“He who glories, let him glory in the LORD” (1 Cor. 1:31).
The first chapter of 1 Corinthians concludes with a reminder of who you are in Christ and the benefits you have received by His grace alone. “Your conversion or saving union with Christ is not due to yourselves,” Hodge wrote. “He so dispenses His grace as to make men see with regard to others, and to acknowledge with regard to themselves, that the fact that they are in Christ, or true Christians, is due to Him and not themselves.”
The saving knowledge of Cod and of divine things that Christians possess comes from the Logos, the Revealer of all truth. They have not gained wisdom on their own, but it is a gift of God. In the same way, they are justified not by their own righteousness but by the righteousness of Christ, earned by His life of obedience and death. Because of Christ’s righteousness, there is no condemnation to those that are in Him. But our justification is not the end of Christ’s work. We are sanctified by Him as well. Christians are renewed after the image of God and will finally be presented without spot or blemish before the presence of His glory. By the power of His Spirit, they are being transformed into His likeness, sanctified, made holy as God is holy. And, finally, they are partakers of eternal redemption, that final deliverance from all the evils of sin, set free as the children of God.
These blessings can be obtained only through Christ. Union with Him is absolutely necessary, the only condition of our participation in these benefits. And most importantly, our union with Christ is of God. It is not of ourselves, by our own wisdom, goodness, or power, but solely by His grace.
“The design of God in making wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption dependent on union with Christ, and union with Christ dependent, not on our merit, but on His own good pleasure, is that we should glory only in Him; that is, that our confidence should be in Him and not in ourselves, and that all the glory of our salvation should be ascribed to Him and not to us,” Hodge wrote. “Such being the design of God in the work of redemption, it is obvious we must conform to it in order to be saved. We must seek wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption only in Christ.”
Realizing that you are utterly dependent upon Christ for salvation should humble you in every area of life. Make a list of the many different ways that you are prideful. Ask someone who is close to you to help you with the list. Make it a point every day to pray for humility in those specific areas.
