BOASTING
Boasting is
the outward form of the inner condition of pride.
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.
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.
Commentary, 1 Samuel 5:13.
Boasting is
always suspicious, or superfluous. For real greatness no more needs a
publisher, than the sun!
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