The only way for us to come into true humility is to see our own sinfulness in the light of the cross of Jesus Christ. This requires us to not only accept our sinful condition, but to accept the mercy and forgiveness offered by God.

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Mike: As we continue our discussions on the subject of humility, we want to focus in today on humility and sin. I want to start our discussion with the passage from 1 Timothy 1:15 where Paul says, “This is a true saying and everyone should believe it, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners and I was the worst of them all.” Now this is one of the things that we must deal with here at Pure Life Ministries because so many of the men and women that come to us have been steeped in sin for so long. In many cases, we must help the men who come to us come to a place where they are able to see the real condition of their heart. One of the difficulties is that we can have a tendency to get stuck only looking at our sin. Can you begin by helping us understand the importance of seeing our sin, but also what that needs to lead us towards?

Jeff: The first thing we get a sight of when we encounter the cross and the reality of why Jesus had to die is our sinful condition and our need for what He did for us on the cross. I believe any true repentance must start there; it has to. But we can’t just stay looking at our sin, we also need to see Jesus there dying for our sin. As we begin to understand our own sinfulness, we come to understand the mercy He has had on us and the forgiveness that God offers us through Jesus Christ. That is what happened to Paul when the light shone on him on the road to Damascus. His eyes were opened, and we hear throughout his writings many testimonies stemming out of that encounter he had with Jesus.

What you read from 1 Timothy where Paul said he was the worst of them all shows me that Paul never forgot the reality of how great a sinner he was. Yet you can hear in the same sentence the greatness of God and His mercy that He would even consider him to be an apostle. That is the perfect balance we need. I am personally thankful that Christ’s light shone in my heart over 20 years ago, but I had to receive that light. Sad to say a lot of the men that come to our program have refused to let that light shine in their hearts and they stay stuck in their sin. They have not really faced their sinful condition. Some of these men, I fear to say, have never truly repented from their sin, because they have not allowed Christ’s light to shine in their lives. And obviously God wants them to know Him in a real way. He wants them to experience the power of the cross, but it must start there.

Mike: When God shows us the darkness of our hearts and draws us into the light, it really creates in us a tremendous gratitude. Paul was always communicating how grateful he was that the Lord allowed him to suffer for the sake of Christ. But the only reason he saw that as a privilege was because he saw what God had brought him out of.

Jeff: Absolutely. It says in 1 Corinthians 1:26, “How thankful I am to Christ Jesus our Lord for considering me trustworthy and pointing me to serve Him even though I used to scoff at the name of Christ.” Paul understood the darkness he came out of and was so grateful that Jesus chose him.

Mike: Talk a little bit about how having that sight increases or establishes a genuine humility in us.

Jeff: Well, I think about what Jesus said to Simon the pharisee when the sinful woman was at His feet. You see the contrast right there, because the Pharisee was not in sight of his sin yet, but this woman was. And Jesus said to the Pharisee, “Who do you think is going to love more, the one who is forgiven much or the one that is forgiven little?” And the Pharisee answers rightly saying, “I would think the one forgiven much.” And Jesus said, “You have answered correctly. He who is forgiven little loves little, but he who is forgiven much, loves much.” Paul, I believe, understood that and you read about him being compelled by Christ’s love. His whole ministry was really motivated by love. But really that came out of how he viewed himself before the Lord. Not just as a sinner, but as a product of God's mercy. That really is where the sweetness of our salvation comes from.

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Mike: How important is it that we have a sight of how sinful we are and how much we have been forgiven if we want to live a life walking in the Spirit and overcome our flesh, the world, and the Devil.

Jeff: Well, I do not believe you can do it if you have not had a sight of your own sinfulness and how much you have been forgiven. You cannot love much without seeing how much you have been forgiven. You will not want to lay your life down. If anything, you might serve out of obligation. But outward obedience will only take you so far. When you understand the reality of the mercy God has given you, then like Paul said, it will be your reasonable service to offer your life up as a living sacrifice. That is a picture of yielding oneself to the Lord and can only occur after you have been broken and have repented. That is where meekness enters in and where you surrender your will to God. The only way we can walk in the Spirit is when our will is surrendered to God. Unless that breaking happens, unless that realization of sin and true repentance comes about, there will be no breaking of self-will in that person's life, and they will not be able to walk in the Spirit.

Mike: One of the things that we sometimes see in people who have received a sight of their sin is that they only become aware of where they fail. Where they come short of the glory of God, where they come short of who Jesus is and yet we see a lack of humility reflected, because all they are focused on is their inability to perform.

Jeff: Yeah. And you can equate that with pride. They cannot humble themselves and receive freely what God has done for them. They feel like they must work for it or earn it and you really do have to humble yourself to receive the grace of God, because there is nothing you can do to merit that. The only way to receive the grace of God is to acknowledge that you are a sinner before the Lord and earnestly plead for mercy. Then you must gratefully believe it when the Word says, “if you confess your sin, He is faithful to cleanse you and forgive you.” When you realize that, you receive forgiveness freely. That itself is humbling.
Mike: I keep hearing the word self. Of course, when you get to the root of it, what we are really talking about here is regarding a lack of being able to humble ourselves. One of the great dangers of just focusing on the darkness and not allowing God to move us into the light is that even though we may have a hatred for our sin, we are still focused on self.

Jeff: That is so true. We are helpless to fix ourselves, and if all we do is look at ourselves and our inabilities – it’s a hopeless situation. Yes, we need a reality of our sinful condition, but faith looks to Jesus. True faith gets our eyes on Jesus and on the work of the cross. That is where my hope comes from and that is where we need to come to God: in faith, trusting that He will be able to deliver us from self.  He is able to help us live this life as the new creation that we have become through what He did for us in His death and resurrection.

Mike: Amen. If many in the church world were to look at the men that come into our Residential Program, they would see a bunch of hopeless cases. The reality is that many of them come here feeling hopeless, because they had been living in tremendous darkness. But it is very wonderful to see when they begin to really see the darkness that they are in, because that opens the door for the Lord to do His work.

Jeff: Really what happens is that they get exposed to light while they are here. When they embrace that light, they begin to understand just how dark their hearts have been and they experience true brokenness and repentance in their lives. When they come to the place where they finally understand that they in of themselves are nothing, they become a prime candidate to become a new creation. God can do a lot with a person who understands that they are nothing but understands that God is everything.