By my will, in my strength, for my glory. In many ways, that could be the mantra of our generation. Self-determination is prized in our society, and we look up to those who exude strength and power. But if that’s our attitude, the Bible has troubling words for us: “By my will, in my strength, for my glory” is the mantra of sin.
Generally, what we’re looking for when we sin isn’t bad in itself. We want security. We want significance. We want comfort. And God wants us to have those things. But he wants us to have them in him. Sin stretches out one arm for those things while using the other arm to keep God at bay. It’s the attitude of Babel: “Let’s build a tower for ourselves and get glory for our name.”
I often teach my kids that they can understand sin by looking at the middle letter: S “I” N. Sin is the great “I” problem. It says, “I want” instead of considering what God wants. It says, “In my strength,” instead of relying on God’s. And it aims for “my glory and attention,” not God’s. By my will, in my strength, for my glory.
The wickedness of sin, you see, doesn’t begin with an immoral act. It begins with the heart behind the act. That’s why the rebellion of Babel becomes, throughout the Bible, a picture of mankind’s worst wickedness. On the surface, what happened at Babel doesn’t look like anything horrifically evil. They’re just building a tower, right? But Babel—or Babylon, as it became translated later in Scripture—represents sin in its full flowering fruit. Babylon becomes the symbol of violence, sexual immorality, and demonic activity.
It certainly didn’t look all that bad back at Babel. But the root was there—a persistent and powerful root called pride. It’s the heart that says, “I will,” instead of “God’s will.” When Satan was kicked out of heaven, it wasn’t because of sex or violence. It was because of pride (Isaiah 14:13-14). Satan has always “followed his heart” and been “true to himself,” which is just another ways of saying that he lived by sin’s mantra: “By my will, in my strength, for my glory.”
The question for us, then, is, “What’s in our heart?” This isn’t a question of “how moral” or “how religious” we are. It’s a question of what stands at the core of our heart—“God’s will” or “my will.” You can do good things in life—great things—and still be completely consumed by pride. Get good grades, by your will, in your strength, for your glory. Build a business, by your will, in your strength, for your glory. Be incredibly religious, by your will, in your strength, for your glory.
The religious churchgoer consumed by pride is much closer to Satan’s heart than a drug-addicted man visiting a prostitute. We need to take pride seriously.
C. S. Lewis said there is a telltale sign that you walk in pride: envy. Pride is, he says, in its very nature, competitive. For pride, it doesn’t matter that I’m smart…just smarter than you. For pride, it doesn’t matter that I’m moral…just more moral than you. This is why proud people always get annoyed when they meet other proud people. Their pride is threatening yours!
Lewis mentioned another sign of pride, too. It’s the subtle belief that I’m not really proud. The first step away from pride is to admit that you are, in fact, a thoroughly proud person. You and I, by the inertia of sin, will always drift towards the mantra: by my will, in my strength, for my glory. That might sound like bad news. But we can’t apply the remedy until we admit we’re plagued with the disease.
Martin Luther said that to progress in the Christian life is always to “begin again.” So “begin again” today. Ask yourself, Whose will am I living by—mine or God’s? Whose strength do I attempt to meet each day with—mine or God’s? Whose glory am I concerned about—mine or God’s? Open your prideful heart to God, and let him transform you with a will that doesn’t falter, a strength that doesn’t fail, and a glory that never fades.
For more, be sure to listen to the entire message here.
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