humility: our participation in the life of Jesus

Yesterday, I got out Andrew Murray’s Humility: The Journey Toward Holiness, a wonderful and powerful little book (just over 100 pages). I read it back in early 2004, and it seems like a good time to read it again.

Murray starts by making the point that all most Christians know of humility is in regard to sin: we are humbled when we realize our sinfulness, but once we are saved, we hear nothing more of humility. In response to this misconception, he writes:

It needs to be made clear that it is not sin that humbles but grace. It is the soul occupied with God in His wonderful glory as Creator and Redeemer that will truly take the lowest place before Him.… If we are to be humble not only before God but toward men, and if humility is to be our joy, we must see that it is not only the mark of shame because of sin, but apart from sin, it is being clothed with the very beauty and blessedness of Jesus. (emphasis added)

Murray concludes that humility is “our participation in the life of Jesus.”

This is something to ponder. Different communities of believers emphasize different aspects: some say that to be like Jesus is to be involved in social justice; others, that we must walk in manifestations of miraculous power, with signs and wonders following; another, preaching sin and salvation to the lost. Each of these is indeed a part of what Jesus did on earth, and we who are being made in His likeness should do what He did.

Murray points us to Philippians 2 to assert that humility is at the core of who Jesus is. Before His love of the poor, before the miracles, before the preaching–before everything–is humility. He humbled Himself to the Father in heaven; in humility He took on flesh; He lived in the humility of total dependence on the Father while on earth; and humility took Him to the cross. As Murray sees it, if you want to be like Jesus, you must first learn humility.

Tagged as: Andrew Murray, humility, Jesus