A Prescription for Your False Humility

False humility. Ever heard of it? It's that thing that says "I suck, but it's a good thing I think this about myself, otherwise I'd be prideful." Or it says "I'm not worthy to enter God's presence, I mean He forgives me and I believe it, but I'm not about to ask Him for anything until I get my stuff together." NO! We are meant to enter boldly into his throne of grace to receive mercy (Heb. 4:14-16)! The tricky thing about false humility is that half of it is true. But the other half is deceitful and holds you in chains. Yea we suck to a certain degree, enough to be called "children of wrath" because of our sin nature (Eph. 2:1-3). But don't miss this part: that verse is in the PAST TENSE! That's who we were!

The really trippy thing about false humility is that it's actually pride with a mask. False humility comes from shame, shame comes from evaluating your relationship with God based on how you perform, and that's never gonna get you anywhere. Luckily for us, shame has no place in the kingdom of God. If we have it and He has us, it should be ripped out of our clingy hands with the truth of the gospel. He loves you. Period. His Spirit is a seal on you that proves it (Eph. 1:13-14). Christian, as you've decided not to live off your own rules but God's in this new life, here's one I read recently that really set me straight, Romans 7:14-8:11. Paul writes:

¹⁴ For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. ¹⁵ For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. ¹⁶ If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. ¹⁷ But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. ¹⁸ For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. ¹⁹ For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. ²⁰ Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.

This isn't just a cop out. This is what the word of God says. If you sin in your new life in Christ, it is not you who does it but indwelling sin. There is a distinction made between a believer, and their indwelling sin. Why? How...?

²¹ I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. ²² For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. ²³ But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. ²⁴ O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? ²⁵ I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.

8 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. ² For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.³ For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴ that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

...because when you believed in Christ, He took your place on the cross and you DIED to your old self. Then He gave you a new identity, His! Indwelling sin is of your old identity. It isn't even you anymore. That's where the distinction between the inward man and the flesh comes into play. Yeah it's still in you and a part of you. Christians are still sin-"full." But we are dead to sin. In Christ, you choose to follow the Spirit of God.

⁵ For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. ⁶ For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. ⁷ Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. ⁸ So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

⁹ But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. ¹⁰ And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. ¹¹ But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

Bottom line, Christ Jesus has done it all already! There's the prescription for your false humility. The Father has raised you up to the heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:4-6)! Walk like you're forgiven! Live like God loves you, no matter what you do, because it's true (Romans 8:37-39)!