RADICAL GOD-DEPENDENCE

Humility is entering into the life of Christ through a radical God-dependence. It is an inner orientation of actively receiving from God and acknowledging our need. The humble Christian is the Christian who takes literally Christ's words: Apart from me you can do nothing. Andrew Murray nails humility when he calls it the displacement of self by the enthronement of God.

Calvin and Augustine both agreed that humility is evidenced when one feels that he has no refuge except in humility. They mean that the Christian has shifted from a human-centered faith to a God-centered faith; that the root, fruit, and maintenance of his walk is dependent on God's work, favor, and God's strength. He not only knows this, he acknowledges this and lives by this in a practical way.

Humility is the disposition that makes us available to be blessed by God. The Psalms seem obsessed with God's eagerness to reach out to the humble: God saves the humble, guides the humble, sustains the humble, and even crowns the humble. Notice that everything flows from God to the humble servant.

Pride seeks to reverse this. Pride is self-reliance and self-dependence. Arrogance seeks to obligate God instead of receive from Him.

Gary Thomas, The Glorious Pursuit, pages 49-50.

Essentials and Non-Essentials

When I think of orthodox Christianity, I think of those historic doctrines of the Christian faith for which our predecessors were willing to die. By God’s grace, I trust that if the time ever came, I would be willing to do the same for preaching these glorious truths of the Gospel: the Scriptures are the inspired words of God; God exists in three Persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit; Christ was miraculously conceived by the Holy Spirit and born to the virgin Mary; Christ died, was buried and rose again for our justification; the only way to be reconciled to God is by grace through faith in the Person and work of Jesus Christ; Christ ascended to heaven and will return to earth one day.

The historic creeds of the Christian faith such as the Apostle’s Creed and the Nicene Creed state these doctrines without ambiguity.

The statements of faith of many churches raise the level of some non-foundational theological positions to equality with the doctrines mentioned above. Many wise and godly men and women throughout the history of the church have held differing positions on those issues. It is imperative that we communicate that which we believe to be essential and critical to our faith. If one is not willing to take the sword for a position, why do we imply that it is such a critical issue?

The church should be committed to the spirit of the this statement: In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity. Our early church fathers understood the difference between the essentials and the non-essentials.

Thomas Bilney

In his commentary on I Timothy, John Stott gives us the story of Thomas Bilney's conversion after reading the words of Paul in I Timothy 1:15. Bilney searched for peace but could not find it. "But at last, I heard speak of Jesus, even then when the New Testament was first set forth by Erasmus...And at the first reading (as I well remember) I chanced upon the sentence of St. Paul (O most sweet and comfortable sentence to my soul!) in I Timothy 1. "It is a true saying, and worthy of all men to be embraced, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am the chief and principal." This one sentence, through God's instruction and inward working, which I did not then perceive, did so exhilarate my heart, being before wounded with the guilt of my sins, and being almost in despair, that even immediately I seemed unto myself inwardly to feel a marvelous comfort and quietness, insomuch that "my bruised bones leaped for joy" (Psalm 51). After this, the Scripture began to be more pleasant than the honey or the honeycomb.

Bilney went to the stake for his faith.