Pride has been called the root of all sins so I decided to draw attention to, and hopefully lessen the power of, two ways pride has worked in my life. The first way happened before my conversion and the second has happened after.
The first manifestation of pride finds itself in a mentality of works. Before I had a right understanding of the process of conversion and salvation I thought that it was based on human efforts. Like Augustine, I felt I could earn my way to God. This is pride because it elevates whatever good works we might accomplish to the level or being good enough to stand in the presence of a holy and righteous God, who hates the sight of sin. All of our humans efforts do not get us anywhere close to God, it's only through the perfect work of Christ that we can hope to enter the presence of God.
So now that I'm a Christian and I know that pride is wrong and sin before God, I should be perfect and not struggle with pride right? Ha. No. This is, in itself, pride. In the past I have read the Bible, seen the standards laid down by God, seen my own sin and fallen into condemnation about my failure to attain the perfection God requires. The purpose of God's law is to show us how utterly imperfect we are, but then it is meant to point us right to Christ, who's perfection does what we never could. When I fail and let myself feel condemned over it, I am elevating my standards above those of God, which is pride. God doesn't require perfection for me because I claim the blood of Christ. There is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. The condemnation comes when I hold myself to a higher standard than the one God does. When we realize this and repent of it, it leads to a greater freedom in Christ, not to sin as we please but to praise Him for His work and His grace and blood, which cover all of our multitude of sins.
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