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“Not for your sakes do I this, said the Lord God, be it known unto you: be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel.”

Ezekiel 36:32. 

THERE are two sins of man that are bred in the bones and that continually come out in the flesh. One is self-dependence and the other is self-exaltation. It is very hard, even for the best of men, to keep themselves from the first error. The holiest of Christians and those who understand best the gospel of Christ find in themselves a constant inclination to look to the power of the creature—instead of looking to the power of God and the power of God, alone. Over and over again Holy Scripture has to remind us of that which we never ought to forget—that salvation is God’s work from first to last—and is not of man, neither by man. But so it is, this old error—that we are to save ourselves, or that we are to do something in the matter of salvation—always rises up and we find ourselves continually tempted by it to step aside from the simplicity of our faith in the power of the Lord our God.