"He's a self-made man." What do we mean by that? Well, this guy pulled himself up by his bootstraps. He worked hard, worked smart, found the right niche. Without help from anyone else, he succeeded. A self-made man.
It is, of course, utter nonsense. In reality it is not possible to be "self-made." Scripture, referring to Christ, says, "All things were made through Him, and without Him was not any thing made that was made. (John 1:3) Nothing is "self-made."
Sure, I understand the idea. Our "self-made man" was certainly created by God, but we're talking about what he did with it. We're talking about his work and his effort and his self-reliance and self-determination. We admire those qualities, and, in that sense, what he has become he has become by his own efforts. "Self-made."
Jesus would beg to differ. "Apart from Me," He said, "you can do nothing." (John 15:5) Nothing? Really? Surely that's not what He means. Look, it talks about the vine and the branches; He probably just means that apart from Him we can't do anything toward being productive Christians ... right?
I would suggest there are a couple of possibilities, a couple of ways to understand this. We know, for instance, that we can sin quite well. Is Jesus saying, "Apart from Me you cannot sin"? That won't work. On the other hand, we know that "in Him all things hold together." (Col 1:17) In that sense, we can't actually exist apart from Him. On one end of the spectrum, then, we can do no actual good without Him. That which is sourced by us without Him is not actual good. On the other end, we wouldn't be at all if He didn't make it so.
So what about our "self-made man." In this light he might be "self-made" if we want to admit that what he has made is not good. If he is good, he is not self-made because without Christ we can do nothing that is actually good. But even the self-made guy who is not good is not self-made because we all rely on Christ to exist at all.
In the end, then, it is important for us to remember our place. We should call to mind our reliance on Him for anything good and the failure of doing on our own that which is not good. We should be ever grateful that we are alive at all because that, on its own, is sheer grace. And this should shape our notion of the "self-made man" (or woman) at all times.
5 comments:
I was totally compelled to defend the expression as not being spiritual in nature. But then I decided you weren't even truly attacking the use of that expression when used in the common manner. Or were you?
No ... and yes. When we use it in a secular way, it is a declaration that the person worked hard and earned what he/she deserved. Unfortunately, it gives no credit to the One who actually rules.
Two other points:
I do hear athletes giving praise at the start of post-game interviews. I always hope they're being sincere.
I can't say that it's as common for folks to refer to themselves as a "self-made man" as I do hearing others describe them that way. Just sayin.
I'm currently in Romans. It begins with the bad news that God's righteous wrath is toward the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men because "they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator." "Self-made," whether I claim it or someone else claims it, is a rejection of God's work in favor of the creature. I have a hard time finding a good excuse for it.
As much as it would be great to hear everyone give God credit for everything, that won't happen in this fallen world anytime soon. At the same time, I don't think we can assume every utterance of someone being "self-made" indicates a dismissal or rejection of God's hand in that person's success. Seems a bit over the top to me.
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