Humility: The Only Way There

I am persuaded that those of us who are believing Christians are currently missing something essential in our message. It doesn't matter what denomination we belong to. It doesn't matter whether we prefer contemporary or traditional leadership style. Almost all of us are missing something in our message that is indispensible. In short, there is an element to the way that we present the Gospel that often goes unmentioned. Because this element is so essential, I write with a burden.

I am talking about the necessary disposition of humility.

A few years ago I was having lunch with a lady in a memory care center. She was probably in her 80s. While she and her husband were both living, they had substantive disagreements on church matters. She told me that, while she was a life-long Methodist, her husband was a Baptist. She said, “People asked me how we worked things out. The truth is, we didn’t. He went to his church and I went to mine.” Then her story took an unexpected turn. She continued, “After he passed away, I had a dream. My husband spoke to me from heaven. He said, ‘The Baptists have their own corner of heaven, and they think they’re the only people up here.’ ” I laughed out loud when she told me that. Thankfully, Jesus never said that you have to belong to one group or another to make it into the Kingdom.

Or did He?

Mark 10:15 records Jesus as saying, “Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God like a child will not enter it.” As sobering as these words are, they are even more intense in the Greek language. The phrase “will not enter it” is extremely strong in the Greek. In fact, of the three levels of expressing a negative, the construction found here is the strongest. Allowing for this emphasis, it literally goes something like this: “there is no way it could ever be possible for that person to enter heaven. It simply cannot happen!” It looks like coming to God with the simplicity and the humility of a child is absolutely essential. We won’t make it into the Kingdom unless we do this.

Couple Jesus' words with the Old Testament story of King Manasseh in 2 Chronicles 33. Manasseh was unspeakably wicked, leading the kingdom of Judah to practice blatant idolatry. But when God sent the Assyrians to capture him and throw him in prison, we are told that King Manasseh humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers” (2 Chron 33:12). Amazingly, in spite of all the evil that he had committed, when Manasseh humbled himself greatly, “God listened” and “He was moved by his entreaty” (verse 13).

I cannot get over this story. The details of Manasseh’s sin, recorded in 2 Chronicles 33 and also in 2 Kings 21 are staggering. As we read the story, he is setting up an image to a pagan god in the temple in Jerusalem and he is even sacrificing his sons to the idols he is worshiping. 2 Kings 21:16 says that he filled Jerusalem with the blood of innocent people. He was pure evil. Yet when he humbled himself greatly, God forgave him. This account bears testimony to the depth and height and breadth of the grace of God like we find in few places elsewhere in the Bible. The message is undeniable—It doesn’t matter what we’ve done. We can never go so far that God will not hear us and forgive us. But humility is essential—it is the one disposition that will turn God’s deserved wrath into His undeserved mercy.

God always notices a humble heart and He always responds to it. More than that, He is moved by it. It’s like He can’t help Himself. If we look elsewhere in the Bible, God is sending a similar message. He gave a measure of mercy to wicked King Ahab of Israel when he humbled himself (1 Kings 21:29). Surprisingly, even the pagan kings of Nineveh (Jonah 3:4–10) and of Babylon (Daniel 4:34–37) found mercy when they humbled themselves before Israel’s God. God always notices humility and He always responds to it.

Many of us have had something like this happen to us: At some point, we mess up really badly. Then when consequences come knocking, we say to ourselves, "Well I guess I walked myself into this mess. There's nothing I can do but brace for impact." Then it gets really bad, and the pain begins to set in. We knew it would be bad, but we didn't dream it would get this bad. We're trapped. But according to these stories, there is something we can do! And it is most important thing we can do—we can always still humble ourselves before God.

Think about it: When our children do something that they know is wrong and they come to us in all humility and freely admit their wrong, if they are noticeably broken before us, does that not move our hearts? Do we really think that God is any different? Therefore, Jesus tells us that it is essential that, when we are seeking entrance into the Kingdom, humility is absolutely essential—we come like a child or we do not come at all—it can’t happen.

We tend to get wrapped up in the things we must say to God when we come to Him for salvation. I’m not arguing those points. However, we are all too often so focused on the what of salvation that we miss the how.

Yes, we need to confess that we are sinful people.

Yes, we need to turn from our sin.

Yes, we need to turn from all of our other attempts to reach God.

Yes, we need to trust in the God's salvation provided through the death of Jesus.

Yes, we need to call on Him for forgiveness and we need to make Him our Lord. Yes, yes, and yes. Check all the boxes. But if we do not cry out to Him for His mercy in all humility, according to Jesus’ words and according to the Old Testament narratives that confirm His words, we cannot possibly make it into the Kingdom.

When I share the Gospel now, I stress that the words we pray in repentance are not the “magic words,” making it clear that the “how” is as much as or more important than the “what.” I specifically mention humility.

To all those who are currently sharing the Gospel, I earnestly hope that you will be sure to emphasize the necessity of humility for, according to Jesus, it is vital to the salvation process.

And to all who are considering becoming a follower of Jesus, please know that, of all the things God is looking for as we come to Him for the first time, humility is the one thing that He is looking for, above everything else.

It doesn’t matter what we’ve done.

He cannot resist it.

He cannot help Himself.