I read through Andrew Murray's Humility quite a bit. My friend Katie gave it to me when I was in college (to which I responded a book on humility? I don't need this... and saw that I was one prideful son of a gun). If I had a list on the most influential books on my faith, this book would be high on the list. Here's a long quote from it I read this morning:
And so it follows that nothing can save us but the restoration of our lost humility, the original and only true relationship of the creature to its God. And so Jesus came to bring humility back to earth, to make us partakers of it, and by it to save us. In heaven He humbled himself to become a man. The humility we see in Him possessed Him in heaven; it brought Him here. Here on earth "He humbled himself and became obedient to death"; His humility gave His death its value, and so became our redemption. And now the salvation He imparts is nothing less and nothing else than a communication of His own life and death, His own disposition and spirit, His own humility, as the ground and root of His relationship with God and His redeeming work. Jesus Christ took the place and fulfilled the destiny of man as a creature by His life of perfect humility. His humility became our salvation. His salvation is our humility.
The life of those who are saved, the saints, must bear this stamp of deliverance from sin and full restoration to their original state; their whole relationship to God and to man marked by an all-pervading humility. Without this there can be no true abiding in God's presence or experience of His favor and the power of His Spirit; without this no abiding faith or love or joy or strength. Humility is the only soil in which virtue takes root; a lack of humility is the explanation of every defect and failure. Humility is not so much a virtue along with the others, but is the root of all, because it alone takes the right attitude before God and allows Him, as God, to do all. (pp. 16-17)
Murray quotes the Christ hymn in Philippians 2, Christ humbling himself and becoming nothing, taking the form of a servant, and becoming obedient to the point of death on a cross, as the crux example of humility in the faith. Humility shows itself as the foundational posture of heart in the actions of Christ. It's bold to state that "a lack of humility is the explanation of every defect and failure" in our lives, but I think you'd be hard-pressed to challenge that idea. Murray's argument echoes the picture of the Vine in John 15, and we see here this picture of life, of receiving what one needs from God, and allowing God to be all in us.
Christ's actions also become a pattern for us--the laying down of our lives, taking the position before God of a servant, for His glory and the sake of the world, and dying to ourselves, finding life after death by the power of His Spirit, a life that is driven by His life in us. This pattern is the pattern we are called into, a taking up of our cross, a following of God in humility and dependence, and a humility and offering of ourselves, our spiritual work of worship. It become pretty clear how without humility, our spiritual life comes to a stand still. Without it, we cannot receive from God, we cannot receive life because we have not offered our own, many times because we value our own life and efforts more than the life and work of Christ. Or at least we live in a way that says that (aka we live in pride, which says "I got this", rejecting the truth of the gospel that we are helpless to do what needs to be done to redeem and restore ourselves to the Father).
Humility, as Murray defines it (and as echoes this passage in Philippians 2), is becoming nothing so that Christ can become all in all. I'm thinking on that this week... if you have thoughts or comments on this stuff, leave them below...
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Listening to: Clemency - Control
