I recently enjoyed my read-through of "Humility" by C.J. Mahaney and I wanted to say a couple of words.I found this to be a quick but powerful read on the severity of pride as sin and the necessity of humility before the Lord. The central Scripture that this book is centered on is James 4:6b, which says, "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble."
Mahaney does a good job of taking us exactly where we need to go to rid of our pride--the humbling display of God's grace through Jesus on the cross. If we are to mortify the sin of pride, we must do so out of the power of the cross, for Christ rescued us from our sin by being our very ransom:
"the emphasis of the ransom image is on our sorry state--indeed our captivity in sin--which made the act of divine rescue necessary...So to hear the Savior speak the word ransom and understand it rightly is to be freshly reminded and affected by our own serious and sorry state, our miserable lostness and wretched bondage to sin. We cannot free ourselves from pride and selfish ambition: a divine rescue is absolutley necessary." (pg 51-52)
As C.J regularly teaches (esp. in "The Cross-Centered Life"), our lives must focus on the cross of Christ through every life situation. He does a great job of portraying this truth throughout "Humility."
-ae
