Humility and Art

It takes humility to make great art, to recognize that there is something (and Someone) outside ourselves that is far greater than we will ever hope to be.  All the more so for the Christian, who knows and believes that God is the best and most creative Artist of us all.  C.S. Lewis understood this, and it's why he made this statement in a 1975 journal article:

The greatest poems have been made by men who valued something else much more than poetry.

--C.S. Lewis

We Shall Not Be Able to Strut Round Heaven Like Peacocks

A good reminder of our need for humility:

Christians are always uncomfortable in the presence of pride, for they sense its incongruity. We shall not be able to strut round heaven like peacocks. Heaven will be filled with the exploits of Christ and the praises of God. There will indeed be display in heaven. Not self-display, however, but rather a display of the incomparable wealth of God's grace, mercy, and kindness through Jesus Christ.

--John Stott

Humility in the Wrong Place

The ever quotable G.K. Chesterton:

What we suffer from today is humility in the wrong place.  Modesty has moved from the organ of ambition . . . [and] settled upon the organ of conviction, where it was never meant to be.  A man was meant to be doubtful about himself, but undoubting about the truth; this has been exactly reversed.  We are on the road to producing a race of men too mentally modest to believe in the multiplication table.

--G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

No Arrogance Beside the Cross

As an illustration of cross-centered humility in one of his exegetical works, Don Carson tells of the opportunity he had to interview Dr. Carl Henry and Dr. Kenneth Kantzer, two of the most influential evangelical theologians in America in the last century.  Near the end of the interview, he asked them:

You two men have been extraordinarily influential for almost half a century.  Without wanting to indulge in cheap flattery, I must say that what is attractive about your ministries is that you have retained integrity.  Both of you are strong, yet neither of you is egotistical.  You have not succumbed to eccentricity in doctrine, nor to individualistic empire-building. In God's good grace, what has been instrumental in preserving you in these areas?

Carson then reports the following:

Both sputtered in deep embarrassment.  And then one of them ventured, with a kind of gentle outrage, "How on earth can anyone be arrogant when standing beside the cross?" 

Knowing Ourselves

"Those do not commonly know themselves best who think best of themselves."

--Matthew Henry

What Do You Boast In?

"Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD' (Jeremiah 9:23-24).

"Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord" (1 Corinthians 1:31).

"If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness....Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me" (2 Corinthians 11:30; 12:9).

"But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world" (Galatians 6:14).

The Gospel's Seemingly Contradictory Work

"The gospel gives us a new identity that is so majestic that we would be the most arrogant people in the world - except that we know we don't deserve it, it cost Christ his life, and it is all a free gift of grace....Only the gospel can do two seemingly contradictory things: destroy pride and increase courage. Destroy self-exaltation and increase confidence. Destroy the pushiness of self-assertion and deliver from the paralysis of self-doubt."

--John Piper, Bloodlines

To Be a Christian Is to Know Humility

"A proud Christian is as much an oxymoron as a sober drunkard or a generous miser."

--John Newton

Prayer Is Humility in Action

Prayer Pondered
© 2011, M. Justin Wainscott

The vivid verbs of prayer –
yearning, longing,
hungering, thirsting,
asking, seeking,
beseeching, pleading,
needing, crying out –
along with the emotive actions of prayer –
weeping, wailing,
kneeling, bowing,
silence, shouting,
beating our breast
and clinching our fists –
should teach us all a truth about prayer:
It is humility in action,
evidence of our inadequacy.
Prayer reveals our weakness,
but it magnifies God’s strength.
It is the most earnest expression
of our faith and dependence.
We are poor beggars, ‘tis true,
but riches untold are at our disposal.
So keep longing,
keep yearning,
keep trusting,
keep crying, child of God.
You’re not an orphan;
your Father hears you,
and He will answer.

