Martin Luther on Humility and Grace

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God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble.  The statement that Martin Luther made on the picture above is not his own invention.  Rather, he has affirmed the Biblical truth of the Five Solas during the Protestant Reformation.  The truth Luther affirmed can be found in James 4:6, 1 Peter 5:5 and Luke 18:14 that God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.

It is not talking about a false humility but true humility that springs from a repentant heart.  It is a problem that men think that they contribute to either getting saved or staying saved.  Many try to say that the doctrine of Sola Fide creates a license to sin without taking it into the full context.  It is not popular to preach that you cannot save yourself because the world's viewpoint is that you can save yourself if you do all the "good" you can to get saved or stay saved.  The Bible mentions in James 2:10-11 and Romans 3:19 that even one sin is enough to send a person to Hell.  When a person gets saved by their own faith in Jesus Christ, this faith grows into producing good works because they love God and do not want to live their old lives anymore.

It is a problem when people do not have the humility to really realize that they are but sinners.  That is why the Law must be presented to show them that they are cut short of the glory of God.  The truth is nobody is ever righteous in the eyes of God and a wicked lifestyle shows it (Romans 3:10-19, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10).  This humility leads people to the Lord Jesus Christ which in turn makes them do good works out of an attitude of gratitude in contrast to the world's doing of "good" works in an effort to try and outweigh their own wickedness.


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