What Does the Scripture Say?

This video is a short introduction to the article that follows. The video clip is from the resource “Psychology and the Church” which can be bought HERE. 

 The Bible and Psychology: Downloads 577

This excerpt is from Beyond Seduction (A Return to Biblical Christianity) by Dave Hunt from the chapter named “Self-exaltation and Humility” 1987

The Perversion of the Cross

“The death of Christ on the cross,” declares a best-selling author, “is God’s price tag on a human soul… [it means] we really are Somebodies!” On the contrary, Christ didn’t die for somebodies but for sinners. The price He paid on the cross does not establish my personal worth, but met the claims of divine justice. In fact, the greater the price the costlier my sin, not my worth! That the sinless Son of God had to die upon the cross to redeem me is not anything that should make me feel good about myself, but ashamed, for it was my sins that nailed Him there. How could that fact build up my “self esteem” Yet the selfist psychologists insist:

What a foundation for self-esteem! The purchase price tells us the value of an object ….Of man alone it is said, “You were bought at a price” (1 Cor. 6:20). We are the objects of His redemption (Matt. 20:28; 1 Tim. 2:6; Rev. 5:9). What a sense of worth and value this imparts. The Son of God considers us of such value that He gave His life for us.”

In a sincere attempt to build up our self worth, another author writes, “Surely God would not give His Son for creatures He considered to be of little worth!” And another: “I must be of infinite value in God’s sight…” “In his crucifixion, Christ has placed unlimited value on the human soul.” Such ideas were not derived from the Bible but from psychology, and then imposed upon the Bible. The Bible Science Newsletter gives the scriptural view:

God desires an intimate relationship with each of us which is not based on anything of worth within us. Rather, God’s desire for a relationship with us is based on God’s love for us. This love led Him to make us worthy in Christ. But that worthiness, which is given us from Christ not based on any goodness within us, is a result of His love for us, not a cause for it.

Yet the new litany goes on: “If the deepest curse of sin is what it does to our self-esteem,” it is argued, “then the atoning power of the Cross is what it does to redeem our discarded self-worth.”"

The horrors of sin and of hell are reduced to a loss of self-esteem, and the whole purpose of redemption is to restore it! What pride! Self has stolen the glory once again. Much more was at stake than “redeem[ing] our discarded self-worth” and “restoring self-respect, self-esteem, self-worth, and a noble pride in persons.”

What of the claims of divine justice? What of God’s honor and the vindication of His holy name-and the purifying of heaven itself with the blood of Christ ( Hebrews 9:23,24)? And what of the glory to God through having the redeemed around His throne praising Him forever? All of that, if not forgotten, takes second place as soon as we establish our worth on the basis of what Christ in love did upon the cross.

Though most of its proponents have no such intent, Christian psychology has robbed “the old rugged cross” of both its shame and its glory. The cross is now viewed purely from the selfish perspective of what it did for me and what I get out of it. Commenting on the perversion of biblical truth that psychology has brought into the church, Jay Adams writes:

Here not only redemption but all that God promises and does for us is said to be a response on His part to our significance rather than an act of His love, free mercy, goodness, and grace! … Not so! The cross magnifies Christ and His marvelous grace - not us and our supposed worth. Let us cease from magnifying man; let us once again magnify the Lord together and bless His holy name! “

Christ not only endured the cross ( Hebrews 12:2) because of His love for us, but also because of His love for His Father. It will indeed bring our Lord great joy to have us with Him forever-but much more was involved. There was the defeat of Satan that was accomplished, ridding heaven of his unholy presence for eternity; and there was the obedience of the Son to the Father’s will without swerving. God’s righteous claims were also met. Do we not think that much of Christ’s joy will forever be because He finished the work which His Father had given Him to do? That is the joy He wants us to share through our fellowship in His suffering ( Colossians 1:24-29).

The Testimony of Favorite Old Hymns

How far the new psychologized, self-centered view of the cross is from what the church has understood down through history can be seen most easily by reference to some of the great hymns that have been sung and loved. In the 1700’s Charles Wesley wrote in wonder and worship: “Died He for me, who caused His pain? For me, who Him to death pursued? Amazing love! How can it be that Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?” Earlier in that same century Isaac Watts wrote his classic: “When I survey the wondrous cross, on which the Lord of Glory died, my richest gain I count but loss, and pour contempt on all my pride.

