This Terrible Thing Called Pride

Gal 3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—

2Co 5:21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

One of the reasons that RASNs find churches so welcoming is because most such places preach a false gospel. Why is it false? Because it announces that God loves and saves sinners because they are loveable. Because there is something in them which catches His eye, some “island of goodness” which obligates Him to save. A false gospel like this always attracts false “christians.”

Think about this – RASNs already believe they are superior. That they are better. That they are, as a result, deserving. Sure enough, these evil thoughts are reinforced in a place where God is said to save those who “deserve.”

But salvation in Christ is by grace alone. Grace is undeserved favor, or it is no longer grace. God’s salvation of us in Christ is purely of His grace and therefore BY FAITH alone. Listen to John Calvin explain:

In order to receive the grace of God and have assurance of salvation, we need to renounce all opinions we might have of our own worth. [ie, of some worthiness in us to deserve salvation]. For it is only through faith that we are enabled to enjoy such blessing. Faith means that we embrace the mercy of God. But we cannot have faith until we have been touched with a sense of our own poverty, for the Lord Jesus Christ, by becoming a curse for us, presents us with a picture of our cursed state.

Faith, therefore, cannot exist without repentance, for it is not possible for us to come to God seeking salvation and asking Him to pity our miserable condition, unless we have been convicted in our souls and led to deplore ourselves.

Hypocrites [ie, counterfeit christians] who mock at God by wallowing, intoxicated, in their sins, must not expect Jesus Christ to receive them as His own; for such people may not even so much as approach Him. Indeed, His invitation is inteded for those who labor and are heavy laden (Matthew 11:28), who can no more bear and who stagger under the burden of their sins.

This is how we must approach the Lord Jesus Christ, not with any merit of our own. Rather, before God shows us mercy, we must come in a state of humility, fully aware of our miserable condition. We are first brought low in order that we might perceive the curse that we are under, before we can rejoice that we have been purchased at such inestimable cost. [Sermons on Galatians, Banner of Truth, p 294-5]

Wherever these things are not regularly proclaimed, a partial and therefore false gospel will result in the wicked being pronounced children of God. Even though infested with this terrible sin called pride, they are assured that God accepts them as His own, they are welcomed into the church, and given free reign to keep right on working their reviling, abusing, sociopathing, and narcissising (I like that word, even if it isn’t a word).