On virtue

This day, I am reminded of the deceitfulness of my heart and its tendency to revel in acts that bear the outward appearance of goodness. How easily we flatter ourselves in our own eyes! We perform actions that are praiseworthy in themselves, yet fail to examine the corrupt root from which they spring: a disingenuous heart filled with subtle pride, seeking glory for itself rather than for its Creator.

We observe a common social agreement that virtue is noble, and that pious and benevolent acts are ideals to be esteemed. Therein lies our deadliest trap. The natural man, perceiving that such righteous acts command the honour of his peers, readily conforms his outward behaviour to this standard. He pursues the reputation of goodness, not out of supreme love for God or as a faithful steward of His commandment to love, but out of refined self-love.

For if the disposition of the human heart is naturally corrupt and prone to evil, it cannot, by its own power, yield that which is purely holy. We do not transcend our nature through our own effort; rather, our deceitful hearts find a way to corrupt even our ideal acts of goodness, turning noble things into instruments of self-applause.

It is therefore necessary for us to lie low in the dust before a holy God, acknowledging that we possess no virtue of our own. Whatever is truly good, beautiful, or spiritual in the soul is not a product of human will, but the sole effect of divine power. It is God alone who sovereignly communicates His own holiness to us, working in us both to will and to do according to His good pleasure.

The earnest confession and cry of my soul this day is this: if there is any true virtue found in me, it is not of my own framing; it is entirely the work of God’s sovereign grace, by which He works these things within me.