My Journey So Far

It started a couple of months ago. Nate came to our Wednesday night fellowship, and he read a chapter out of C.S. Lewis’s “Mere Christianity”. I have copied part of that chapter here:

“Today I come to that part of Christian morals where they differ most sharply from all other morals. 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. I have heard people admit that they are bad-tempered, or that they cannot keep their heads about girls or drink, or even that they are cowards. I do not think I have ever heard anyone who was not a Christian accuse himself of this vice. And at the same time I have very seldom met anyone, who was not a Christian, who showed the slightest mercy to it in others. There is no fault which makes a man more unpopular, and no fault which we are more unconscious of in our selves. And the more we have it ourselves, the more we dislike it in others.

The vice I am talking of is Pride or Self-Conceit: and the virtue opposite to it, in Christian morals, is called Humility. You may remember, when I was talking about sexual morality, I warned you that the centre of Christian morals did not lie there. Well, now, we have come to the centre. According to Christian teachers, the essential vice the utmost evil, is Pride. Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere fleabites in comparison: it was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind.

Does this seem to you exaggerated? If so, think it over. I pointed out a moment ago that the more pride one had, the more one disliked pride in others. In fact, if you want to find out how proud you are the easiest way is to ask yourself, “How much do I dislike it when other people snub me, or refuse to take any notice of me, or shove their oar in, or patronize me, or show off?” The point is that each person’s pride is in competition with every one else’s pride. It is because I wanted to be the big noise at the party that I am so annoyed at someone else being the big noise. Two of a trade never agree. Now what you want to get clear is that Pride is essentially competitive—is competitive by its very nature—while the other vices are competitive only, so to speak, by accident. Pride gets no pleasure out of having more of it than the next man. We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better-looking than others. If every one else became equally rich, or clever, or good-looking there would be nothing to be proud about. It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest. Once the element of competition has gone, pride has gone…Nearly all those evils in the world which people put down to greed or selfishness are really far more the result of Pride….

If anyone would like to acquire humility, I can, I think, tell him the first step. The first step is to realize that one is proud. And a biggish step, too. At least, nothing whatever can be done before it. If you think you are not conceited, it means you are very conceited indeed.”

After he read that I spent the next three days considering pride, and I think pride comes in so many forms. If you are full of yourself, self absorbed, down on yourself, or shy, it’s all pride. The bottom line is that pride is spending more time thinking about yourself than others. The world would be a so much better place if everyone thought about others more than themselves.

A couple of weeks later, Marty came home from work and said that he had gotten a revelation from God. He was so excited, it was infectious. I wanted it to, but he just kept saying, “Christ in us, the hope of glory.” He was saying things like, “God has revealed His Son in me.” and “I feel like I’ve been born again….again!” I asked him what the difference was between now and last week and he said that he was just living in the reality of Christ in him. But how do you do that? I get so busy with the kids, the house, the running… He said, “That’s the point, you don’t do it; it’s Christ in you.” Then he started coming home every day with new stuff. First it was; us in Christ, growing up in Christ. Then coming to terms with your own death; dying to self so that Christ can live through us. He said, “All these things I’ve been taught all these years; they’re taking on new meaning, they’re becoming real in my life.” Finally after about a week and a half of this, he came home one day and said that this Christian guy he was working with was talking about what wretched sinners we all are, and Marty said, “Man, I hope you’re not telling people this stuff, you’re all doom and gloom.” After Marty told me about that, I had to go run some errands. As I was driving, I got to thinking: Well, we do need to know that we are sinners, so we realize our need for a savior. Then this just came into my head: “Yes, but Debbie, There is NOW! NO condemnation to those who are IN Christ Jesus.” That’s it! That was my revelation, and that’s how I got on the same page with Marty. Suddenly, I was just living in that reality of Christ in me. Everything I was reading was taking on meaning in my life, and I wasn’t beating myself up anymore about my many short comings. I have become a new creature in Christ. Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;” but then Romans 3:24 says, “Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:”

Soon after that, I was reading in a book that there are two types of righteousness: (1) Imputed righteousness—righteousness given to us on the basis of our salvation when we became “the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21). After we are born again, the state of our imputed righteousness does not change. (2) Imparted righteousness—the fleshing out or expression of the righteousness we have received in Christ, the Holy Spirit’s righteousness applied to the soul. This is the difference between owning the royal robe and actually wearing it! Wow!

The last thing I wanted to say is that about a year ago someone gave me this book called “The School of Christ”. I thought, interesting, and then set it aside. Now, I’ve been reading it and it is very good stuff. It seems to go right along with all these things that Marty and I have been learning. On page 20 it says, “The person who really does begin to move is the person who has had his final despair over himself.” I love that. Anyway, I would highly recommend reading this book. And I would recommend reading it slowly as it is pretty heavy stuff. I usually read a section or two a couple of times and then think about what it is saying for awhile before I move on.

I believe now is the time for people to start moving, so let’s have our final despair over ourselves, and start coming to terms with our death so that we can make way for His life. It’s not always an easy thing, but it’s a process, and it gets easier the more we do it. I hope you enjoy the book. Debbie

P.S. For those of you who don’t know us very well, Marty and I have been good, dedicated Christians for many decades. I just read in The School of Christ last night and he was asking whether we can really say that there is a genuine and strong desire to be in the purpose, the great eternal purpose of God? He said, “There are some who have taken things pretty much for granted. That is to say, they are Christians, they are believers, they belong to the Lord, they are saved, they put their faith in Christ, they have had association with Christian institutions and matters for so long, perhaps even from infancy. It is to such that I make this appeal at the outset. Here in God’s Word that very phrase is used repeatedly—“according to his eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus before the world was”. Is that the thing which stands foremost on our horizon or is it something remote, dim, in the background? I press this, because we must have something upon which to work. God must have something upon which to work, and if that is the position, then we can go on, and there will be a drawing out of revelation as to that purpose and the way of it. But unless we are in some quite positive position and attitude about it, you will hear a lot of things said and they will simply be things said, more or less of account to you.” Well, that was me. So I was thinking; all these things that I’m learning I have already known for most of my life, but I never knew them. Then I thought; how can I explain this to people so they understand, and I realized that all I can say is, I was blind, but now I see.