BOASTING

 

 


 

Boasting is the outward form of the inner condition of pride.

 

John Piper

Justification by Faith is the End of Boasting, May, 30, 1999, Sermon. Used by Permission, www.DesiringGod.org.

 


 

Boasting is the voice of pride in the heart of the strong. Self-pity is the voice of pride in the heart of the weak.

 

John Piper

 


 

I was born into a believing family through no merit of my own at all. I was given a mind to think and a heart to feel through no merit of my own at all. I was brought into the hearing of the gospel through no merit of my own at all. My rebellion was subdued, my hardness removed, my blindness overcome, and my deadness awakened through no merit of my own at all. Thus I became a believer in Christ through no merit of my own at all. And so I am an heir of God with Christ through no merit of my own at all. Now when I put forward effort to please the Lord who bought me, this is to me no merit at all, because... it is not I, but the grace of God that is with me. (1 Cor. 15:10)... God is working in me that which is pleasing in His sight. (Heb. 13:21)... He fulfills every resolve for good by His power. (2 Thes. 1:11) And therefore there is no ground for boasting in myself, but only in God’s mighty grace. Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord. (1 Cor. 1:31)

 

John Piper

My Happy Confession of Having No Merit, August 17, 2009, Used by permission. www.DesiringGod.org.

 


 

Those that boast most of the religion may be suspected of partiality and hypocrisy in it.

 

Matthew Henry

Commentary, 1 Samuel 5:13.

 


 

Boasting is always suspicious, or superfluous. For real greatness no more needs a publisher, than the sun!

 

J.A. James

Christian Love, 1828.

 


 

Whatever we think valuable ought to be acknowledged as received from God. If then all the excellency we have is God’s gift, it is very strange that we do not learn humility when God thus binds us to Himself; but that, on the contrary, we abuse His bounty by making it the occasion of pride. This ingratitude has nevertheless ever prevailed in the world. This then is the reason why [God] reduces to nothing all the boastings of the world.

 

John Calvin
Commentary, Jeremiah 9, Lecture 38.

 


 

Grace puts its hand on the boasting mouth, and shuts it once for all.

 

C.H. Spurgeon