Grace has appeared to all men, but not everyone has received it (Titus 2:11). Grace is God’s unmerited favor and His ability and power working in and through us. His manifold grace is multifaceted, empowering ministry in and through believers to profit everyone.
Just as you must humble yourself to receive salvation, you must continually humble yourself to receive “more grace” to live the life God has for you (James 4:6). Many believers live their whole lives without experiencing the benefits of God’s grace. They lack the understanding to know how to respond to His grace.
It takes humility to receive the grace of God, and God gives “more grace” to those humble enough to receive it. But, if it is possible to receive more grace, you can also receive less. While God makes grace available to all, we choose the degree to which His grace works in us.
You may be praying for your family or good things. You may have Scriptures you are standing on, but if you lack humility, you will limit the grace of God in your life. Without humility, and even though you have the fullness of God dwelling in you (Colossians 2:9-10), you will have less of His Spirit empowering you. To experience the fullness of God’s grace, you must learn to follow the laws of God’s Kingdom and live as He wishes.
“For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 14:11).
If we try to exalt ourselves above others, we will end up humiliated. Jesus said not to exalt yourself or expect special treatment. A person always looking for recognition suffers from pride and arrogance. The kingdom of God is not like the arrogance of the world. As believers in Christ, we are no longer of the world. We have a new nature. We shouldn’t even live or think like the world.
In Romans 6:6-11, Paul teaches that our old sinful nature died. It was crucified with Christ. Paul said that just like Christ died to sin and was resurrected, we, too, when we believe in Jesus, become dead to sin but “alive unto God.” We have a new nature that exalts God. This does not mean we are incapable of sinning. We certainly can choose to exalt ourselves and sin. But with a new nature: “Christ’s love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life” (2 Corinthians 5:14, NLT).
We have a choice to make. We can allow Christ’s love to control us or let the old sinful behaviors that remain control us. The truths of our new nature in Christ can renew our minds until we conform to them. We can program ourselves so that our actions and attitudes are core to who we are in Christ. They can become instinctive.
Before we were saved, we instinctively put ourselves first. Self can be trained to be instinctively last. The old sinful nature used to rule our thoughts and behaviors, teaching us to be self-centered and hateful. Christ destroyed the power of that old nature, but those old behaviors must be exchanged for good ones. Just as a computer’s program remains the same until it is reprogrammed by new software, our behavior remains the same until the truth of our new nature renews our minds (Romans 12:2).
To experience our new life in Christ, we must understand that the old man is dead. We must apply ourselves and renew our minds to the truths of who we are in Christ until those old actions and attitudes are made new. We must also remove ourselves from the influence of the world.
There are spiritual laws in God’s Kingdom, and humility is a spiritual law that rules in it. You will be frustrated if you are a believer trying to live outside this spiritual law. You will be frustrated that you are not recognized or don’t get ahead fast enough. If it seems like you are getting nowhere and nothing you do seems to make a difference, perhaps you are not cooperating with the spiritual law of humility. You have the nature of Christ. You can humble yourself and allow Christ to control you, or you can be humbled by God.
“The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom, and before honor is humility” (Proverbs 15:33).
The system of the world is opposed to God's system. Proverbs 15:33 explains why so few people are honored. Most people want honor, but very few see humility as the way to find it. Honor and grace cannot work in our lives without humility. If we allow true humility to work in us, we experience more of God’s grace. We receive the favor and exaltation of the Savior who honored us with His very best.
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