About the same time John Newton wrote his Amazing Grace, containing the phrase that some choirs today find too negative - “that saved a wretch like me.” Self-worth and self-esteem are not compatible with these songs. Ernst C. Homburg, who went to be with the Lord he loved in 1681, penned these words that can do nothing but turn us from self to Him:

Jesus! Source of life eternal!
Jesus, Author of our breath!
Thou, O Son of God, wert bearing
Cruel mockings, hatred, scorn;
Thou, the King of glory, wearing,
For our sake, the crown of thorn.
Thousand, thousand praises be,
Precious Savior, unto Thee!

The great hymns of the faith bear witness to the fact that, consistently down through its history, contemplating the cross has caused Christians to think little of themselves and much of their Savior. Think of the King of glory wearing for our sakes the crown of thorn! We are to follow Him in His humility: “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who … humbled himself… even [to] the death of the cross” ( Philippians 2:5-8). The old hymns were filled with that glorious theme so foreign to self-esteem - that out of humility came triumph. Early in this century H. D’A. Champney wrote:

Verily God, yet become truly human.
Lower than angels-to die in our stead;
How hast Thou, long-promised “Seed of the woman,”
Trod on the serpent, and bruised his head!
Lord, Thou art worthy: Lord, Thou art worthy;
Lord, Thou art worthy, and worthy alone!

The doctrines of psychology have turned the focus from God to self. Now it is we who are worthy, and our great need is to realize it! Whatever God does is now interpreted to be primarily for our benefit, thus proving our infinite worth. Forgotten is God’s honor, glory, and holiness. Subtly we have stolen His glory. We are taught to boast, “I may not deserve it [salvation] but I am worth it so don’t say I am unworthy.”

Unworthy Sinners-Or Worthy?

Have we forgotten that “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son” ( John 3:16)? Love is not bestowed on the basis of the worth of the one loved. And what about grace? It is not grace to pay the value of an object, but to give much more. In fact the price paid had nothing to do with my worth, but with the depths of my sin and the demands made by God’s justice and His eternal glory! It is not that I am worth the blood of Jesus at all, but that God’s righteousness demanded it “Without shedding of blood is no remission [of sin]” ( Hebrews 9:22). Yet the new gospel, influenced by the theories of godless psychologists, declares:

The most serious sin is the one that causes me to say, “I am unworthy. I may have no claim to divine sonship if you examine me at my worst.” For once a person believes he is an “unworthy sinner,” it is doubtful if he can really honestly accept the saving grace God offers in Jesus Christ.

Strange, then, that these were the very words which Jesus put into the mouth of the repentant prodigal son: “Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son” ( Luke 15:21). There was no comment from Jesus that the prodigal thereby erred and would be unable to accept his father’s forgiveness: It was his sin that had made him unworthy, and had he not felt it keenly there would have been no repentance, and without that confession he could not have been forgiven. It destroys the true gospel to suggest that although we cannot merit salvation bv our works, yet we merit it by our worth. On the contrary, grace has no more part to play in a gospel of self-worth than in a gospel of self-works.

The fact that John the Baptist considered himself unworthy even to untie Christ’s sandals ( Luke 3:16) is certainly never presented in Scripture as a hindrance or as a wrong self-evaluation. Nor did Christ rebuke the centurion for declaring his own unworthiness to have Christ visit his home, but commended him for his great faith ( Luke 7:1-10). If we accept the definition of worthiness given by one of the most highly regarded Christian psychologists- “Worthiness is a feeling of ‘I am good’ “-then what do we do with Christ’s statement “There is none good but one, that is God”?

One would think that what Jesus had to say to Simon the Pharisee would have forever laid to rest this delusion of self-worth and self-love. In his heart Simon was judging Jesus for allowing a sinful woman to touch him. Knowing this, Jesus told the story of the creditor who forgave two debtors, one who owed him a vast sum and the other who owed almost nothing. “Then He asked the Pharisee, “Tell me therefore, which of them will love him [the creditor] most?” Simon replied, “I suppose he to whom he forgave most.” Jesus said, “Thou has rightly judged.” He rebuked Simon for not having given him any water or a towel to wash His feet, and in contrast pointed out that this sinful woman had been washing His feet with her tears and wiping them with her hair. Then Jesus said:

Her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much; but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little ( Luke 7:36-47).

Is not Jesus telling us that our love for Him and our appreciation of His love and forgiveness will be in proportion to our own sense of sin and unworthiness? There will be no thought that we were worthy of what He did. We will not strut about heaven declaring for all eternity that although Christ died for our sins and is to be praised for that, nevertheless He did it because we were worthy of it. The glory will be His alone, and our joy will spring from gratitude for the fact that He redeemed us at such a cost-but we will never consider this to be the measure of our worth. Jesus declares that the more conscious we are of our sin and unworthiness, the more grateful we will be that He has stooped so low to bring us to Himself.

