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“You turn things upside down! Shall the potter be regarded as the clay, that the thing made should say of its maker, “He did not make me”; or the thing formed say of him who formed it, “He has no understanding?”

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He sat in my study filled with guilt, clutching his Bible. He wore repentance like a thorny crown. Out poured the anecdotes as he gave evidence against himself. He seemed earnest, even sincere. But this was no confession. This was the perverted pride of self-loathing. He sought confirmation of his guilt, not his innocence in Christ.

I can think of nothing more wearisome or graceless than the piety of self-deprecation. When the New Testament says that Christians should not think more highly of ourselves than we ought, it is not prohibiting the healthy self-regard that accompanies a living faith. When we circulate around our sin and nurture our deficiencies, we miss the point of the Christian life. The promise of baptism is that we are in God’s hands. He has taken hold of us in Christ and has promised to keep us together with Him, making His life our own, giving us all the gifts of the Gospel.

In his wonderful book, Diary of an Old Soul,19th century author and pastor George MacDonald put it this way;

‘Tis that I am not good–that is enough;

I pry no farther–that is not the way.

Here, O my potter, is thy making stuff!

Set thy wheel going; let it whir and play.

The chips in me, the stones, the straws, the sand,

Cast them out with fine separating hand,

And make a vessel of thy yielding clay.

“May the peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

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