The Enormous Obstacle: Protecting Against Pride

Our mission here at “BreakPoint” is to equip people to think Christianly about all of life, to develop a strong biblical worldview that we can defend in the marketplace of ideas. This is an urgent need, because our faith is so often privatized. But it does present risks.

Let me illustrate by telling you about a man I met at a Christian retreat a few years ago. We had a very interesting discussion about history and theology. I was impressed by how much he knew and all the arguments for Christianity that he had mastered. Then he told me something that nearly made me fall off the chair. He said he was glad his wife had brought him to the retreat, because she was the believer in the family—he wasn’t.

After I recovered my composure, he explained. He had professed faith in Christ in his youth, but at college he began to study philosophy and science and couldn’t reconcile what he was taught with the faith of his childhood. This led to deep doubts.

So he started studying theology, history, and philosophy. He had read many of the books that I’ve relied on for developing my intellectual understanding of the Christian faith. And he came to realize that Christianity is true—but he was never able to recover his personal faith.

What hung him up? As he spoke, I remembered an experience I’d had. I’ve worked hard for years to develop a biblical worldview, and I have come to the conclusion that it is the only rational explanation of the universe. One day I realized I could prove God exists. But then in my quiet time it occurred to me that I couldn’t prove that when this life is over, I’ll see Him.

It wasn’t so much a crisis of faith as one of understanding. I had gained so much knowledge about the strength of the biblical worldview that I figured I could rationally answer every question. But of course, I couldn’t—no one can.

This bothered me for a few weeks until I realized the problem. Pride, which was my original obstacle to becoming a Christian, was in the way again. I knew so much, but faith, you see, is beyond the intellect. You have to have doubts; otherwise, it couldn’t be faith.

My friend’s problem was the same. I told him so, and, you’ll be pleased to know, later he returned to his faith. Now, remember, we need to understand everything we can about the world and about theology, but at some point, we have to realize that Jesus wants only our childlike faith. That’s the only way we can really love God. Otherwise, He’s simply another object to figure out. Only through faith can we learn dependence on Him.

The antidote to pride, as my colleague Ellen Vaughn writes in her wonderful new book Radical Gratitude, is reminding ourselves of all God has done for us. Whenever I think of what He has done on the cross, I realize I would be dead today without that. I would be suffocated in the stench of my own sins. And this causes me to repent of my pride, and my faith becomes renewed and strengthened. Ellen calls this experience “radical gratitude.”

So learn all you can, just as we’re equipping you to do here at “BreakPoint.” Stretch your mind. Think Christianly. God wants us to use our reason and our knowledge to defend Christian truth in the world. But watch out for pride.

And remember that our greatest weapon against sophisticated pride is not more intellectual arguments. Instead it’s the practice of gratitude and simple faith that comes from it. It is a practice that Ellen Vaughn lays out beautifully in her excellent new book, Radical Gratitude.

Rereading Job has given me a great many new insights on the theme Mr. Colson discusses here. There are a great many intellectual arguments in that book which never bring Job (or anyone else) closer to God. In fact, Job and his three so-called friends were seeing things all wrong - from their perspective on earth, a limited understanding. It was the revelation of God Himself that caused Job to declare,

"I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted. You asked, 'Who is this that obscures my counsel without knowledge?' Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. You said, 'Listen now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you shall answer me.' My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes."

I have a question that I'd never considered before about the book of Job; I wonder if you can answer it? Elihu is the last man to speak to Job before God Himself does, beginning in chapter 32. Elihu is not mentioned among the three "friends" that join Job in chapter two. Neither is Elihu mentioned by God when He rebukes Job's three "friends" in 42:7.

Elihu makes some pretty bold claims of himself in his four speeches to Job: 36:3-4; all of chapter 33: can a mere mortal make such claims...and not be rebuked by God? Job never attempts to answer or argue with Elihu, yet Job certainly had a reply for each of the other three men. Could Elihu (literally "He Is My God," of the clan of Ram from whom David and ultimately Jesus also descended) be the Angel of the Lord, a preincarnate Christ, much as the fourth figure in the fire with the three boys in Babylon was? (John MacArthur, whose study bible I have, doesn't think so.)

Of the four men that address Job's complaints Elihu alone speaks wisdom and wondrous praise.

The antidote to pride, as my colleague Ellen Vaughn writes in her wonderful new book Radical Gratitude, is reminding ourselves of all God has done for us.

I would contend, with Elihu, that the greatness of God rests in Himself alone, as displayed in His design, which we don't often comprehend. It doesn't always look or feel like He is for us, as is the case with Job. Yet He remains worthy of praise.

How great is God—beyond our understanding!
Job 36:26

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