What is Christian humility and pride?

We can look at humility and pride by looking at Jesus and Lucifer, who became Satan. Let us start with Lucifer.

Isaiah 14     ¹² “How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!
How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations!
¹³ For you have said in your heart:
‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north;
¹⁴ I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’

Ezekiel 28     ¹⁴ “You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; you were on the holy mountain of God; you walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones.
¹⁵ You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you. ¹⁶ By the abundance of your trading you became filled with violence within, and you sinned; therefore I cast you as a profane thing out of the mountain of God; and I destroyed you, O covering cherub, from the midst of the fiery stones. ¹⁷ Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor …”

Here we see Lucifer, the covering cherub, the closest of all the angels to God. He is created perfect in all his ways, but even though he is very close to God, he looks away from God and starts to notice his own beauty and splendor, and he becomes proud. His talk is all about himself and how he will ascend above all the other angels, and become like God. Why he thought that he, a created being, could take over from God, we don’t know, but such was his pride that he wanted to be above God.

Now let us look at Jesus, who before He came down to earth, was part of the Godhead, the Trinity. He was the Creator, the Son of God, the Word of God, but in order to win back the fallen humanity, He was willing to lay aside His divinity, and become a man. If anyone of us had to come down so low, we would probably come as a rich prince, but He chose to come as a baby in a poor family, born in a stable and lain in a manger. That is humility.

Philippians 2     ⁵ Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, ⁷ but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. ⁸ And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. ⁹ Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, ¹⁰ that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, ¹¹ and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

We see here how Jesus humbled Himself, came to earth to pay the price for the sins of all of humanity, on the cross. His death bought our salvation and eternal life. We also see that, because He humbled Himself, God the Father exalted Him. We therefore expect that Satan, because he wanted to exalt himself, will be humbled by God, and that is exactly what will happen, as we see below.

Ezekiel 28     ¹⁷ “Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor; I cast you to the ground, I laid you before kings, that they might gaze at you.

¹⁸ You defiled your sanctuaries by the multitude of your iniquities, by the iniquity of your trading; therefore I brought fire from your midst; it devoured you, and I turned you to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all who saw you.
¹⁹ All who knew you among the peoples are astonished at you; you have become a horror, and shall be no more forever.”

As we study the passage above, we see that the words of God are written in the past tense, as if it has already happened. This indicates that God is stating what will happen, but it is so certain that He says it as if it has already taken place. Satan will be totally destroyed by fire from within him, and be no more.

We see that pride wants to exalt itself, but is brought down, while humility is ultimately exalted by God. That is why God wants us to be humble, so that He can exalt us one day.

James 4:6   But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

I trust that this makes sense to you. God bless!