What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ - the righteousness that comes by faith.
“What do you think is the hardest thing in religion?”
It was 1741, and a young vicar, James Hervey, had been advised by his doctor that his health would improve if he got some fresh air walking with a local farmer while ploughing. So it was that Hervey got talking to a ploughman, and asked him this important question.
The ploughman replied: “Sir, I am a poor man and you are a minister; I beg leave to return the question.”
So Hervey gave his own opinion: “I think the hardest thing is to deny sinful self.” He spoke of battling temptation.
But the ploughman’s reply to Hervey was very surprising. “Sir, you know there is another instance of self-denial to which the injunction of Christ equally extends, which is the hardest thing in religion, and that is to deny righteous self.”
The ploughman went on to speak of the pleasure he took in attending church (not Hervey’s!) on a Sunday, in praying, in listening to the sermon, in receiving the Lord’s Supper, in reading the Bible at family prayers, and more. He concluded: “But yet, to this moment, I find it the hardest thing to deny righteous self, I mean to renounce my own strength and righteousness, and not to lean on that for holiness or rely on this for justification.”
Years later, Hervey told a friend this story: “I then hated the righteousness of Christ. I looked at the man with astonishment and disdain, and thought him an old fool, and wondered at what I fancied the motley mixture of piety and oddity in his notions. I have since seen clearly who was the fool; not the wise old ploughman, but the proud James Hervey. I now discern sense, solidity and truth in his observations.”
In due course, Hervey gave up relying on his own works or piety, but trusting only in Christ, and receiving His righteousness by faith: the vicar was converted!
Writing to the Philippians, the Apostle Paul (above) recounts how he has renounced relying on his own piety and trusts Christ. He needs to keep making this his attitude.
Are you now relying only on the Lord Jesus for salvation?
