scheme of things! By faith I know that You died for me. This truth has changed and is changing my life. Being declared “Not Guilty” and believing it is true has a powerful effect, one that is unexpected. Because I know that God will never impute sin on me because of Christ, I want to rely on You even more, and I don’t want to sin ever again or take credit for something only You can do.