J.C. Ryle: Salvation, Humility, and a Deep Sense of Sin

Ephesians 3:8(ESV)

"To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ."

"When Paul wrote with his pen, he really felt in his heart.  The language of our text does not stand alone.  It is even exceeded in other places.  To the Philippians he says, 'I have not attained, nor am I already perfect: I follow after.'  To the Corinthians he says, 'I am the least of the apostles, which am not meet to be called an apostle.'  To Timothy he says, 'I am chief of sinners.'  To the Romans he cries, 'Wretched man that I am!  Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?' (Phil. 3:12; 1 Cor. 15:9; 1 Tim. 1:15; Rom. 7:24).  The plain truth is that Paul saw in his own heart of hearts far more defects and infirmities than he saw in anyone else.  The eyes of his understanding were so fully opened by the Holy Spirit of God, that he detected a hundred things wrong in himself, which the dull eyes of other men never observed at all.  In short, possessing great spiritual light, he had great insight into his own natural corruption, and was clothed from head to foot with humility (1 Peter 5:5).

"Now let us clearly understand that humility like Paul's was not a peculiar characteristic of the great apostle of the Gentiles. On the contrary, it is one leading mark of all the most eminent saints of God in every age.  The more real grace men have in their hearts, the deeper is their sense of sin.  The more light the Holy spirit pours into their souls, the more do they discern their own infirmities, defilements and darkness.  The dead soul feels and sees nothing; with life comes clear vision, a tender conscience and spiritual sensibility.  Observe what lowly expressions Abraham and Jacob and Job and David and John the Baptist used about themselves.  Study the biographies of modern saints like Bradford and Hooker and George Herbert and Beverage and Baxter and McCheyne.  Mark how one common feature of character belongs to them all - a very deep sense of sin.

"Superficial and shallow professors in the warmth of their first love may talk, if they will, of 'perfection.'  The great saints, in every era of church history, from Paul down to this day, have always been 'clothed with humility.'

"He that desires to be saved, among the readers of this message, let him know this day that the first steps towards heaven are a deep sense of sin and a lowly estimate of ourselves.  Let him cast away that weak and silly tradition that the beginning of religion is to feel ourselves 'good'  Let him rather grasp that grand scriptural principle, that we must begin by feeling 'bad' and that, until we really feel 'bad' we know nothing of true goodness or saving Christianity.  Happy is he who has learned to draw near to God with the prayer of the tax-collector, 'God be merciful to me a sinner' (Luke 18:13)."  (J.C. Ryle, Holiness)