.          Psalm 101:5, "The one who has a haughty look and a proud heart, Him I will not endure."  God hates a proud or haughty look on the faces and hearts of men.  The Lord simply will not tolerate or endure it.  It is a sin and God will punish this sin.  Isaiah 2:11, "The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, The haughtiness of men shall be bowed down." 

           But, if the bible as put on open display that haughtiness is a sin then why does my title say, "When is a Haughty look Righteous"?  Simply put, I say this because it is righteous for God or the Infinite Existence to give a haughty look!  I will show this by the Holy Scriptures and natural reasoning.

            (1) Does God even act proudly?  I mean proud, in the sense, of being confident of our abilities and position while looking down and mockingly toward others?  The answer to this is yes!  Psalm 37:13, "The Lord laughs at him, For He sees that his day is coming."  In this Psalm and in Psalms 2 God with perfect confidence laughs and mocks with sarcasm at wicked persons for He will most certainly destroy them.  If a human did this they would be viewed as proud, for we are told not to laugh at the destruction of the wicked, lest in our haughtiness we too are punished by God.[1]  How can this be some might say?  How come God is able to be proud, in this sense?  How it is a righteous thing for Him and yet for men it is sin?

            There are many things that are sin for man and not for God.  All God does is righteous because He Himself is the standard.  That fact alone changes everything.  God kills all the time and it is a righteous thing, yet it is a sin for man.  It is sin for two reasons.  One, God commanded it.  Second, consider the logical reasoning that it is proper and appropriate thing for a good Judge to bring down vengeance and not other sinners on other sinners.  It not right for a criminal to judge another criminal, for this is called being a hypocrite.  Even the most pagan of nations seem to recognize this.  And so it is proper to have a good man sit as judge over two parties and make the best impartial decision as possible.  How much more for a Perfect Infinite Being to sit as judge over all the earth and heavens!

            See, much like it is right and proper for God to bring down vengeance for ""vengeance is the Mine", says the Lord" so to it is a proper and right thing for only God to give a high and haughty look.  The reason is because a haughty look is someone acting high and mighty.  It is a person who is confident in their power and wisdom.  It is a person who acts like they have the power to back up their mocking.  But no human is high.  Man came from the dust and will return to the dust.  Man is very low indeed.  He is but grass that withers and is no more.  Man is not mighty, for he is not even able to help himself let alone others.[2]  Therefore, it is not suitable; it is not appropriate for man to act haughty when he has no reason too!  He is not able to back up his mocking, for man is nothing.  Yes all mankind is "counted by Him less than nothing and worthless."[3]

          Just as killing is commanded as a sin so to in scripture a haughty look is condemned by God.  But even if we did not have the scriptures by natural reason we are able to see that man is nothing, and therefore, has no grounds to give one haughty look.  But an infinitely good and powerful Being accordingly, has infinite reasons and grounds to give a haughty look.

          (2) I would now proceed to show more scripture support.  Timothy 6:17, "Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy."  Man is prone to foolish thinking.   Many men acknowledge mankind is indeed nothing having no or at least little power.  Still, when many acquire riches they stupidly think they have become something.  With money they believe they are able to give haughty looks for they are able to back up they pride with the so-called power of money.  What foolishness for where does this money come from?  Our verse tells us "the living God gives us richly all things."  Also our verse says that riches are "uncertain."  In other words, riches are here one moment and then gone the next as Proverbs 23:5 says, "For riches certainly make themselves wings; They fly away."

          What this means is that you do not have the grounds to be haughty when the power you stand on to make you proud is (1) uncertain.  Furthermore, you do not have grounds to be haughty when what you have is a (2) gift; a gift which by God's sovereign power and choice can be taken back any moment.   In this verse a haughty look is condemned by God as sin.  We are also given additional intelligent reasons why it is foolish for man to be haughty. 

            Therefore, there are no excuses for a Christian to be proud or haughty, even for a moment.  Indeed, "a fool is self-confident."[4]  Some might say, "but the heart is designed to be confident."  Undeniably this is true, but our hearts were not formed by God to be confident in ourselves.  This is the original sin of the Devil.  Proverbs gives us a clear answer for where our confidence should go: (3:26)"For the LORD will be your confidence."  Dust is not confident in itself, but in the power of the wind to blow it to pleasant places.  Grass is not confident in itself but in the sun for warmth and rain to sustain. 

            (3) More scripture support for why God is righteous in His high and haughty looks to this dusty earth and its creatures.  Isaiah 2:11, "The lofty looks of man shall be humbled.  The LORD alone shall be exalted."  The thing to be noted here is that God has the power to back up His words and looks.  Whereas man proudly boasts but then is humbled (because he is in fact nothing), God on the other hand boasts of much but also fulfills all His boasting of power, wisdom and dominance. 

          God is exalted because He makes good on all His proclamation of supremacy.  He uses real power and makes all His wishes into reality and no one is able to stop Him.  He is infinite power.  God's name Yahweh[5] means Infinite Existence, or endless power that is in constant motion.  God must recreate all physical reality every moment or it would cease to exist.  God is the only real power.  His power is internal or self inherent and not given to Him.  He is power itself.  He is the universal Cause and everything else an effect.  Furthermore, He is perfectly just and good.  All His judgments and actions are perfect to His standard of good and justice.[6]         

            God has the right to sit on high and look down with a confident look and mock all creation for it is in reality, nothing.  This is a suitable and proper thing.  It only belongs to God! 

 Understand, when a person acts haughty or self-confident they are actually taking on a Divine characteristic, which only belongs to the Infinite Existence.  You are actually stealing God's glory when you act in this way!  A person is attributing degrees of divinity to themselves when they are self-proud and give haughty looks.  This privilege only belongs to an Almighty God whose Name is Yahweh and His Son Jesus Christ.