Piper on a Lesson Learned from Lewis

I am grateful for a friend and church member passing this quote along to me. It's a quote by John Piper, reflecting on what he learned from C.S. Lewis (and it's a great follow-up to yesterday's post):

He has made me wary of chronological snobbery. That is, he showed me that newness is no virtue and oldness is no vice. Truth and beauty and goodness are not determined by when they exist. Nothing is inferior for being old, and nothing is valuable for being modern. This has freed me from the tyranny of novelty and opened for me the wisdom of the ages.

The Most Humbling Force in the World

"The gospel has more power to humble than any other force in the world."

--Jim Hamilton, "The Lord's Supper in Paul," in The Lord's Supper

Can the Humble Be Confident?

Yes, humility can be coupled with confidence if the confidence is in the Lord. Consider the contrast between the first line in Psalm 40:17 and the second. The first is a confession of such humility that it sounds as if the psalmist is defeated, but the second line is an expression of such comfort and hope that it grants him complete confidence in the Lord.

As for me, I am poor and needy,
but the Lord takes thought for me. (Psalm 40:17)

Poor and needy we may be, but it should be enough for us to know that the Lord takes thought for us. What could give us greater confidence and assurance than that?

Religious Hubris vs. Gospel Humility

Theological Antonyms
© 2011, Justin Wainscott

The opposite of
religious hubris
is gospel humility.

Religious hubris breeds superiority
on the grounds of moral performance.
But it's a misplaced superiority,
because it's built on a lie.
All who gather on those grounds
will surely fall.

Gospel humility yields unity
at the foot of the cross.
And it's an appropriate unity,
because it's built on the truth.
All who gather there
stand on a sure and firm foundation.

Religious hubris
sees no need for a Savior.
Gospel humility
sees not only the need for a Savior,
but the Savior himself
meeting that very need.

Religious hubris stands tall,
but will one day be brought low.
Gospel humility bows low,
but will one day be exalted.

There's No Shame in the Gospel

One of the reasons we should not be ashamed of the gospel is because it graciously reminds us that if there is a Savior for sinners, then there's no shame in admitting we're sinners in need of a Savior. The gospel frees us from feeling like we have to hide in the shame of our sin. It liberates us from having to suppress what we (and everyone close to us) already knows to be true, because admitting that bad news leads to savoring the good news. The dire nature of this bad news is what makes the gospel such gloriously good news.

And the sooner we realize this, the better.

A Leveler of Persons

"The gospel is a leveler of persons. Those who embrace the gospel will boast only in Christ, and they will be inclined to celebrate their own folly and weakness that Christ might be seen as strong and wise."

--Jim Hamilton, "The Lord's Supper in Paul" in The Lord's Supper: Remembering and Proclaiming Christ Until He Comes

Grace Yields Humble Service

"Self-justification and judging others go together, as justification by grace and serving others go together....Once a man has experienced the mercy of God in his life he will henceforth aspire only to serve. The proud throne of the judge no longer lures him; he wants to be down below with the lowly and needy, because this is where God found him."

--Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together

Humble Confidence

Although humble and confidence may not rest easily side-by-side in the language of our culture or of our world, they do belong together in the language of the Christian faith. For, every certainty or confidence we have as Christians is a humble one. We know that we have eternal life, but we know that we have eternal life only because it is a gift of God's grace in Jesus Christ (and a merciful assurance of his Word). Therefore, the confidence we have as Christians is a humble confidence.

Visiting a Place Called Calvary

"Every time we look a the cross Christ seems to say to us, ‘I am here because of you. It is your sin I am bearing, your curse I am suffering, your debt I am paying, your death I am dying.’ Nothing in history or in the universe cuts us down to size like the cross. All of us have inflated views of ourselves, especially in self-righteousness, until we have visited a place called Calvary. It is there, at the foot of the cross, that we shrink to our true size."

--John Stott, The Message of Galatians

HT: Of First Importance

Yet Another Reason for Humility

"For though the LORD is high, he regards the lowly..." (Psalm 138:6)

The Deceptive, Blinding Power of Sin

"On our own, you and I will never develop a competency for recognizing our sin. We'll always need help.

Never forget that others see what you do not. Where you're blind to sin, their vision is often twenty-twenty."

--C.J. Mahaney, Humility: True Greatness