The goal of this article is to apply the ideas behind What Is Free Will? to the theme of A Humble or a Haughty Spirit. Having read both of these will be helpful in reading this article, as I justify in those articles some of the assumptions that I will take for granted in this one.

Anyone familiar with Catholic theology will know of the Seven Deadly Sins. Most severe among these sins was pride, for the reason that it was the sin of Lucifer and the ultimate cause of all sin. Though it is easy enough to arrive at that conclusion by saying that pride caused Lucifer to bring a multitude of sins into the world, it is more direct than that. Pride in its sinful sense is often thought to be synonymous with arrogance – an undue love of self relative to others, but the sin of pride is much more extensive and pervasive – and much more serious – than we might think. More than elevating ourselves against other people, the sin is to elevate ourselves at all against God, by the belief that there is inherent good – of any sort – that we somehow merit.

This pride, the pride behind individualism and self-actualization and nearly every society in the history of the world, is the fundamental motivation for sin. The relationship is neatly summed up by the quote from Milton, “Better to reign in Hell than to serve in Heaven”. It is the motivation behind every act of selfishness, of rebellion against God, of any sin: the notion that the self is a good to be striven for. That though he is apart from God, he has himself and his pride, and that this tradeoff is not only good in its own right, it is preferable to the good of God Himself. This is the pride of Lucifer that not a single human being is exempt from.

The notion that one’s self is an inherent good is what constitutes sin nature. From the time we are born we inevitably think of the self as a good, and thus inevitably sin. Since the self is all we initially know, it is the foundation of all our subsequent knowledge, which is why all our righteousness apart from God is like filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). It is only through the replacement of our foundational knowledge and belief, brought about by the Holy Spirit, that we can internalize the knowledge that it is indeed not better to reign in Hell, since without any inherent good in himself or his comrades the individual finds no pleasure in reigning over the damned.

But even a head knowledge is not sufficient belief, for truly internalized belief affects behavior. If any of us truly believed in the worthlessness of self and the ultimate good of God, we would never seek our own pleasure in any endeavor. I’ll be the first to admit that I have not achieved a perfect belief (or anything even resembling it), but I do pray that God would grant me the faith to believe that He is the ultimate good. This continued refinement and perfection of internalized belief, through the percolation of head knowledge into the subconscious where decisions are made, is the key to the Spirit’s continued sanctification of the believer. Indeed, this is why seeking the Truth about the nature of God is paramount to redemption and a changed life.