The Law of Humility

For many years I have preached that humility is the fundamental law of salvation, in accordance with what is written. But, recently that light has been intensified. I can’t say for sure how many times stronger the light has become—let’s say from ten to one hundred times. So now I see this not just as the primary and fundamental law; but as everything. Everything depends on this. It is written so clearly, as if with mathematical precision, and that’s how exact it is. It says (and it is word for word the same both in James and in Peter): “God gives grace to the humble.” God is the one who does it. This is a law of life, and even if we break these laws of life, He doesn’t. There are no exceptions. And it doesn’t just say that God gives grace to the humble, but it also says that He resists the proud. To be proud is the opposite of being humble. To be proud is to love the honor of man, to be puffed up and wise in your own eyes, and to have high thoughts about yourself. Because of one thing or another that God in His goodness has done, you think you are really something. Unfortunately—most unfortunately—this high-mindedness sometimes manifests itself in a very ugly way.

The law regarding humility is just like one of the laws of nature. The whole of creation would perish if everything didn’t go exactly according to laws, but it does. The sun and moon and stars all move according to exact laws, too. Everything else goes according to laws. Everything that we sow and plant follows laws. If you sow to the flesh, you will of the flesh reap corruption. It goes according to laws. He who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. We can have sown to the flesh and have confessed it and asked for forgiveness, and God forgives, but He doesn’t take away the harvest. The harvest comes because all these things go according to laws. The fact that the wrong done has been forgiven doesn’t mean that there are no consequences for what I have sown to the flesh. Therefore it is vital, once you have gotten a new life, to sow as much as possible to the Spirit, so the good can outweigh the bad. It’s just like in accounting; everything that we have sown to the flesh is a minus. Therefore we are on the minus side—bankrupt. But when we get converted, receive a new life, and begin to sow to the Spirit, then we reap eternal life in the Spirit. The former gave us expenses, but the latter brings income. The important thing is to be as zealous as possible in sowing to the Spirit—to do God’s will, to obey God’s Word, to keep His commandments—so that in the end we can enter into God’s kingdom like a rich tycoon. That’s the intention, and it is completely possible.

God gives grace to the humble. It doesn’t matter in the least what other people say or do. It doesn’t matter if other people treat us badly, think evil of us, and speak evil of us. That doesn’t mean that we are evil. If I am humble, God gives me grace; it is completely immaterial what others think about me. This is true for everyone, without exception. No one is an exception, never, not even once in their lives. This law functions with mathematical precision. It goes without saying that when God gives grace (obviously one can be humble to a greater or lesser degree), then one receives very precisely that degree of grace—and that means help, new light, salvation, and transformation. A given amount of humility yields exactly—by measure and weight—the same amount of help and salvation.

We also have the scripture, “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” There are no exceptions; this applies to everyone. This also applies to unconverted people, and none of them are alike either. The one is worse than the other. There is an overwhelming number of examples, countless examples. We had, for example, Kaiser Wilhelm II who declared war on the countries roundabout. He had tremendous plans for conquest, and plans of being very great, but his plans were foiled. Hitler knew about this when he came along later. He knew what Kaiser Wilhelm had done, but it didn’t help him any; he didn’t learn from what had happened before. He ended up repeating the folly, and even worse. When it is God who gives grace to the humble and who opposes the proud, it goes without saying that all of our salvation, all of our sanctification, growth, and development, every single thing from beginning to end is dependent on this and not on anything else.

Now then: It’s written about love that he who doesn’t have love is nothing. This would appear to be a different, very central issue. But it isn’t really. We cannot get love if God doesn’t give it to us, and He gives it to the humble. We have heard a lot of wonderful things about the Spirit of faith, and I have spoken and written a lot of wonderful things about it, and it is very important. But what help is it if I’m not humble? I won’t receive anything.

