“They shall cast their crowns before the throne, saying: ‘Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive the glory, and the honor and the power: for You created all things, and because of Your will, they existed and were created.'” — Revelation 4:11
When God created the universe, His primary purpose was to make His creatures share in His perfection and blessedness, thereby displaying the glory of His love, wisdom, and power. God desired to reveal Himself through His creation by imparting to them as much of His own goodness and glory as they were able to receive. However, this communication was not a gift of something that the creature could own independently—a life or goodness that it could control and manage. On the contrary, since God is the ever-living, ever-present, and ever-acting One who upholds all things by the word of His power and in whom all things exist, the creature’s relationship to God must be one of constant, absolute, and universal dependence. Just as God created by His power, so by that same power must He sustain every moment of existence.
The creature should not just look back to the beginning of its existence and acknowledge that it owes everything to God. Its chief focus, its highest virtue, and its only happiness, now and forever, is to present itself as an empty vessel in which God can dwell and reveal His power and goodness.
The life God gives is not granted once for all time, but rather moment by moment, by the continuous operation of His mighty power. Thus, humility—being in a state of complete dependence on God—is, by nature, the first duty and the highest virtue of the creature, and the root of all other virtues. Consequently, pride, or the loss of this humility, is the root of every sin and evil. It was when the fallen angels began to view themselves with self-satisfaction that they were led to disobedience and were cast down from the light of heaven into outer darkness. Similarly, when the serpent instilled the poison of pride—the desire to be like God—into the hearts of our first parents, they too fell from their high estate, plunging humanity into the misery and depravity we see today.
In both heaven and earth, pride and self-exaltation are the gateways and the origins of sin and the curse of hell. Therefore, the only path to redemption is the restoration of lost humility, the original and true relationship between the creature and its Creator. This is why Jesus came—to bring humility back to earth, make us partakers of it, and save us through it. In heaven, He humbled Himself to become a man. The humility we see in Him was His in heaven; He brought it to earth with Him. Here on earth, “He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death.” His humility gave His death its value and became our redemption. And now, the salvation He offers is nothing less than the sharing of His own life and death, His own disposition and spirit—His own humility—as the foundation and root of His relationship with God and His redeeming work. Jesus Christ took the place and fulfilled the destiny of humanity by living a life of perfect humility. His humility is our salvation. His salvation is our humility.
So, the life of the saved ones, the saints, must be marked by this deliverance from sin and full restoration to their original state, with their entire relationship to God and others characterized by a deep and pervasive humility. Without this, there can be no true abiding in God’s presence, no experience of His favor, or of the power of His Spirit. Without humility, there can be no lasting faith, love, joy, or strength. Humility is the only soil in which the virtues can grow; the absence of humility is enough to explain every defect and failure. Humility is not just another virtue alongside the others; it is the root of all virtues because it is the only posture that fully acknowledges God as God, allowing Him to work in and through us.
God designed us as rational beings, so the more clearly we see the true nature and necessity of a command, the more ready and complete our obedience will be. The call to humility has been overlooked in the Church because its true nature and significance have not been fully grasped. Humility is not something we bring to God or something He bestows; it is simply the sense of our total nothingness when we see how truly God is all, and in that awareness, we make room for God to be everything. When the creature understands this true nobility and agrees to be, with his will, mind, and heart, the vessel in which the life and glory of God are to manifest, he realizes that humility is simply acknowledging the truth of his position as a creature and giving God His rightful place.
In the life of sincere Christians, those who seek holiness, humility should be the defining mark of their godliness. It is often noted that this is not the case. One reason might be that in the teaching and example of the Church, humility has not been given the supreme place it deserves. And this neglect is rooted in the lack of recognition of a profound truth: that while sin is a strong motivation for humility, there is an even stronger and wider influence—the humility that makes the angels humble, the humility that made Jesus humble, and the humility that marks the holiest of saints in heaven. The first and chief characteristic of the creature’s relationship to its Creator, the secret of its blessedness, is the humility and emptiness that leave God free to be everything.
I believe that many Christians will admit that their experience has been similar to mine in this regard: that we had known the Lord for a long time without realizing that meekness and lowliness of heart should be the distinguishing mark of a disciple, just as they were of the Master. Moreover, we realize that humility is not something that will develop on its own; it must be the object of special desire, prayer, faith, and practice. As we study the Word, we will see how clearly and frequently Jesus instructed His disciples on this point, and how slow they were to grasp it. Let us, at the very beginning of our meditations, acknowledge that there is nothing as natural to humans, nothing as hidden and subtle, and nothing as difficult and dangerous as pride. Let us understand that only through a determined and persevering waiting on God and Christ will we discover how lacking we are in humility and how powerless we are to achieve it on our own. Let us study the character of Christ until our souls are filled with love and admiration for His lowliness. And let us believe that when we are humbled by our awareness of pride and our inability to overcome it, Jesus Christ Himself will come to impart this grace as part of His wondrous life within us.
The English phrasing and word choice of this chapter has been lightly updated, while trying to preserve the author’s style and message as much as possible.
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