Humility: True Greatness

In our mentoring groups at TBS we have been going through C. J. Mahaney's book "Humility: True Greatness." In preparation for tomorrow's discussion I have just read chapter 4 on "greatness demonstrated" which points to Jesus and his great self-sacrifice on behalf of those ensnared by sin, including, but not restricted to, the sin of pride. Mahaney reminds us that Jesus did not just show the way by his example of selfless living but he died to make it possible for his people to serve God and others as we are commanded in the Bible.

Christianity that is faithful to the scriptures is cross-centered. There is no way around it. Take away the cross and Christianity becomes nothing more than religious dogma. Without the cross there is nothing to set it apart from the religions of the world which are full of noble thoughts and ambitions but utterly unable to produce real change in the lives of their adherents. True humility flows from the fact that we cannot help ourselves. We are dependent on God in the most basic areas of life and we owe him a debt of gratitude we can never repay.

True greatness is found in humility and true humility begins at the cross where Jesus died the just for the unjust to bring us to God. If we would serve well we must never cease to marvel at and meditate on the cross of Christ on which the Prince of Glory died for then, in the words of the old hymn, we will "count our richest gains as loss and pour contempt on all our pride."