On Humility By Andrew Murray
Eric reads Andrew Murray’s “Humility” and shares some key thoughts and passages from the book.
Some may think that humility is by keeping the soul occupied with its sin, with the heart in constant penitence and contrition. This is not the case with Apostle Paul. In spite of being indelibly conscious of his past sins (“I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man…” – 1 Tim 1:13), he was equally conscious that God’s grace had saved him, and God remembered his sins no more. He rejoiced more and more in God’s salvation, yet never forget that he was a sinner God had taken up in His arms and crowned with His love. In all his epistles, it is remarkable that we cannot find any mention of his regret, or shortcoming or defect arising from his past sins. On the contrary, there are passages in which he vindicates himself as living a faultless life before God and men. (“You are witnesses, and God also, how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct towards you believers.” – 1 Thess 2:10).
What, then, is humility as far as Paul is concerned? He was very aware of daily sinning that could overtake him if not for the presence and power of the indwelling Christ in him. (“I know that nothing good lives in me…” – Rom 7:18; and “Through Christ Jesus, the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.” – Rom 8:2). As light dispels darkness, the indwelling Christ through the Spirit is the health, light and life of Paul’s soul. For Paul and for us, this conviction of helplessness to fight sin, and our total dependence on God creates the proper meaning of humility in us. It is not sin, but God’s grace shown to a man and ever reminding him what a sinner he was that will keep him truly humble. In other words, it is not sin, but grace that will make me know myself as a sinner that will make me humble.
Humility is also the path to death, because in death it gives the best proof of its perfection. In other words, humility is the blossom of which death to self is the perfect fruit. Jesus humbled himself unto death and opened the path in which we too must walk. As there is no way for Him to prove His surrender to God to the uttermost but through death, so it is with us. Humility must lead us to die to self, so we can prove how wholly we have given ourselves up to God. By this alone, we are freed from our fallen nature and find a path that leads to life in God, to that full birth of the new nature, of which humility is the breath and the joy.
At Pentecost, Jesus communicated His resurrection life to His disciples; He actually came down from heaven himself to dwell in them. In its inmost nature, the life He imparted to them was a life out of death, a life that had been surrendered to death and been won through death. His life, His person and His presence bear the marks of death, a life begotten out of death. That life in His disciples also bears the mark of death. It is only when the Spirit of the dying One dwells and works in the soul that the power of His life can be known. The first mark of the dying of the Lord Jesus – also the mark that shows the true follower of Jesus – is humility. This is because of two reasons: only humility leads to perfect death; and only death perfects humility. Humility and death are in their very nature one: humility is the bud; in death the fruit is ripened to perfection.
This gives us the answer to the question so frequently asked: How can I die to self? Death to self is not your work; it is God’s work. In Christ you are dead to sin. Your life has gone through the process of death and resurrection. But the full manifestation of the power of this death in your disposition and conduct depends upon the measure in which the Holy Spirit imparts the power of the death of Christ. Here is where some instructions are required. Place yourself before God in your helplessness; consent to the fact that you are powerless to slay yourself; give yourself in patient and trustful surrender to God. Accept every humiliation; look upon every person who tries or trouble you as a means of grace to humble you. God will see such acceptance as proof that your whole heart desires it. It is the path of humility that leads to the full and perfect experience of our death with Christ. The Lamb of God means two things: meekness and death. Let us seek to receive Him in both forms.
It will be a hopeless task if we were to do the work ourselves! Nature never can overcome nature, not even with the help of grace. Self can never cast out self, even in a regenerated man. Praise God! the work has been done, finished and perfected forever. The death of Jesus, once and for all, is our death to self. And the ascension of Jesus, His entering once and forever into the Holy of Holies, has given us the Holy Spirit to communicate to us His power. As the soul in the pursuit and practice of humility follows in His footsteps, its consciousness of the need for something more is awakened, and it learns to look up and claim that true fullness of the Spirit of Jesus that can daily maintain His death to self and sin in its full power and make humility the all pervading spirit of our life.
Andrew Murray (1828–1917) was born in South Africa. After receiving his education in Scotland and Holland, he returned to South Africa and spent his life there as a pastor, missionary and author of many books. Humility was first published in 1884.