Decline of the Knowledge of the Holy

The present delusion arising from preoccupation with self would be quickly dispelled if we would spend time in the presence of God. One finds it difficult to imagine that the effect upon Moses of being in God’s holy and fearful presence on the summit of Mount Sinai was an awakening to his great self-worth! Nor can we imagine Isaiah, when he “saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up,” instead of crying, “Woe is me!” ( Isaiah 6:1-5), exclaiming, “How worthy am I!” As the redeemed forever sing in heaven, “Thou art worthy! Worthy is the Lamb that was slain!” ( Revelation 5:9-12), will God or the angelic host sing back to them, “But don’t forget, you are worthy too!”? Such folly would be unthinkable in the presence of God!

The church is presently on a collision course with disaster due to the accelerating rise of selfism. Nothing can stop this trend except a fresh revelation of God. We need a revival of the fear of God and a passion to know Him as He really is, not as we fantasize Him in our imagination. A. W. Tozer declared:

The decline of the knowledge of the holy has brought on our troubles. A rediscovery of the majesty of God will go a long way toward curing them. It is impossible to keep our moral practices sound and our inward attitudes right while our idea of God is erroneous or inadequate. If we would bring back spiritual power to our lives, we must begin to think of God more nearly as He is.

Oswald J. Smith wrote that God “will never be satisfied with you until like a slave, a willing slave, you place yourself entirely at His disposal. Then He can use you for His glory.” Only those who truly know God are willing to make this surrender. “The heaviest obligation lying upon the Christian Church today,” declared Tozer prophetically, “is to purify and elevate her concept of God until it is once more worthy of Him.” All of this is impossible until self is denied as Christ commanded. Surely self has been forgotten by those who see Christ as Spurgeon described Him:

You may look, and study, and weigh, but Jesus is a greater Saviour than you think Him to be when your thoughts are at the greatest. My Lord is more ready to pardon than you to sin, more able to forgive than you to transgress. My Master is more willing to supply your wants than you are to confess them. Never tolerate low thoughts of my Lord Jesus.

When Man Meets God

The inevitable result of a high view of self is a lower view of God. From every biblical instance of those who were taken into the presence of God or to whom God revealed Himself, we learn that two things inevitably happen: 1) God becomes awesomely wonderful to that person, resulting in worship, praise, wonder, fear, and trembling; and 2) the person becomes nothing in his own sight in comparison. Never do we read that being in the presence of God bestows a “positive self-image,” much less “positive pride” or a sense of “self-worth.” No, the presence of God has the very opposite effect.

It is impossible to know the true God in His splendor without seeing ourselves as very small indeed. There is no surer way to lose one’s inflated sense of self-importance. “When viewing our miserable condition since Adam’s fall,” wrote John Calvin, “all confidence and boasting are overthrown, we blush for shame and feel truly humble.” “One of the best tests of whether we are truly Christian or not,” said Lloyd-Jones, “is just this: Do I hate my natural self?” C. S. Lewis drove the point home: “The real test of being in the presence of God is that you either forget about yourself altogether or you see yourself as a small, dirty object. It is better to forget about yourself altogether.”" That is not the message of the gospel of self-esteem. You cannot forget yourself while you are trying to get a positive self-image and build up your sense of self-worth. Tim Stafford points out:

Part of the difficulty, too, lies in our own sinful natures. If we don’t enjoy the full fellowship with God that we want, it is often because we want to see Him only on our terms, as a possible addition to the good life we have made for ourselves. But we cannot see Him that way. It is an absurd impossibility - like wanting to see the Grand Canyon on a small scale. Either we see God in grandeur and are transformed, or we do not see Him at all.

So long as we hold a high self-esteem as the ultimate sign of mental health or spirituality, we will not know God as we should. True humility means to esteem others better than ourselves ( Philippians 2:3). What the Bible says about pride and humility is put very succinctly by C. S. Lewis:

We must not think Pride is something God forbids because He is offended at it, or that Humility is something He demands as due to His own dignity-as if God Himself was proud. He is not in the least worried about His dignity. The point is, He wants you-to know Him; wants to give you Himself. And He and you are two things of such a kind that if you really get into any kind of touch with Him you will, in fact, be humble-delightedly humble, feeling the infinite relief of having for once got rid of all the silly nonsense about your own dignity which has made you restless and unhappy all your life. He is trying to make you humble in order to make this moment possible.