International School of The Bible

 [You may access all of our books and lessons at www.isob-bible.org.  You may also listen to the audio for our Bible class at this web site, either online or through podcast.]

link for podcast or listen to audio ......... ISOB curriculum link

THE STRUGGLE OF PRIDE IN COMPLETE REPENTANCE

The very first step toward genuine repentance is to recognize the basic sin for which we are repenting. This basic sin is not the action of moral impurity or any of a number of other sins. They only reveal the deeper violation.

THE PROBLEM OF PRIDE

"A woman came by appointment to discuss her problems. Reared in a thoroughly respectable home, she had attended church regularly during her youth. An unfortunate friendship had led to a way of life with which she herself was unhappy, and which had severed her from her friends.

"Soon the moral pillars of her life began to crumble, and she lost her self-respect. Her marriage failed through her own unfaithfulness, and every new turn of events seemed to bring temptations she could not overcome, until she had lost all Incentive to resist. She was now adrift and subject to whatever influences were closest at hand. Her story was really quite shocking.

PRIDE ASSURES US WE'RE NOT SO BAD

"She knew how wrong she was, how out of touch with God and humanity, and how much of an enemy she was to herself. Her conscience was Obviously troubling her, and she was laboring under a sense of heavy guilt. Therefore, the statement she made when she finished with her story was quite surprising: 'People seem to think that I am such a terrible sinner. I can't see that I am such a bad person.'

PRIDE WILL AGREE TO ASSISTANCE BUT NOT TO SURRENDER

"She wanted prayer for the improvement of her morals and her fortunes, and she felt quite distressed about the failure she had made of life, but she could not see herself as a sinner. Her attitude was typical.

There are few things more difficult to accept than God's appraisal of all men as sinners. Even those who are obvious sinn9rs find it difficult to :see their sinfullness. There are others who seem to be nothing but personified goodness through and through. It seems even more difficult to look upon them as being sinners. What is the Biblical definition of sin? Just what does the New Testament mean when it says, 'None is righteous, no, not one;' and that, 'all have sinned'?

 PRIDE CAN BE VERY RESPECTABLE AND MORAL

"The fact that evil-doing results in social disapproval and unhappiness does not in itself make it sinful. On the other hand, the person who is law abiding and well-adjusted socially because he knows that evil-doing and crime do not pay is thereby not righteous. Those who disregard established moral laws are a menace and a problem to society and must be dealt with accordingly. However, they are not necessarily more sinful than the most respectable citizens.

"People are often troubled about the results of their misconduct and by what others think of them. They may have aspirations to do better, which may be more or less thwarted by temptations to do worse. Many times they will have great emotional disturbances as a result of their concern about their conduct.

PRIDE WILL STRUGGLE TO DO BETTER

"They may even pray to God to help them, and they may perform religious exercises and attend religious services because at the strength that religion promises. None of this is necessarily due to a sense of sinfulness. It may be the result of an intense desire to achieve a happy and well-adjusted life and to be accepted and approved by others.

"Such distressing feelings, which result from the lack of social adjustment and approval, are often thought of as a sense of sinfulness. However, we must make it clear that the New Testament means something different from this when it speaks of confessing that we are sinners. A deep sense of sin will have a very sobering effect upon a person, but the New Testament never presents sin in such a way that recognizing it in ourselves should lead us to despair.

PRIDE DOESN'T UNDERSTAND THE REASON GOD CALLS US SINNERS

"Jesus never condemned anyone who recognized that he was a sinner. In fact, it was for just such people that He offered hope. Introspective examination and hopeless depression over our failings are the result of an unwillingness to recognize that we are really sinners. Once having accepted God's verdict that we are sinners, we can turn our attention to the good news that Christ offers to sinners."

"Man's sinfulness consists in his REFUSAL TO HONOR GOD AS GOD. It is not necessarily a denial of the existence of God. It is not a rejection of the philosophical or religious concept of God. We are sinners even though we believe in God and worship Him.

PRIDE WILL NOT GIVE GOD HIS RIGHTFUL PLACE

"If God is God, His rightful place is at the very center of all existence, so that all of life revolves around Him. Our sinfulness consists in that God is not given this place. Life for us does not revolve around God. It revolves around ourselves.

Men have even gone so far as to make gods of their own choosing in order to make God conform to their own desires. Someone has correctly likened sin to anarchy. Crime is breaking the laws of the State, but anarchy challenges the very right of the State to make laws. Sin is more than breaking God's commandments. It challenges the very right of God to rule as God.

PRIDE ALLOWS LIFE TO REVOLVE AROUND OURSELVES

"The New Testament, therefore, defines sin as something more than mere wrong-doing. It IS allowing life to revolve around ourselves Instead of God. The life of everyone at us revolves around himself, and God does not occupy the place of God to any of us. Therefore, we are all sinners. The power at sin over us IS such that it is Impossible for us to change this situation.

"This rejection of God as God. so that life revolves around ourselves instead of Him, is behind all moral and spiritual evil One kind of moral evil is described in the first chapter of Romans where it is stated three times that 'God gave them up' to all forms of degradation. (Romans 1 :24,26.28)

PRIDE KEEPS SELF ON THE THRONE

"Envy. murder, sexual immorality and perversion, gossip, insolence, ruthlessness, etc. are described as symptoms of man's refusal to allow God to be God to him When men refused to honor God as God, they removed themselves from His dominion. He merely let them go. They became subject to overpowering passions which produced all forms of immorality. Sin has become a power dominating man.

"Sin rules by keeping self, instead of God, in the center of our lives. Therefore, salvation from sin is to a certain extent salvation from ourselves. This is something which has been missed by some Christians who go about seeking \Nays to improve themselves when they really need to be saved from the self they are trying to improve .

"When men have once dethroned God and put self in HIS place, sin ceases to exist for them except as an abstract concept. Since God is no longer at the center of life, and men do not recognize His right to be there, they are no longer conscious of any rebellion against Him, and sin ceases to be sin for them.

PRIDE LEADS TO A REPROBATE MIND

"When God is no longer honored as God, sin ceases to be sin in the eyes of the sinner.

Sin makes It impossible for us to see that we are subjects of a spiritual kingdom that refuses to honor God as God, and that is completely at odds with God. Sin rules over us by making it impossible for us to see that we are enemies in active rebellion against God, and that in this controversy He is right and we are wrong .

PRIDE ENSLAVES US IN THE SIN CHRIST CAME TO FREE US FROM

"Sin has the power to convince those who are its most obedient slaves that they themselves are free. When Jesus spoke to certain people of freedom, they replied. 'We are descendants of Abraham and have never been in bondage to anyone. How is it that you say, 'You will be made free?' (John 8:33) They were full or resentment, ill will and pride. Yet they considered themselves to be perfectly free.

"God and man cannot be reconciled simply by God being gracious and loving enough to overlook. our faults and forgive our sins. Release must be something more than ordinary forgiveness. It must be something which will release us from the power of sin so that God may again become God to us" (From Captivated by Christ, Wesley Nelson, Christian Literature Crusade, Fort Washington, Pennsylvania. 1956)