Lessons from the Other Side of the Cross: A Disciple is Humble

Jim Thomas (Director of Training with The Bonhoeffer Project, Senior Pastor at First Baptist Church in Fayetteville, Georgia, educator, and all-around good guy) wrote an excellent article in this series called The Death of Pride. All the accolades piled here are to test Jim’s character.

We all know that …

• Pride is at the root of all kinds of human evil. Humility is the wellspring of godliness.
• Pride promotes “the lie”. Humility promotes “the truth”.
• Pride exalts the sinner. Humility bows the sinners’ knees before a holy God.
• Pride builds us up brick-by-brick, until we are exalted and separated from others.  Humility tears down those walls, making us accountable and accessible to others.
• Pride looks down on those below us. Humility looks to Christ above us.
• A proud man can not know God, for He resists the proud but gives His grace to the  humble.
• Pride brings destruction. Humility lifts up the meek.
• Pride is one of our greatest enemies. Humility is the weapon that defeats it.

Andrew Murray wrote,

“Pride must die in you, or nothing of heaven can live in you.”  

C.S. Lewis, wrote in Mere Christianity,

“There is one vice of which no man in the world is free; which every one in the world  loathes when he sees it in someone else; and of which hardly any people, except  Christians, ever imagine that they are guilty themselves. … There is no fault which  makes a man more unpopular, and no fault which we are more unconscious of in  ourselves. … The vice I am talking of is Pride or Self-Conceit: and the virtue opposite to  it, in Christian morals, is called Humility.” 

From these we might conclude that pride is elemental to fallen humanity and humility is  foundational to godly virtues.

In the most simple definition, a disciple of Jesus is an apprentice. A disciple is one  who, being with Jesus, is learning from Him how to live like Him. A disciple is one who  is increasingly becoming like His master, taking on Christlike character, including  humility.

In His sermons and times alone with His disciples, Jesus taught them the importance  of humility. Jesus taught the greatest in the Kingdom is the one who would humble  themselves as a little child.

“At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of  heaven?” And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly,  I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom  of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven.”
Matthew 18:1-4

In our fallen humanity and ruined souls, pride twists our minds and feelings, it damages  our relationships and even weakens our very bodies. This definitive element of the fall  lies deep within every human person, yet, like all other attributes of the self, it can be  defeated and replaced with the Christlike character of humility. But this requires dying  and rebirth.

The disciple of Jesus is one who, having taken up their cross (dying to self), is now  following Christ on a journey of transformation in all the essential dimensions of their  being. The radical changes the Holy Spirit produces in the life of the disciple do not  come from temporary inspiration nor from accumulated information, they come as a  result of abiding in Christ in an ongoing, interactive, daily, communicative relationship.  In this walking with Jesus on the other side of the cross, we find our source of life in  Him. In this journey with Him we begin to experience the reality of the Kingdom of  God, as we internalize His words and, by His grace, put them into action.

If we wish to be His disciple we must follow Him in self-denial. We begin to experience  the life from eternity when we die to self. Only then can we live for others, especially  our Lord. Only then can we look to God for all we need and become the kinds of  people who can love our neighbor as ourselves.

IN HIS OWN LIFE, JESUS EXEMPLIFIED HUMILITY.  

How often did he say, “Not my will Father but yours be done”? How often did He  demonstrate a sacrificial love that pursued the best for others and not His own glory?

The very fact that the God who created all things would humbly take on the form of His  creation proclaims His humble nature. His entire earthly life, his humble virgin birth, his  growing up in obscurity, his earthly ministry without a home, his lack of education,  position and prestige, his familiarity with the under classed, outsiders, last, least, lost  and broken all spoke to his divine attribute of humility.

When ridiculed he did not respond in pride. When lied about, falsely arrested, falsely  accused, beaten, tortured, and crucified, still He remained humbly committed to the  Father’s plan. He did not seek His own exaltation but the glory of His Father who sent  Him.

