AM Bible Study Group; July 11, 2012
James 4:6
Theme: God gives a greater grace toward sinners who humble themselves before Him.
(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)
There is a sad pattern that occurs with many people who choose to live a life of alienation from God. They realize, at some point along the way, that they have made a terrible error. They have pushed God out of their lives and have stubbornly gone their own way. But even though they come to realize their error, they still do not repent of it. They feel that they have ‘made their bed’; and now they must ‘sleep in it’. And so, they choose to remain in a state of regretful alienation from God to the end. And the thing that keeps them from turning from their rebellious course to the God who offers love to them is summed up in one word—pride.
It takes a lot of humility to admit the wrong of bad life choices. It requires great humility to fall before God, admit one’s error, and repent of it, appealing to God for saving grace and mercy. That’s why many simply refuse to do so. Pride causes more people to remain on the course to destruction and loss than any other sin—even though God offers the grace to get off that course if they would simply humble themselves and receive it.
This leads us to James’ instructions in James 4:1-10. James has been writing to his fellow Christians to turn from their sin of worldliness—a form of spiritual ‘adultery’ (see James 4:1-5). And in verses 6-10 we find a call for those in a course of sin to do what is most needed—to humble themselves before a gracious God to receive His offer of grace. Verses 7-10 give us the call of what to do; but verse 6 gives us the principles behind why it is necessary for us to do it.
Notice that . . .
I. GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD.
A. James quotes from Proverbs 3:34 (as Peter also does in 1 Peter 5:5) to show something vital about the nature of our holy God.: “Therefore He says: ‘God resists the proud . . .’” The full verse from Proverbs reads; “Surely He scorns the scornful, but gives grace to the humble.” This shows us how God feels toward the “proud” who will not humble themselves before Him. Proverbs 16:5 tells us, “Everyone proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD . . .” In Psalm 138:6, we’re told “Though the LORD is on high, yet He regards the lowely; but the proud He knows from afar.”
B. The nature of pride is such that, every time we sin, every time we disobey God, we’re— in our hearts—saying to God that we think we know better than Him how to run our lives and bring about our own happiness. We’re in essence setting ourselves up above Him and His commands—scorning His good ways for us. And so, we can truly say that pride is at the root of all sin. No wonder God hates it so! Perhaps that’s why the thing that James says is expressed in other ways in other places in the New Testament. It sums-up so much of the difference that exists between those to whom God shows mercy and those whom He opposes. As Jesus Himself said, “And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Matthew 23:12).
C. And tragically, it’s pride—more than anything else—that keeps people out of heaven; because no one can come to Jesus as the Savior unless they first admit that they are sinners that need to be saved. In a practical sense, no one will be in hell because they sinned; since it will be only redeemed sinners who will be in heaven.. Rather, they will be in hell because they would not humble themselves to receive salvation. What a hateful thing it is to God when one of His fallen creatures struts around before Him in arrogant pride (Proverbs 6:17-19—especially when He stands so ready to offer them His grace!
II. BUT GOD GIVES MORE GRACE.
A. James adds, “But He gives more grace.” More grace than what? More grace than our sin. Because of our sin nature, inherited from Adam, we have a sinful bent toward arrogantly setting ourselves up against our Creator and His commandments. No sooner does God tells us to do something in His laws and commandments, than we are refusing to do it. No sooner does He tell us not to do something, than we’re off doing it . . . and suffering the consequences. But consider Romans 5:20-21; where we’re told that “the law entered that the offenses might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 5:20-21).
B. The bad news is that God is opposed to the proud. But the Good News is that Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty of our sins completely; so that the proud man or woman— living in open rebellion against his or her Creator—can be forgiven, the opposition can end, and God’s grace can be poured out upon them. It’s a ‘grace’ that is truly ‘greater’ or ‘more’ than the sin. We don’t have to remain in rebellion as if we are stuck there. As one preacher has put it, where we’ve sinned $100 worth of sin, God buys us out with $1,000 worth of grace.
III. GRACE IS GIVEN TO THOSE WHO ARE HUMBLE BEFORE HIM.
A. James writes—again quoting from Proverbs 3:34—that God does indeed resist the proud, “‘. . . but gives grace to the humble.’” Imagine a man going to the doctor, and the doctor telling him, “You have a deadly disease. Your situation is very, very grave; and you can only be saved if you will do exactly what I tell you to do.” What then if the patient then said, “Well, thanks doc; but I really don’t think I’m as bad off as you’re making me out to be. After all, there are lots of other folks that are worse off than I am. And I do appreciate your advice. But let me tell you what I plan to do to make myself better . . .” We all would agree that such a man would be an arrogant, prideful fool —probably not long for this world—who deserves what he gets. But a man or a woman is no less an arrogant, prideful fool when God tells them that they are sinners who are doomed to judgment, and tells them what He has done to purchase their pardon—only to reject God’s offer of salvation out of pride.
B. Obviously, to be saved then, one must “humble themselves in the presence of the Lord.” No one can come to God for salvation in any other way than in total humility. Consider why this is so:
1. To be saved by God, someone would have to admit that they have sinned against Him—that they had lived in rebellion against the One to whom they rightfully belonged. They have to admit the truth (1 John 1:8-10). This requires humility.
2. To be saved by God, they’d have to admit that there’s nothing they could ever do—no amount of good deeds—that could ever pay the penalty for their sins and make things right with Him (Psalm 49:6-8). Again, humility is needed to admit this.
3. To be saved by God, they’d have to admit to God that, unless He did something, they would rightly deserve His condemnation and wrath; and that He would be just in condemning them to eternal judgment and to thrust them from His presence forever (Psalm 51:1-4). To admit this about oneself requires humility.
4. To be saved by God, they’d have to place their trust completely in the only provision God has made for their sins—the only payment for sins that He accepts—that is, the sacrifice of His own dear, sinless Son on the cross. They cannot offer an alternative to Him (Acts 4:12). They would have to humble themselves before Him and accept His offer.
5. To be saved by God, they’d have to accept that, when they trust in the sacrifice of Christ alone for their sins, God is satisfied with that sacrifice, and counts their faith in
it as ‘righteousness’ (Philippians 3:8-9). In humility, they would have to refrain from trying to ‘augment’ God’s salvation with their own good deeds—which could never be good enough!
6. And to be saved by God, they’d have to turn away from their old sinful life-style patterns, and—out of love for their Savior—increasingly hate the sins that put Him on the cross in the first place. They could not, in arrogant pride, cling to the cross on which Jesus died for sins, and at the same time cling to the same sins He died to save them from (Titus 2:11-14). This, too, would require humility.
* * * * * * * * * *
King David modeled something of this humility for us in Psalm 32. He had committed the horrible sin of adultery with another man’s wife; and then complicated his situation further by murdering the woman’s husband. He suffered greatly under the discipline of God for this. But his experience—recorded for us in this psalm—reveals the pattern of repentance:
Following his repentance in humility, David wrote of how he attempted to cover up his sin—and of the way he suffered for it (vv. 1-4). The pride that made him keep this sin a secret was eating him up inside. But once David was confronted by a prophet, he crumbled before God in humility and repented (v. 5). God is ready to show forgiveness and grace toward any sinner—no matter how much they have rebelled against Him. And to humble oneself before the Lord is the first step toward experiencing this grace. And so, we’re given a marvelous invitation to repent (vv. 6-11).
What a wonderfully gracious God our God is! We have all sinned against Him. We have all shaken our fists at Him in arrogant pride at one time or another, and told Him that we would not obey Him as He commanded us to do, and that we would not worship Him as He created us to do. But, as James reminds us, God gives a greater grace.