Ed and Patsy now live in Athens, Alabama and are members at the Pepper Road church. As administrator of this blog, he enjoys sharing thoughts about spiritual maters. Not only his thoughts but good articles from other authors. He is also thankful to have been able to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ for over sixty years.
In the second chapter of Colossians, the Apostle Paul twice refers to those who had a “voluntary” (KJV) or a “false” (NKJV) humility. The NASV and ESV, respectively, translate it “self-abasement” and “asceticism.” He, most likely, was referring to the early asceticism that arose in the early years of the church which likely was the beginning of the monastery system of Catholicism.
There are other kinds of “false humility” or “self-abasement” from time to time, found among Christians. We are now in a period when some stumble all over themselves to make their humility and self-abasement known. These miss few opportunities to tell one and all of their great humility before God. It seems that the new “cardinal sin” is acknowledging any blessing or gift from God without first issuing a disclaimer of having any part in the matter. They seem to think that without an open denial of our part in the reception of God’s great blessings, especially salvation, is arrogance or the lifting one’s self up against God and a failure to give God the glory that He richly deserves. They come across as glorying in their humility. They seem so proud it.
Jesus indeed taught self-denial on the part of His disciples – meaning putting all we have and all we are at His feet to be used by Him to accomplish His will. But, this does not remove the human effort (work, deeds) from the equation.
True humility is a trait to be seen and not to be heard. It is the submitting of our will and interests to the will and interests of another, especially that of God. If possessed it will be seen both by God and man without our going out of our way to call it to their attention. Often this self-abasing practice feeds the doctrine that our salvation is solely by the grace of God without any effort on man’s part.
The following Scriptures emphasize our part in our salvation:
“For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.” (Matthew 16:27 KJV)
“So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.” (James 2:12 KJV)
“But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; Who will render to every man according to his deeds: To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life: But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile;” (Romans 2:5-9 KJV)
“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.” (2 Corinthians 5:10 KJV)
“I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.” (2 Timothy 4:7-8 KJV)
Look at the above passages and notice the parts I have put in bold type. Does it not seem that God will be giving us credit for things that we have done toward our salvation? Yes, it is true that but for the grace of God we would not be saved. It is also true that but for our works and deeds of obedience we would not be saved.
But, you ask, “Does not the Bible say that our salvation is not by the works of righteousness that we have done. Does that not teach that the works we do have nothing to do with our salvation? Titus 2:4-6 does say: “But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour;” Taken in context, this is not talking about acts of obedience not having anything to do with our salvation, but that the appearance of the love of God, in the person of Jesus Christ, was not because of our righteousness but because of His mercy. In other words, Jesus did not come because we were so righteous, but because we were sinners. Thus, we have a Savior because of God’s grace – a Savior that saves us on the condition of our obedience (Hebrews 5:8-9).
We can recognize our unprofitableness before God without constantly playing down our part in our salvation: “So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.” (Luke 17:10 KJV)
The works of obedience that we do, did not originate with us, hence we have no right to boast – not even of our humility. We cannot be saved by works of our own devising, nor by works of “the law” (of Moses) or by the works of any “law only” system. We are not saved by grace only, faith only, nor works only. We are saved by grace and faith and works. We depend on God for the gospel revelation (the word of faith or law of faith) that produces faith (Rom. 10:6-8, 17). We depend on God for the commands that we need to obey. We depend on God for the forgiveness we receive when we confess our sins when we disobey or fail to obey Him (1 John 1:7-9).
So, no way can we rightfully boast of salvation, but also there is no way that we can be saved without obeying His commands – and He gives us credit when we do. Nor does He expect us to deny that what we do has a part in our salvation or forgiveness – in fact, He expects us to constantly acknowledge that it does.
(This is the tweaking of a post that we posted earlier and pulled down – eob)