Pride and Tree Roots

I'm a true believer in the notion, "pride is the root of all sin." Think about it this way: in order to sin, we are putting something in front of God's commandments for us. When we choose something other than what God has ordained as Good for us, we are declaring that we ourselves know better than God. This is the very same sin Adam and Eve committed in the Garden of Eden: putting ourselves and our immediate desires ahead of God's Goodness and Promises.


Adam and Eve were separated from God after their sin, and our own "iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear" (Isaiah 59:1-2). This separation is the reason our God "made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!" (Philippians 2:7-8). Without our separation from God, Jesus would never have had to reconcile us again to God through death on the cross for our salvation from our sins.


Before Christ came, God's people, the Israelites, were shown the condition of God's listening: "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land" (2 Chronicles 7:14).


While emphasis is often made on Jesus' actions and grace alone as the reason we are saved from our sins, this conditional statement still stands true in the Age of the Spirit post-resurrection. In order to accept Jesus' offer of salvation through His grace, we must humble ourselves. Until then, we are relying in our selves, our own abilities, and our own achievements to "earn" our salvation, the common pitfall thinking of other religions and philosophies.


In college, I remember learning the uniqueness of the verb "receive" in the English language. (For those who care to know, keep reading; otherwise, skip through the grammar lesson to the next paragraph). Transitive action verbs are a type of verb that "passes on" the action from the subject of the sentence (usually the noun or pronoun at the beginning of a sentence) to the predicate (usually the noun or pronoun at the end of the sentence). For example, in the sentence, "The woman interviews the man," the woman is the subject, the man is the predicate, and the transitive action verb that passes the action from the woman to the man is "interviews." This structure works perfectly until you use the word "receive." The concept still works, but it makes it seem as if the subject is doing the action. For example, in the sentence, "the woman receives the gift," while the woman is the subject, the gift is the predicate, and the transitive action verb that passes the action from the woman to the gift is "receives." In other words, it is nonsensical that the woman is doing the action when she is simply receiving something.


Our faith is similar. When we receive God's gift of salvation, something unusual is happening. Accepting a gift is an action in and of itself, but takes nearly nothing for the recipient. They have done nothing to create the gift or demand the gift. Instead, they simply must have open arms.


So while pride is the root of sin that separates us from God and His love, Christ's salvation is the gift that reverses that separation. Our acceptance of that gift is not a true action, but an attitude of humility: having open arms.


Dear Lord,

Thank you for loving us despite the many times we put ourselves before you in our blind and willful moments of pride alike. We accept your gift with a humble attitude, and we want to honor that grace with continually humbling ourselves to your will for our lives.

In Jesus' Name,

Amen.