Works-boasting Is Wrong But Faith-boasting Isn't?

Just last week a student's grandma came with her to a bible study I was leading. When one of the other students started to go in the direction of earning our salvation through good works, the grandma immediately turned to Ephesians 2:8-9 to correct the heretical student. Every good protestant knows these verses: “For it is by grace you have been saved, not by works; it is a gift of God so that no one can boast.” Salvation comes from Jesus' merit alone, not ours.

So far so good.

But the problem I have noticed is that this group of anti-boasters has become well – boastful. Not boastful in the sense that they slip into a works-righteous mentality too, but that they become boastful of the fact that they “believed in faith” and everyone else hasn't. They start thinking that this “work of the heart” in turning around and trusting in Christ was their doing, not God's.

When we talk about when we decided to “trust in Christ” isn't there always a hint of “I looked at the options and the facts from the bible and made a good logical decision?” Don't we tend to think that we came to God and not that God came to us?

Why does this matter?

If we start to think that we came to faith in Christ through our own intelligent decision-making process, then we will start to judge others and make war against non-Christians. We will begin to feel self-righteous since we made a “duh” decision to follow God and that everyone else needs to follow in our footsteps.

The problem is that yelling at a blind person won't make them see. However, if we walk up to the blind, take a hold of their hand, and pray to God with all our might that He would open their eyes, then I think we'll start to reach the world as God intended. Realizing that God is the only one who can make the blind see (us included) is the only way to true humility.

Hopefully, as faith-boasting Christians begin to boast in Jesus and not in their “decision for Christ” we'll start to have more compassion on those around us and in the culture at large. I'm pretty tired of seeing “faith-boasters” wage war against the culture. They need a dose of their own depravity.

Self-Boasting and Self-Loathing

We are all somewhere on the spectrum of loving ourselves or hating ourselves. Perhaps we swing back and forth from day to day.

Matt Chandler, pastor of The Village, makes the case that both of these things take value away from the cross.

If I’m always thinking about how great I am, I’m not going to have any need for God’s grace and mercy.

On the other end, if I’m always hating myself and feeling guilty for the sins I’ve committed, then what I’m really saying is that my wrongs are too big for even God to make right. I’m minimizing the cross and have a low view of God’s ability to forgive.

Whether I’m self-boasting or self-loathing, the problem is that I’m thinking of myself and not God.

Are we proud of our accomplishments? Have we forgotten that all of our successes are like filthy rags next to God’s accomplishments? In making ourselves high, are we making God low?

Are we sick and tired of dwelling on our failures? Have we forgotten that God’s grace (extended to us through Jesus’ death on the cross) is much bigger than we could ever imagine? In doubting God’s ability and desire to forgive us, have we ignored the punishment that Jesus endured on our behalf and are now trying to punish ourselves through guilt and condemnation?

May we stop our boasting and our loathing and realize that we have been fixing our eyes on ourselves, not God.