pride

Prevention

~ P. Jason

Nehemiah 9:32–33

[32] “Now, therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love, let not all the hardship seem little to you that has come upon us, upon our kings, our princes, our priests, our prophets, our fathers, and all your people, since the time of the kings of Assyria until this day. [33] Yet you have been righteous in all that has come upon us, for you have dealt faithfully and we have acted wickedly…” (ESV)

The people are honest and admit they deserve their suffering. Because of this they can ask God for mercy and favor. How does our self-righteousness or entitlement prevent us from receiving from God?

Do We?

~ P. Jason

Collected Shorter Writings Volume 1: Celebrating the Saving Work of God
The Trinity and the Gospel
J.I. Packer

You have met people whose behavior leads you to say, ‘You can’t tell them anything.’ In verse 11, Jesus says that Nicodemus and his peers are behaving that way towards him and his disciples: ‘I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony.’ By Nicodemus’ own admission, the Jewish theologians did not know about the new birth and God’s present kingdom, but they had not so far shown any willingness to accept teaching on these things from Jesus, the country preacher…

Before we condemn those Jewish leaders, however, we should ask ourselves if we are any wiser than they at this point. Do we let Jesus teach us spiritual things? Have we let him teach us our own need of new birth? Will we let him teach us the way into God’s kingdom?  

Better Than Most

~ P. Jason

Culture and the Self
Hazel Markus & Shinobu Kitayama

At 4 years old, children already show a clear self-favorability bias (Harter, 1989). When asked to compare themselves with others with respect to intelligence, friendliness, or any skill, most children think they are better than most others. Wylie (1979) reported that American adults also consider themselves to be more intelligent and more attractive than average, and Myers (1987), in a national survey of American students, found that 70% of students believe they are above average in leadership ability, and with respect to the “ability to get along with others,’ 0% thought they were below average, 60% thought they were in the top 10%, and 25% thought they were in the top 1%. 

What They Could Not Tolerate

~ P. Jason

Twelve Ordinary Men
John MacArthur

            It wasn’t that the self-righteous religious leaders did not believe in Jesus’ miracles. Nowhere on the pages of the Gospel record did anyone ever deny the reality of Jesus’ miracles. Who could deny them? There were too many, and they had been done too publicly to be dismissed by even the most skeptical gainsayers. Of course, some desperately tried to attribute Jesus’ miracles to the power of Satan (Matthew 12:24). No one, however, denied that the miracles were real. Anyone could see that He had the power to cast out demons and do miracles at will. No one could honestly question whether He truly had power over the supernatural world.

            But what irritated the religious leaders was not the miracles. They could have lived with the fact that He could walk on water or that He could make food to feed thousands of people. What they could not tolerate was being called sinners.  They would not acknowledge themselves as poor, prisoners, blind, and oppressed (Luke 4:18). 

An Extremely Fruitful Field

~ P. Jason

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

On Sunday afternoon I attended an extremely festive high mass in Sacré Coeur. The people in the church were almost exclusively from Montmartre; prostitutes and their men went to mass, submitted to all the ceremonies; it was an enormously impressive picture, and once again one could see quite clearly how close, precisely through their fate and guilt, these most heavily burdened people are to the heart of the gospel. I have long thought that the Tauentzienstrasse [Berlin’s red-light district] would be an extremely fruitful field for church work. It’s much easier for me to imagine a praying murderer, a praying prostitute, than a vain person praying. Nothing is so at odds with prayer as vanity.

More Deserving

~ P. Jason

James Comer

Many successful people are inclined to attribute their situations to their own ability and effort – making them, in their minds, more deserving than less successful people.  They ignore the support they received from families, networks of friends and kin, schools, and powerful others.  They see no need for improved support of youth development.

But We May Know Him!

~ P. Jason

For the Love of God
D.A. Carson

Jeremiah 9:23–24

[23] Thus says the LORD: “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, [24] 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.”

First, the heart of much sin is the smug self-sufficiency that boasts in its own wisdom or strength or wealth (9:23). That is always a mark of lostness. It focuses on self. Worse, it fails to recognize that all that we have (and boast about) is derived: we do not choose our own genes, or parents, or heritage; all we have achieved has been in function of others, of health, of gifts, of support, of situation—a thousand elements over which we have little control and which, this side of the Fall, we do not have the right to claim. Worst of all, smug and self-sufficient people leave no place for priorities outside themselves; they leave no place for God, for they are their own gods. Second, there is nothing in the universe more important to human beings than to know the Lord (9:24a). He is God, not we; he is the Creator, not we; he exercises providential rule, not we. He is the Self-Existent, and we are derived and dependent. He inhabits eternity; we are restricted to our very small segment of time. He is utterly holy and glorious; we are massively contaminated by dirt, and stand under his judgment. But we may know him! That is the only thing truly worth “boasting” about. 

Link: Complete Blog Post

We Are Wiser and Better

~ P. Jason

For the Love of God
D.A. Carson

Isaiah 65:1–2

[1] I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me;
I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me.
I said, “Here I am, here I am,”
to a nation that was not called by my name.
[2] I spread out my hands all the day
to a rebellious people,
who walk in a way that is not good,
following their own devices…

This habit of thinking oneself better than God is prevalent today. We are so interested in “spirituality” and so committed to exonerating ourselves on every side that we cannot possibly allow ourselves to submit to what God says. We judge what he says to be unreasonable; we are wiser and better than God, more sacred than he. That is what stands behind his judgment (65:6-7).

Link: Complete Blog Post

A Mark of Grace

~ P. Jason

For the Love of God
D.A. Carson

Isaiah 59:10–12

[10] We grope for the wall like the blind;
we grope like those who have no eyes;
we stumble at noon as in the twilight,
among those in full vigor we are like dead men.
[11] We all growl like bears;
we moan and moan like doves;
we hope for justice, but there is none;
for salvation, but it is far from us.
[12] For our transgressions are multiplied before you,
and our sins testify against us;
for our transgressions are with us,
and we know our iniquities…

They know their situation is desperate. And that itself, of course, is a mark of grace. The people of God are farthest from reformation and revival when they are smugly content, like the church in Laodicea (Rev. 3:14-22). There is hope when by God’s grace they writhe in an agony of honest confession, horribly aware of the insidious and pervasive power of sin in their lives and their culture.

Link: Complete Blog Post