This is why the great passage in Philippians 2 is so powerful:

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in  the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind,  having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish  ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let  each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have  this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was  in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied  himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being  found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of  death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on  him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should  bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus  Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Philippians 2:1-11{emphasis added}

We are instructed to take on this manner of thinking about ourselves. The mindset of  humility allows unity in the church, imitates and exalts our Lord Christ and brings glory  to God the Father. As Christ’s disciples we can learn humility.

AS A DISCIPLE, PETER LEARNED HUMILITY.  

Who can forget his tragic failure that night before the crucifixion. It is a very different  Peter whom Jesus restores again by the seashore. This Peter has come face-to-face  with the limitations of his flesh and now must ask himself if he truly loves Jesus. It is a  humble Peter who speaks to the crowds in Jerusalem. A humble Peter writes to the  persecuted believers across Asia minor, as a “fellow elder” – not seeking apostolic  superiority …

“So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of  Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed: shepherd the flock  of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as  God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those  in your charge, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd  appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. Likewise, you who are younger,  be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one  another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”  

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper  time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. Be  sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion,  seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds  of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after  you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal  glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be  the dominion forever and ever. Amen.”
1 Peter 5:1-11 {emphasis added}

AS A DISCIPLE, JOHN LEARNED HUMILITY.  

Before Christ called him, along with his brother James, he was known as one of the  “sons of thunder”. John was an ambitious man with an ego to match. You’ll recall the  time when he and James quietly approached Jesus with a self-promoting request to sit  on Jesus’ left and right hand in the kingdom (Mark 10:35-37). They had, as yet, not  learned the lessons on humility Jesus had just taught them (see Mark 9:35). Jesus  uses this occasion to again teach them about humility and reference His own coming  humiliation.

“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and give  His life a ransom for many.”
Mark 10:42-45

But after the cross, the resurrection and ascension of Jesus, a very different John  writes the Gospel that bears his name. Now he is so very different that he doesn’t even  refer to himself by name, only calling himself, “the disciple whom Jesus loved”. By His  grace, God transformed John from a son of thunder to the humble disciple who wrote  some of the greatest books in all the Scriptures. Only John’s gospel records Jesus  washing the disciples’ feet. John’s writings include so many of the lessons he learned  from Jesus, including these:

“For all that is in the world – the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes and the  pride of life – is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing  away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.”
1 John  2:16-17

AS A DISCIPLE, PAUL LEARNED HUMILITY.  

Before he was Paul, he was Saul, the rising religious star in Israel. Bursting with pride  he pursued believers across the empire, seeking to stamp out followers of “the way”.  Then he encounters Christ on the road to Damascus. And it is a broken and contrite  Paul that God uses to bring the gospel to the Gentiles.

It is a humble Paul that God uses to write half of the New Testament. This new Paul  wrote of himself,

“For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle,  because I persecuted the church of God.”
1 Corinthians 15:9 {emphasis added}

Paul understood that mastering pride requires dying to self.

It is the Apostle Paul wrote,

“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I,  but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the  Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”
Galatians 2:20 {emphasis added}

It is God’s stated goal that we should take on the Character of His Son, Jesus. In this  the Spirit helps us in our weakness, and God works all things toward this goal for our  good.

“For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the  image of his son …”
Romans 8:29 {emphasis added}

If we die with Christ (to our old self), then we can be raised with Christ to a brand new  kind of life. Paul writes to the Colossians …

“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ  is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on  things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in  God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.  

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion,  evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God  is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you  must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your  mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its  practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after  the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and  uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all. 

Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts,  kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a  complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you  also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together  in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you  were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly,  teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and  spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word  or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father  through him.”
Colossians 3:1-17 {emphasis added}

Notice how the things we must put to death all stimulate our pride, but the character of  Christ which is available to the disciple who dies to self all demonstrate humility. The  only way to be truly humble is “to die to pride – die to oneself”.

AS CHRIST’S DISCIPLES, WE TOO CAN LEARN TO BE HUMBLE.  

Pride is all about yourself. But one who has died to self, no longer lives for the things  the self desires. The disciple of Christ can learn humility but only from the other side  of the cross.

This post originally appeared at: Lessons from the Other Side of the Cross — The Bonhoeffer Project