We can read whatever we want to in the Scriptures, and we can be particularly interested in individual things. You’re free to choose. In accordance with this then, there is only one wise thing to do, and that is to think only about getting smaller thoughts about ourselves, and to use every opportunity to humble ourselves. To humble yourself represents the highest degree of humility, and therefore it is something that almost never happens—I am dreadfully sorry to say. I say almost never, because it does happen. Listen carefully, listen to the sound of the words: humbles himself. That is to do it of your own accord, not because someone has spoken to you or told you how things really are. No, it is to humble yourself of your own volition. This is not the same as to be humbled. God is the one who does that. Just think about it. Think about this, everyone who is here, and those who aren’t also. When did you last humble yourself, and what did it consist of? Can you write down every time you have humbled yourself? I suspect that it would be difficult to find one instance. For example, to voluntarily not accept honor for something that you are praised for, if it isn’t true. In other words, protest; make it known that it isn’t true, and not just with a polite, modest sounding phrase, but with the truth. If it is really the case that what was said about you was not true, then to repudiate it is to humble yourself.

When there are difficulties, the usual thing is that people make excuses for themselves and defend themselves, or what is a hundred times worse, they blame others. Spiritually speaking, that is utter madness. It has never, ever been the case that your spiritual lack is due to what someone else has done. That is never true, has never been true, and can never be true. It is contrary to the laws that apply here. It just isn’t possible. If things are going badly with me, it’s my fault. Sometimes even someone who has been in the church for many, many years, and has spoken God’s Word a very great deal, comes into darkness because he is of the opinion that he hasn’t been treated rightly. Let’s assume that the elders hadn’t treated this person rightly—had handled him incorrectly. How are we to understand this matter, when God gives grace to the humble? If the person concerned had been humble, then he would have received grace and true light and wouldn’t have had any difficulties.

When we see that it is succeeding very well for someone, then we know that he is unusually humble. When we see that, generally speaking, no changes are taking place, then we know that a person is proud, he is wise in his own eyes, he considers himself to be much more than he really is. He is too high up, and has every good reason to humble himself, but he doesn’t do it. He continues to maintain that others have treated him wrongly. Then we can ask: Do you think that anyone, or for that matter everyone combined, can hinder God in what He does? Write it down. Let’s go over that again. Do you think that anyone, or for that matter everyone combined, can hinder God in what He does? Hang onto that. Write it down and hang onto it. Speak to yourself about it. God gives grace to the humble, and it is totally irrelevant what everyone else does. It’s as clear as crystal—it couldn’t be any clearer—that salvation is a personal matter between God and the individual; no one else can get in the way there. There is a direct connection between each individual and God. I hope you understand what I am saying. God gives grace to the humble. Who can hinder that? Who can interfere with that? It’s by His grace that it succeeds, and grace means help. There are two aspects to the word “grace.” One is the atonement and the forgiveness of our sins. But grace also means help—a tremendous help. To experience grace is to experience receiving true light and life and victory, and to go from light to light, and from victory to victory, and from glory to glory. All this is experienced only in accordance with the laws of humility.

There is another stupid thought; it’s a kind of modesty. You can think that you are especially wretched, and that not much can ever come of your life. That’s an absolute lie. There is just as much hope for the very worst sinner on earth as there is for anyone else. It isn’t a question of what you have been; it’s a question of how humble you are, how humble you will become, and what you will become as a result of your humility, and that is the only way to become something, in truth. And here the measurements are in millimeters and milligrams. God is flawlessly righteous; there is no respect of persons with Him. It doesn’t matter whether you are a new convert or an elder brother or who you are; it is totally irrelevant. Everyone is equal before the law. There isn’t the slightest hint of respect of persons. This accounts for the fact that it can have gone relatively well with a person, but then it goes to their head, and they can end up going “kaput,” completely “kaput,” and even end up on the outside.

We have to make decisions every day, and everything is a manifestation of humility or its opposite. Everything that we think (I can well imagine that God has a tape recorder that records our thoughts) we will hear when we come before the judgment seat of Christ. Everything that we think, everything that we say, everything that we do, and everything that we neglect to do, is a result of either humility or high-mindedness—pride, being wise in our own eyes, and having great thoughts about ourselves. Add to that the fact that a person judges others and criticizes others and blames others, and the situation couldn’t possibly be worse. Then I am in the deepest darkness. Then I don’t understand anything at all about salvation and God’s kingdom. If it were the case that my condition could be justly blamed on others, it would be a cruel injustice if God didn’t intervene. To think that what others do can hinder me is an insane thought.

