With Humility

Posted by anointedplace on March 29, 2010 · 1 Comment 

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Luke 7

³⁶Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. ³⁷When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, ³⁸and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.

³⁹When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.”

⁴⁰Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.”
“Tell me, teacher,” he said.

⁴¹“Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii,^[d] and the other fifty. ⁴²Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?”

⁴³Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled.”
“You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.

⁴⁴Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. ⁴⁵You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. ⁴⁶You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. ⁴⁷Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.”

⁴⁸Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”

⁴⁹The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”

⁵⁰Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

At times we can let our self righteousness  block the grace of God and it causes our pride to blind us.  We then start to forget what Christ has done for us, those that believe on Him and trust in the redemptive work of His blood.  Especially, now as we approach Easter I think we still lose our humility and take the cross for granted.  Its bad enough that Christmas has lost its meaning and we forget that a child was born to die then rise again so that we may be justified.  We tend to live a life with added rules to God’s love, grace and mercy thinking that it will get us closer to Him.  But there is nothing that can get us closer than Jesus Christ who was obedient even unto death because of the love of the Father.  Our hearts can be so filled with pride that we lose sight of the evil in our hearts; though they may not manifest themselves externally they are still sins in God’s eyes.  Because we ignorantly feel that we don’t have many sins to be forgiven, the gravity of the cross escapes us.  We never understand the emotion, commitment, desire, drive, determination and fire of “big” sinners when they come to Christ wholeheartedly and without reservation.  I have said it many times before but less we forget Isaiah who was better than most of us even realized the huge gap between the holiness God demands and the holiness he could achieve on his own by obeying the Mosaic Law.  It is even pointless to think that we could keep the Ten Commandments at all times when you make the heart the starting point to keeping them.

2 Samuel 6

¹ David again brought together out of Israel chosen men, thirty thousand in all. ² He and all his men set out from Baalah of Judah ^[a] to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the Name, ^[b] the name of the LORD Almighty, who is enthroned between the cherubim that are on the ark. ³ They set the ark of God on a new cart and brought it from the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill. Uzzah and Ahio, sons of Abinadab, were guiding the new cart ⁴ with the ark of God on it, ^[c] and Ahio was walking in front of it. ⁵ David and the whole house of Israel were celebrating with all their might before the LORD, with songs ^[d] and with harps, lyres, tambourines, sistrums and cymbals.

⁶ When they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah reached out and took hold of the ark of God, because the oxen stumbled. ⁷ The LORD’s anger burned against Uzzah because of his irreverent act; therefore God struck him down and he died there beside the ark of God.

During Israel’s time in the wilderness after being delivered out of Egypt, they were told to never touch the Ark and to use two rods to carry it.  Mankind is to unclean to touch the holy Ark of the Lord.  We are even more unclean than mud, it was better for the Ark of the Covenant to fall in the mud of the earth that man to touch it.  If we are that unholy then how can our self righteousness ever hope to satisfy God?  But since God desires a relationship with His creation, He sent His only begotten sin to reconcile us back to God and remove the Vail that separated us from the holy of holies that we may come boldly to the throne of grace.  But we must come with humility and not pride proclaiming that we are “blessed and highly favored” laying claim to our righteousness.

Deuteronomy 9

¹ Hear, O Israel. You are now about to cross the Jordan to go in and dispossess nations greater and stronger than you, with large cities that have walls up to the sky. ² The people are strong and tall—Anakites! You know about them and have heard it said: “Who can stand up against the Anakites?” ³ But be assured today that the LORD your God is the one who goes across ahead of you like a devouring fire. He will destroy them; he will subdue them before you. And you will drive them out and annihilate them quickly, as the LORD has promised you.

⁴ After the LORD your God has driven them out before you, do not say to yourself, “The LORD has brought me here to take possession of this land because of my righteousness.” No, it is on account of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is going to drive them out before you. ⁵ It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land; but on account of the wickedness of these nations, the LORD your God will drive them out before you, to accomplish what he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. ⁶ Understand, then, that it is not because of your righteousness that the LORD your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people.

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