Reformed Christians have the least to be proud about

So says Ian Hamilton:

Of all the dangers that can overtake a Reformed church, pride is surely the worst and most serious. There is, of course, a right kind of pride, a thankfulness to God for our history and heritage.

But the pride I am thinking of, is that ugly, self-righteous, self-preening brute that says with the Pharisees, "God, I thank you that I am not like other men" ("We are not like other churches"!).

Such self-regarding censoriousness, is particularly the preserve of the privileged and blessed. You see it often in the lives of the great and the good.

Sadly, tragically, such pride can also be seen in the very circles where it ought never to be seen, in the circle of Christ's disciples.

Of all people, Christians, and Reformed Christians in particular, have the least to be proud about. In rebuking some Christians in Corinth for their pride, Paul exclaimed, "What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?"

What have we indeed to boast about? Were we not "dead in trespasses and sins" when God in his grace sent his Son to save us? Were we not guilty, hell-deserving sinners, God's very enemies, when he "commended his love towards us" and gave up the Lord Jesus Christ to die that sin-bearing, wrath-quenching death of the cross to deliver us from a ruined eternity and bring us ultimately to glory?

Total depravity and unconditional election are not merely doctrines to confess, they are truths to humble us to the dust. And yet, how easily, only too easily, can we allow our vast gospel privileges and blessings to turn us into self-regarding, narrow-hearted men and women.

You can read the whole thing here