"Ain't no killer like pride / no killer like "I" / no killer like what's inside" - Switchfoot
The biblical narrative seems to reveal sin as fundamentally born from selfishness and pride. Sin is to tell God, "I got this, I don't need you anymore..." or "I think I know how to live my life best."
In pride and selfishness, Adam and Eve chose their own way over God's way. In pride and selfishness, Cain killed Abel. In pride and selfishness, humanity attempted to build a tower to heaven. These all exemplify a rejection of God's way, a stepping outside of relationship with God, a turning our backs on God and doing things our own way. Mankind has been trying to build a tower to heaven ever since. We do this through visiting pornographic websites, through drunkenness, through cheating on tests, through stealing, through settling for crappy relationships, etc. These are all towers to heaven, a way around God's way to pleasure. And all of these are fueled by selfishness and pride.
In the prophets, the vast variety of the sin and idolatry of the nations are summed up in their loftiness, pride, arrogance, haughtiness of heart, false boasts, etc.
In the New Testament it is the pharisees who are the bad guys, not necessarily because of things we would describe as abominations, but because of their pride and self-righteousness. Because the pharisees are confident in their own righteousness, they pridefully reject the love of God poured out in Jesus.
There is no sin that does not amount to a prideful rejection of the grace of Jesus.
Jars of Clay describes the Christian life as "the battle between grace and pride" in their song "World's Apart."
Time and time again Israel believes that they do not need Yahweh, and they turn to other sources of pleasure and security. In pride and selfishness, they believe that they are able to be sustained without the help of Yahweh. The process of sanctification and exile functions to humble Israel, so that they are freed from their pride and arrogance and return to Yahweh in humility.
Jonathan Edwards called pride God's greatest enemy.
Pride is pervasive. It plagues our whole life.
"I'm so filthy with my sin / I carry pride like a disease."
And pride is impossible to overcome. Once we make any progress in humility we are immediately aware of it, then it's back to square one.
How do we avoid this? Pride is impossible.
I feel frustrated and helpless when a time of pouring my heart out in joy to Jesus is quickly converted into the simple thought, "I bet people would really think I'm great if they realized how much I love Jesus..."
Pride surges through my mind as I write. My devotional times incessantly go back and forth between legitimately finding joy in Jesus and realizing this legitimacy, which ironically cripples the joy in self-centeredness.
The truth is that I am just obsessed with myself. And whether or not I am secretly trying to convince you of my humility in this note is not the point. The point is that the statement is objectively true regardless of my subjective motivations. I am just obsessed with myself. Fact.
However, it is also objectively true that Jesus still loves me.
Simply put, even if I am motivated by pride to proclaim how much Jesus loves me in spite of my pride, it is nevertheless still true that he loves me.
And that's the only hope we have to ever overcome our pride.
"Let my foolish pride forever let me down" - Switchfoot
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