We are called to partake of all the virtues that are found in God and in Christ, to an increasing degree. And all progress goes according to the foundational and fundamental law of salvation. Everything goes according to laws. That’s why such tremendous strides are made in the technical areas through inventions. People haven’t created anything, they have just searched and found God’s laws, to an increasing degree. That’s the way it is with everything—with electricity, television, and everything else. They are wise in their area; they understand that it goes according to laws, and so they search for those laws, and as they find those laws, they make progress in the earthly things. There have been an incredible number of inventions and great advances made during my lifetime. It’s staggering. All this has come through discovering the laws that govern the universe, the earth, and such things as agriculture. In exactly the same way there are spiritual laws of life, but in this area, everything is guided by this one law—humility. It’s really amazing. Obviously, everyone that seeks salvation, and more salvation, would like to get hold of as much of it as possible, and here is the key, the secret itself. This is the key to all salvation. Nothing else will help.

You can dedicate yourself to different ministries, different good deeds—and practice makes perfect—you can become quite expert. It doesn’t help at all. In the deepest sense it isn’t the same as salvation. Salvation in the deepest sense means transformation—transformation on the inside.

What this means is, as already mentioned, that how it’s going for an individual, or how it has gone for each individual through the course of the years, shows with absolute clarity how humble he has been or how proud he has been. Any and every other explanation is false. This is the explanation. No other explanation exists. But there are many who live in self-deception. They believe the problem has some other source, that it comes from this or that or some other thing. The situation couldn’t possibly be worse when you think your condition is due to what other people have done and said, and believed, and thought, and how they have treated you. There is no chance of this being so because God gives grace to the humble, unceasingly. As soon as He finds more humility, then more salvation comes. Then I receive more light, and more power, and more of everything that I need. One can’t deny that what each person thinks about himself is hidden. Nonetheless, it isn’t hidden from God—the One who gives grace, and it is God who withholds grace or resists the person. We can say it like this: It is absolutely irrelevant what other people do. This is obvious, but nonetheless it’s not certain that this thought has occurred to everyone, especially those who take things in the wrong way. Everything is in God’s hands; He is in full control. He is the One who decides. He is the One that saves us.

It’s written that God wounds and He binds up, He exalts, and He abases. That is clear. God really desires to save us, but He works according to laws. God can’t change that; he can’t suddenly become so nice and pleasant, and give us a whole bunch of grace, just because He’s feeling so friendly. That is foolishness. No, everything functions according to laws. As human beings we have the tendency to seek many inventions, that’s for sure. Lots of inventions, and many kinds of amazing, stupid, and wrong thoughts. Hold on to this thought. It is the only proper and right thought that exists. If you want more of God, if you are upright and this is your true and serious desire, then you know what you need to do. Then you will be preserved from going astray, and from ending up in darkness.

I don’t know if you (after hearing all that’s been spoken about this foundational and fundamental law) have taken to heart those two scriptures in James and Peter that are identical, so that you always have them before you. It’s doubtful. But better late than never. Never is a terrible thing. In any case, get hold of it now, put a marker there and leave it there all the time, and read it regularly. That is James 4:6: “. . . therefore it says, ‘God opposes the proud . . . .’” (It’s noteworthy that this is written first.) “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” He is the One who gives grace. No one else can hinder that. “Submit yourselves therefore to God!” And then it says, “Resist the devil.” Why should we resist him? Give me an answer. Because he is the one who whispers to us in order to get us to have high thoughts about ourselves. This is very significant, very significant in this context. “Resist the devil,” it says. He comes and puffs people up. When something goes well for a person, the devil comes and constantly tells them, “You are really quite something; there is really something special about you.” Don’t accept him as your leader; don’t listen to him. And if he is your leader, depose him today. There are many who are especially inclined to, or especially plagued by listening to Satan. They have been doing it for years—yes, for many decades. They just can’t stop listening to him. His chief weapon is to puff us up. It can be so bad sometimes, that people get all puffed up and think they are somebody just because they are very capable in their earthly vocation. When we build a building, we have use for tradesmen. It has occurred that in their expertise they have come into conflict with one another and have created real difficulties.

