Romans 12:3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.
We are all pre-disposed to think well of ourselves in one way or another. It might be on account of our looks, our strength, intelligence, the important people we know, the jobs we do, the family we were born into, etc. There are literally dozens of criteria that we can call upon when the aim of the game is to satisfy ourselves that we are more important, or better in some way. than other people.
Those who have been around a while will remember Cassius Clay (later Muhammad Ali) and his infamous and unashamed declaration, "I Am The Greatest!". It jarred on many people because they realized that it isn't acceptable to say such things in public. But in private, we all devote a chunk of time in our thinking to exalting ourselves above others so that we can feel good about ourselves. Watch kids at play and soon you will see one or more of them seeking to impress the others and assume superiority because they can do something the others can't - "Look what I can do! I can (run faster, climb higher, shout louder, jump further......) than you!"
Another example of this is the British TV show, "Keeping up Appearances" which features a woman called Hyacinth Bucket who is obsessed with her status, longing to be regarded as belonging to a higher station in life but failing miserably with each attempt to impress those whom she wanted to regard her as their equal. We laugh at this show precisely because we all have something of the "Hyacinth Bucket" condition within our own personalities. "Social Climber" is even defined in the dictionary because this behavior is characteristic of fallen mankind.
It follows that if an inflated view of self is mission-critical for someone, baked into their nature since the fall, a loss of status in this world is going to be really hard to deal with, since it involves a disintegration of the qualities or credentials that they have made the very foundations of their lives. To slip in the esteem of others and of themselves brings on a real crisis of identity.
How does the Gospel mitigate the consequences of a loss of status in this world?
Christians are not immune to the problem of placing too great a significance on their status in this world. Even Jesus' disciples were quite preoccupied with their respective pecking order, and with opportunities for social climbing. You can almost hear them staking their claims to superiority in words that Cassius Clay adopted after them:
Mark 9:33–34 And they came to Capernaum. And when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?” 34 But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest.
Mark 10:35–37 And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” 36 And he said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?” 37 And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.”
Luke 9:46 An argument arose among them as to which of them was the greatest.
Luke 22:24 A dispute also arose among them, as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest.
Here is the kind of language Jesus used to deal with the disciples' desire to be great according to the world's system of measurement:
Mark 10:42–45 And Jesus called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 43 But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. 45 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
The way to be "the greatest" in the kingdom of heaven, Jesus says, is to become the least - the servant of all. So He calls His followers in this world to abandon their attachment to worldly measures of worth and importance.
But the problem was not eradicated with Christ's reprimand of his disciples. If it had been, Paul would have had no need subsequently to write the verse that appears at the beginning of this post, cautioning believers to be objective and sober-minded in their self-assessment. We are not to get carried away with ourselves!
Nevertheless, although a loss of status in this world can still be painful for Christians, it should be far less devastating for them than it is for unbelievers. There are at least a few reasons for this:
The Spirit of God within them opens their eyes to understand that their worth lies in God's esteem and not in what they or any other human being may think of them. They also now see something of their true selves, with the fog of sin blown out of the way. No longer do they consider themselves as rich and self-sufficient but more in the way that the Lord sees them, which is a humbling but very helpful lesson:
Revelation 3:17 For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.
Once you have been humbled by the Lord and have come to see yourself as a proud, arrogant, vile, filthy and wretched creature, your standing before other such beings in this world becomes an irrelevance. If the bar in the pole vault is set infinitely high, it doesn't matter if you can rise 1/32" higher than someone else - you have still failed to reach the bar by an infinite amount! God Himself, with all His infinite perfections, is the standard we need to measure our lives by. When we do, we realize that it is nonsense to claim we are "better" than others who also fall infinitely short.
Paul arrived at exactly this place in his thinking after coming to Christ. He had formerly regarded himself as a very fine person. He had a long and impressive resumé that established his superiority in many ways. But after he came to know Christ, he looked differently at all the things by which he recommended himself in his own eyes and before others. He realized they were a load of rubbish (literally, "dung") - less than worthless in comparison with the spiritual realities he had discovered in Christ:
Philippians 3:4–11 though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. 7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
The gospel also alleviates the pain of a loss of status in this world by revealing something of the far greater standing to which believers have been lifted in the gospel of God. We only have a foretaste of these realities now, and we must appropriate them by faith. The full realization of them awaits, with the rest of our inheritance, in glory. Here are just a few examples of how God describes the exalted standing of His children through His grace:
- Adopted as children of God - sons and daughters of the Most High
- Ephesians 1:5-6 In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
- Part of God's Treasured Possession
- Malachi 3:16-17 Then those who feared the Lord spoke with one another. The Lord paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the Lord and esteemed his name. 17 “They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him.
- God's Chosen ones, Anointed into His Royal Priesthood, made spotlessly holy and belonging completely to Him, to proclaim His excellencies
- 1 Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
- Made a kingdom and priests
- Revelation 1:6 To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood 6 and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
- Heirs to an eternal inheritance
- 1 Peter 1:3-5 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,
The greatest gift we receive in the gospel is not this remarkable and elevated status, though - it is that we have come to know the One True God, and Jesus Christ, Wom He sent. Knowing Him, and appropriating by faith our standing in Him, we agree with Paul that this world only has rubbish to offer us!
How is a loss of standing in this world turned into gain for the believer in the next?
As we have said, the full realization of what God has done for us in Christ lies ahead. When we stand before Him in glory, we shall see and understand more fully what Paul meant when he said:
Philippians 1:21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
Then our faith will be turned to sight. Then we shall possess fully al the things we now see through the eyes of faith. Then we shall fully know, even as we are fully known (1 Cor 13:12). Above all, we shall then see our beautiful Savior and we will be made fully like Him. This is gain indeed!
1 John 3:2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.
