The more spiritually mature a person is, the LESS he or she thinks of themself. On the contrary, the more spiritually immature a person is, the MORE he or she thinks of themself. The Apostle Paul is a classic case of spiritual infancy to maturity over time. As Saul, he passed from Spiritual death to life around 33AD, received a new name and on his third missionary Journey, around 59AD Paul called himself the "least of the apostles (1 Corinthians 15:9). Later on he calls himeself the "least of the saints" (Ephesians 3:8) then finally at the end of his ministry, while shackled in the Mammertine prison, he demotes himself to the "Chief of all Sinners" (1 Timothy 1:15).
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As he matured and his intimacy with Jesus Christ deepened, Paul saw both God and himself more clearly. Instead of causing him to feel better about himself, growth opened Paul's eyes to the fact that his sin nature was worse than he had ever imagined; it was incorrigible. He saw with greater clarity every day the depth of his need for grace from God. And that was the secret of his greatness.
"Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand." (Romans 5:1-2)
We stand in grace or we do not stand at all. Grace is all that God is free to do for mankind on the basis of the work of Jesus Christ. It is a resource that can never be earned or deserved, but only received as a gift. We are saved by grace through faith; we grow in the Christian life by grace through faith.
Because grace can be initiated and sustained only by God, anything we try to do other than respond is worthless. Anything we try to do on our own takes us out of the sphere of grace and puts us into the sphere of "works" or "law." Paul explained this to the Romans when he said, "If it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace" (Romans 11:6).
No one can work his way to God or earn God's approval through human effort. Paul, the former Pharisee who had been found "blameless" by the strictest standard of righteousness that had ever been devised (Philippians 3:4-7), knew about trying to work his way to God. He understood how the legalistic mind sets itself against grace, refusing to accept the fact that in man there dwells no good thing (Romans 7:18).
Most people can see that sin is a violation of the righteousness of God, so they understand why it had to be judged on the cross. But not very many people are reconciled to the fact that the good things man does on his own are abhorrent and are absolutely unacceptable to God.
In the Hebrew, Isaiah 64:6 is graphic in its description of the good that man can produce. "All our righteousness," it says, "is as the rag of a menstruous woman." Why would the Holy Spirit inspire Isaiah to use this particular analogy? Because the flow of blood in the menstrual cycle is evidence that there has been no conception. No conception means there will be no birth, and no birth means no life. Isaiah is saying that all human good is dead in God's sight.
That is exactly why human good is referred to as "dead works" in Hebrews 6:1-2. The author is not talking about sins here. Sins are never called "dead works" in the Bible. "Dead works" is a reference to man's attempts to work his way to God, to earn His approval. But he cannot do it. All our good is relative good; all our righteousness is relative righteousness. Compared to other men, we may appear good, righteous. But compared to the absolute goodness and righteousness of God, we are less than nothing.
*This material was originally a highlighted topic in "The Basics". Additional topics can be found here
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