“Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall.” (Proverbs 16:18)
I have known some who are too “advanced” now to continue to live by faith. They do not want to come to Christ just as they did at first; they are so “advanced” now that they stand on a different footing from what they did. Well, I can only say to such that I believe that this is nothing but pride of heart; as for myself, I will, by God’s grace, never go one inch beyond the position -
“I’m a poor sinner,’ and nothing at all, But Jesus Christ is my All-in-all.”
This is the only ground upon which I dare set my foot; it always begins to slip and slide beneath me when I get beyond that. Christ for me, first and last, Alpha and Omega, the Beginner and Finisher of faith. I believe that every other ground of standing is a quicksand that will swallow a man up. “The just shall live by his faith;” and if any are getting so proud that they are living by their feelings, or living on their old experience, I think that we may stand in doubt of them, and they have reason to stand in doubt of themselves. There was one who used to say that he was not half so much afraid of his sins as he was of what he conceived to be his good works, for his sins had humbled him full often, but what he thought were his good works had puffed him up, and done him much more mischief. I am more afraid of a lofty pride of self than of anything else under heaven. He that is down need fear no fall, but he that rises very high in his own esteem is not far from destruction. “Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”
- C.H. Spurgeon
