Gospel Humility vs Religious Pride

Gospel Humility vs Religious Pride

“The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” Matthew 20:28

“If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.” John 13:8

I’ve been meditating on the believer’s devotion to Jesus, particularly in relation to pride and humility. The words of Peter in John 13 vividly illustrate this tension: “Never shall You wash my feet!” On the surface, Peter’s statement seems virtuous, even pious, but Jesus reveals it as a false form of humility. This same kind of thinking, rooted in religious pride, often permeates the hearts of many Christians today.

What do Jesus’ words demand? At its core, the Gospel demands that we recognize our absolute need for Jesus Christ. A simple concept, right? But let’s reflect on what Jesus did earlier in John 13 and consider the implications of the Gospel. The disciples—like all of us—needed the Son of Man to wash their feet, to serve them. Yet, everything in our natural thinking and being resists this. Our instinct is to reject the idea that the Savior must serve us. Instead, we quickly affirm that we are the ones called to serve Christ.
But this is precisely what makes the Gospel so radical—so countercultural in the New Testament era and still today. It is not Christ who needs to be served but us who need to be served by Him. Jesus needed and still needs nothing from us. When Peter objected to Jesus washing his feet, it may have appeared as humility, but it was actually rooted in religious pride, disobedience, and self-righteousness. In that moment, Peter was rejecting the grace of our Savior.

This same attitude manifests today in thoughts like:

• “God has forgiven me, but I can’t forgive myself.”
• “God has redeemed me, but I don’t feel redeemed.”
• “God has saved me, but I’ll never change.”

These statements, often directed inwardly, may sound sanctifying or holy, but they are not. Instead, they are an assault on the Gospel. The same applies when these thoughts are directed at others:

• “God has forgiven them, but I can’t or won’t forgive them.”
• “God has saved them, but they’ll never change.”

The believer must learn, as Peter did, that the Gospel teaches us to humbly receive Christ’s service. Christ placed Himself below us, for a time, to serve every believer. Our response should not be prideful resistance but humble obedience, saying with Peter: “Wash all of me!”
It is not our role to exalt Christ—that belongs to the Father, who has already done so. As Philippians 2:9 declares: “For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name.” Our role is to receive the grace Christ offers and to obey His Lordship, even when it defies our natural understanding or feelings. As John Calvin aptly wrote:
“Until a man renounces his liberty of judging the works of God, however he may strive to honor God, pride will always be latent under the semblance of humility.”
Jesus accomplished our redemption through a means most would see as illogical or even humiliating—by being murdered by the very creatures He created. They scoffed at Him in His suffering, and if we had been there, we would have done the same. Yet, Jesus willingly lowered Himself to raise up those who would believe to heights they could never reach on their own. We could never “get low enough” to save ourselves; Christ descended to depths we cannot fathom to redeem us.

Let us not adopt a false humility that rejects the Gospel’s grace. Instead, receive all that the Lord Jesus offers and say with faith, “Wash all of me, Lord.” As Ephesians 1:18 reminds us, we have been given to “know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.”

May the Lord deepen our understanding and devotion to our Savior, the Lord Jesus, so that we may receive all He offers us in the Gospel. And in doing so, may we reflect, in our own limited way, the humility and love He has shown.

Love you GCCSB family!