To sum it up briefly: Just one factor determines everything in our lives, right from the first to the last day. No matter what else we do that may seem good and honorable, it has no effect. In any case it will not change us; it will not transform us. Transformation is something that is noticeable; it can be both seen and heard. And when it happens, we know that the person concerned has been unusually humble. Now there is no doubt in my mind that if you have received this, you will have gotten the greatest help you have ever received in your life. Best wishes in using it! I wish the very best for each and every one of you! It is written that we are to run in the race. Let’s run in this race of humility.

Let’s take one more scripture, Matthew 11. There are some very well known verses here at the end of the chapter, verses 28 and 29. “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest! Take my yoke upon you (here comes the part I was particularly thinking about), and learn from me!” This is Jesus saying this, “and learn from me!” Then He presents what it is that He has to teach: “for I am meek.” That’s the same as being quiet—meek and quiet. (Two words for the same thing.) “For I am meek and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Norwegian).

Rest in God is the result of salvation from all sin. It is very significant (and easily understandable after what you have now heard) that this is first and foremost the thing that He offers to teach: “Meek and humble of heart.” It comes from what we have just heard. This is the first thing that we ought to learn. Because if we have learned this, then we have learned the way to everything, just as we heard. Doesn’t this seem striking to you, too? He could have said, “for I am righteous, I am the truth, I am love,” and so on. But He said, “I am meek and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”

The thing that characterizes people in general is that they are so restless. They are as far away from being at rest in God, in the ups and downs of daily life, as east is from west. This is the most fitting description of every sinner; it is their most predominant characteristic: They are so restless. Unrest comes from all the high-minded thoughts that you have. You understand things best, and you know what is best, and as a result you come into conflict with others. A more obvious case of high thoughts about oneself could scarcely be found. The others have their ideas, and you have yours, and you are the one who is right. Such high thoughts about yourself! How can you, just as a matter of course, assume that you are right? How can you be so certain that the others aren’t right? It comes from the high thoughts that you have about yourself. Daily life is full of this. In the trivial things of life, in and around the house, it’s always you who know best. It’s high-mindedness; it’s pride; it’s self-confidence. God resists the proud; He is their opponent. To have God as your opponent is even more fatal than just not receiving grace. What will you do then? Where will your help come from, if God Himself has become your personal adversary? That’s what’s written. He resists the proud. It’s even written first. He resists the proud, but He gives grace to the humble. It is through God’s grace that it can succeed. For example, Paul said, “By God’s grace I am what I am,” and that’s the way it is for everyone. When you have not become any more than you are, it is because there has been a lack of humility. But if my life has borne a lot of fruit so that everyone can see and hear it, there is no way around it—I’m not to begin with modest sounding clichés—the reason it has gone as it has with me is because I have been unusually humble. If the others had been as humble, then they would have received just as much from God. This is in accordance with God’s impeccably righteous and exact laws.

You do appreciate righteousness, don’t you? God is flawlessly righteous. What He does is right, perfectly right—He is infallible. If other people don’t treat you right and don’t think as highly as they ought to of you, that doesn’t affect God. He continues to give you grace. That’s a very happy thought. It makes me want to dance a polka for joy. I’m a little old and my legs and arms are a little stiff, but I could manage it! I’d like to start right here on the spot. That’s how I have it in my heart. Think how glorious to have received the key to everything. I wish the very best for each and every one of you! It is written that we should run a though only one won the prize. Run after humility and meekness, then you will already be wise. It is also written that with the humble there is wisdom. To be humble is pure wisdom. To have high thoughts about yourself is the height of folly and madness. Best wishes for success. You are all free to choose how you want your lives to go. Properly understood, the decision is up to you, no one else can affect that.