Continuing our thoughts on humility, consider these words from Charles Spurgeon:

“One way in which the Holy Spirit glorifies Christ is this – He gives us more and more debasing views of our own selves.  There are two Gods, as it were – one the true, the other the false.  Self first mounts the throne in our hearts; the higher the throne of self is exalted, the lower must Christ go.  Much of self, little of the Savior.  With exalted views of self, self-power, or self-righteousness, then there are sure to be low views of Christ, but when self goes down, then Christ at once rises.  It may be said of self, as John the Baptist once said of Christ and himself, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30).

“If you have had shallow views of your own natural depravity, then you have had very shallow thoughts of Christ.  If you think sin to be delightful, if Gethsemane and Golgotha and Calvary seem to you to be names without weight or meaning, if you have never groaned under your sin, I do not wonder that you think little of Christ’s groans and griefs and bloody sweat.

“But when you come to know yourself as verily lost and undone, then you will prize your Deliverer.  When the dread word lost has seemed to fall like a death knell upon your ear, then the tidings that the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost will be sweet to you as the Christmas carol of the angels when they sang, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” (Luke 2:14).  If you feel the disease, you will value the Physician; if you know your own emptiness, you will prize Christ’s fullness. But if you reject the teaching of the Holy Spirit, which shows you your utter helplessness and worthlessness, in so doing you have rejected Christ and put far from you that Savior who alone came to save sinners.

“It is, then, a most precious thing when we begin to sink lower and lower in our own estimation.  At the commencement of spiritual life, we believe that we are nothing; as we advance, we find that we are less than nothing.  May the Holy Spirit so work in you!”

(From his sermon, The Spirit’s Office Toward Disciples)