Abase Him That Is High

"It is true, indeed, that if with sedate and quiet minds we were disposed to learn, the issue would at length make it manifest, that the counsel of God was in accordance with the highest reason, that his purpose was either to train his people to patience, correct their depraved affections, tame their wantonness, inure them to self-denial, and arouse them from torpor; or, on the other hand, to cast down the proud, defeat the craftiness of the ungodly, and frustrate all their schemes."²³⁷ For those Christians that are full of pride and refuse to humble themselves, God orchestrates a period of abasement: a season of punishment summarized in three words: humiliation, isolation, and deprivation. "For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:3). This season of being HID is a period of disillusionment ordained by God for the purpose of freeing us from illusion; thereby, causing us to lose naive faith and trust. The "HID program" builds patience: "But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing" (James 1:4). "For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory" (2 Corinthians 4:16-17). We persevere through this season of punishment even though we "are minished and brought low through oppression, affliction, and sorrow" (Psalm 107:39). We "apply our hearts unto wisdom" (Psalm 90:12) during this time and after: "Unless thy law had been my delights, I should then have perished in mine affliction" (Psalm 119:92). The Lord God has to prove the sincerity of our love for him: "Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction" (Isaiah 48:10). Righteousness is foreign to mankind and must be learned: "Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee" (Psalm 119:11). Like the children of Israel after their exodus from Egypt, those that walk in pride must endure a season in the wilderness: "All the commandments which I command thee this day shall ye observe to do, that ye may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers. And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no. And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live" (Deuteronomy 8:1-3). The children of Israel were humbled, isolated in the wilderness, and deprived of many of their desires.

Tears flow when the real source of our life is uncovered, when the mask of pretense is dropped, when our strategies of self-deception are abandoned. Trials and humiliation are necessary only insofar as they are the means by which our true life is uncovered.²³⁸

"By humility and the fear of the LORD are riches, and honour, and life" (Proverbs 22:4), and "those that walk in pride he is able to abase" (Daniel 4:37). Humiliation is necessary to deliver us from ourselves: our pride, self-confidence, and self-righteousness. "For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased" (Luke 14:11). Pride begets self-confidence, and self-confidence begets self-righteousness. Self-confidence puts your trust in yourself, in the ability of your own power and might to accomplish things. Self-righteousness hinges on emulation, on comparing yourself by your own measure to others. Not surprisingly, you win the comparison. Self-righteousness puts your faith in your ability to be righteous. "If I justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me: if I say, I am perfect, it shall also prove me perverse" (Job 9:20). God is absolute (1 John 1:5); therefore, righteousness is also absolute: for I do always those things that please him (John 8:29). Only through Christ, through being led by his Spirit (Romans 8:14), can we attain unto righteousness: for without me ye can do nothing (John 15:5); but, through Christ I can do all things (Philippians 4:13). On a scale of righteousness ranging from negative 100 to positive 100, where negative numbers represent unrighteousness, self-righteousness can, at best, reach negative one. In other words, by your own power and might you cannot even attain zero (nothing): by your own power and might righteousness is unattainable. "For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God" (Romans 10:3).

For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise. But we will not boast of things without our measure, but according to the measure of the rule which God hath distributed to us, a measure to reach even unto you. For we stretch not ourselves beyond our measure, as though we reached not unto you: for we are come as far as to you also in preaching the gospel of Christ: Not boasting of things without our measure, that is, of other men's labours; but having hope, when your faith is increased, that we shall be enlarged by you according to our rule abundantly, To preach the gospel in the regions beyond you, and not to boast in another man's line of things made ready to our hand. But he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. For not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth. (2 Corinthians 10:12-18)

Isolation combats emulation: our habit to compare ourselves to others and worse to emulate them (1 Timothy 5:22; Revelation 18:4). God isolates us from our former life in order to allow us to grow free from wicked influences. "Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, I am the LORD your God. After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do: and after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do: neither shall ye walk in their ordinances. Ye shall do my judgments, and keep mine ordinances, to walk therein: I am the LORD your God" (Leviticus 18:2-4). God wants his children to learn to "be not conformed to this world" (Romans 12:2): to "recompense to no man evil for evil" (Romans 12:17). Following the world while professing to follow God amounts to hypocrisy and adultery: "Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God" (James 4:4).

Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you. And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. (2 Corinthians 6:14-18)

Deprivation combats our lusts. "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever" (1 John 2:15-17). The lust of the flesh encompasses those desires to please our flesh: eating, drinking and carnal pleasures (mental and physical); whereas, the lust of the eyes (pornography) encompasses those desires we get through our sight: "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's ..." (Exodus 20:17). "While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal" (2 Corinthians 4:18). "For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it" (Romans 8:24-25). "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1).

Conclusion

"Thus saith the Lord GOD; Remove the diadem, and take off the crown: this shall not be the same: exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high" (Ezekiel 21:26). "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart" (Psalm 51:17). "We must reach this point of extreme vulnerability before we can move on to responsibility and maturity."²³⁹ Alan Jones summarizes the path towards being conformed to the image of Christ for the sake of others:

The second conversion has none of the warm and liberating feelings associated with the first. In the terms of St. John of the Cross, the believer enters into a dark place and becomes numb. The first conversion was full of light and inspired devotion. The second becomes a desert place of waiting that invites naked surrender. It is this second conversion that is of most interest to believers today [and the subject of this section], because only a glimpse is given of the third conversion and they would like to get beyond the regressive, infantile, and often repeated cycle of the first. ... All goes well until the Yellow Brick Road turns into the Via Dolorosa (the Way of Sorrow). The newly converted are suddenly threatened with betrayal. Like Peter, they are being sifted as wheat. They sense that something terrible is going to happen; and it is at that point that new disciples have a wild longing to go back to the beginning again, to the first encounter with Jesus. ... When we refuse the opportunity for the second conversion, we stop growing. Religion tends to function like a drug for those who have shrunk back from the second conversion. Jesus becomes their "fix," and each time they go to church they expect a new "high." ... The second conversion comes as a terrible shock to believers of long standing and wide experience. The burning out of our normal egoism takes a long time. It is peculiarly painful when we realize that even our "faith" has been, in part, enslaved to the ego. ... The second conversion is preceded by tears of repentance [(Luke 22:61-62)] ... the believer is shown the extent and the cost of God's love. ... One of the hardest transitions to make in the life of faith is that from loving someone for our own sake and loving someone for his or her own. ... Love requires purgation so that we can see clearly. It requires illumination so that we can love unequivocally. Learning what love is, is simply another way of talking about conversion. The second conversion has to do with learning to cope and flourish when the warm feelings, consolations, and props that accompany the first conversion are withdrawn. ... After the crisis of betrayal comes illumination. ... To get to that place where our loves and lives are so uncluttered that we are free of preoccupation, preconception, and interpretation is a costly and painful process. ... The second conversion or way of illumination is seeing what it might mean to love God with all our powers of mind and heart (Luke 10:27). ... The second conversion brings not only a new awareness, but also a new energy and power. The light warms and heals and makes strong as well as shines in the darkness. It is thus that souls are made. It is thus that we grow in discipleship. We move from an initial burst of enthusiasm, through a period of humbling, to a bracing yet relaxing enjoyment of grace. We become less victims of mood and emotion. We learn that feelings come and go. We move in the light from a vague and unfocused faith to a living conviction. But ... this is not the end of the story. There is a third conversion, deeper and more devastating and more wonderful than the second. We have to be born again and again.²⁴⁰

Do not confuse this period of punishment with the trial of your faith. The trial of your faith is a stage in the early development of a Christian in which God orchestrates a test "to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not" (Exodus 20:20). "For the LORD your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul" (Deuteronomy 13:3). Both Peter and Apollos give witness to this trial of faith coming after we have grown in knowledge of God and Jesus Christ whom he sent:

Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. (1 Peter 1:6-9)

But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions; Partly, whilst ye were made a gazingstock both by reproaches and afflictions; and partly, whilst ye became companions of them that were so used. For ye had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance. Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. (Hebrews 10:32-37)

"I know, O LORD, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me" (Psalm 119:75). "It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes" (Psalm 119:71). "Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word" (Psalm 119:67). "For the LORD will not cast off for ever: But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men" (Lamentations 3:31-33). "Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed. Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God" (Hebrews 12:11-15).

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