            Consider the haughty looks seen in movies and in our present day.  Typically the proud person will go face to face with another person looking down on them and threaten them.  This person heard news that angered them and so they muster up their proud anger and attacked.  They look down, mock and threaten with vengeance; they speak with full confidence believing they are everything and their opponent is nothing.   But as previously stated man is nothing, and furthermore God condemns our haughty looks.

            Now consider God!  Consider what He will do, or what appropriately belongs to Him as the Infinite Existence.  Ezekiel 38:18, "The Lord GOD", says, " My fury will show in My face."  As man wants to stand face to face with his opponent so that they might see their fury; so to will the Almighty God will get in the face of His opponent and show His fury up close.  Isaiah 65:6, "I will not keep silence, but will repay -- Even repay into their bosom."  Deuteronomy 7:10, "He will repay him to his face."  This is to say God will repay to your face, or were it hurts you the most up close.  He will make it personal and you will suffer greatly under His vengeance.  You will, as it were, feel the warmth of God's sweat as He pursues to destroy you.  Isaiah 42:13, "The LORD shall go forth like a mighty man; He shall stir up His zeal like a man of war."  (& verse 14) "For a long time I have held my peace, I have kept still and restrained myself; now I will cry out like a woman in labor, I will gasp and pant."  What happens when the infinite Existence gasps with His almighty zeal against sin, "(2 peter 3:12), "the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat", the whole seemingly endless universe will vanish in a moment as if it were nothing.  

             God is able to mock and look haughtily on man.   He dose because He is able to see that mocking through.  God said He would flood the whole earth.  Man mocked God because God said this, but God had the last laugh, for His mocking is power itself unlike man whose mocking is nothing.

          (4) Therefore, our place is to be humble.  Our place is bowed down in the dust from the place where we came.  Our place is at the foot of the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ where His blood was spilt for us.  Infinite price and cost for you and I who are less valuable than a drop out of the bucket.  It is here we are able to place all confidence in His rich mercy and promises of love.  We are weak and will fall.  Certainly even the strong man will grow weary and fall.  "Even the young men will become feeble and tired, and the best of them will come to the end of his strength."[7]  But if you are already bowed before the cross then you are safe, for indeed in this position you cannot fall, for you are already in the dust.  Out of humility you see Jesus Christ is the only Savior.  You are able to see in faith how great is His love for you and how true He is to His promises of mercy.  Here you are able to place confidence in His grace, faithfulness and power and not in yourself, others, government, entertainment, food or whatever functional savior you might foolishly cling to in your life.

          From this point of view when you see your enemy fall you do not mock or give a proud look for you realize with trembling that you deserve the same and would have actually received the same except for the fact Jesus Christ reached down and saved your pitiable soul.  Even when there is an enemy of the cross that is beginning to fall you still do not give a haughty look.  For you realize this look belongs to God, and God alone!  You will fight this enemy as you are commanded from the scripture, but the proud look and vengeance is a Divine right belonging only to God.  Christ is your God, you love Him, and are glad this is His executive right, not yours.  A humble heart easily sees such realities.  But a proud mind thinks they deserve "rights", much like the angel the Devil thought because of his beauty he deserved the right to be God!  Yet, a person bowed before the blood stained cross sees there are no rights for them to claim.   Instead they see an ocean of grace and love for them to claim as their everlasting enjoyment.

            At the cross, those who truly see its reality gladly lay down all their prideful rights and haughty looks.  They do this with great joy and exchange them for the free love and mercy of Jesus Christ, which was not free for Him but came at such great cost!

             For a Christian forgiving a spouse, family member or friend is a profound reality shaped by the reality of the cross.  See, at a definite time and definite place their spouse's sin and theirs  were justly dealt with as Christ received the horrific punishment for them.  When their Christian friend or spouse hurts them, even if they do not acknowledge their sin, Christ has already at a definite time and definite place underwent excruciating punishment for that particular sin!  How few see this profound reality for what it is for us! 

            We must recognize this!  And for those who are bowed in the dust before their crucified Savior who see His reality in faith better and more often than they consider their own hurt will recognize this.  But for those who stand at the cross looking at the pool of blood on the ground only to see their own reflection in it dishonor their God and heap upon themselves more hurt and pain.  These hypocrites think their hurt is somehow, at least in a small way, comparable to the hurt that an Infinitely pure Supreme Being endured under an almighty fiery wrath from an Infinitely powerful Being!  They go to the cross for God to recognize their hurt and not His.  Some hypocrites even recognize Christ's suffering not as an end of itself as love and worship to Him but for Him to recognize their hurt.  These God will humble as He said He will.  They will either fall to their knees bowing and as a beggar plead for Christ's mercy and find He gladly gives it; or they will utterly fall into hell and then from there will bow from the exhausting heat and torment.

            It is easy to tell a person who is constantly bowed before crucified Lord.  These are the ones who forgive quickest.  They throw grudges aside as a poisonous viper.  They are meek and gentle.  They do not seek revenge even in the slightest.  They do not even give the cold shoulder to their spouse for friends.  For this they see by faith and scripture is a form of revenge, which is a Divine right only belonging to God.  Being bowed down in the dust at Calvary God has already given revenge for that sin, by horrifically killing and murdering His Son, with hour after hour crushing His Son in wrath for these sins! 

            They are also able to correctly apply the second commandment to themselves.  Do I want revenge given to me?  Does my God give me revenge or the cold shoulder when I sin and go to Him in prayer?  No, Christ always forgives and always heals my heart which I wounded myself in my own sin.  But my sin was personally against Him, yet He is always gentle to restore and reconcile me to Himself as His dearest friend.  I have no rights.  I cannot demand anything while seeing Christ as a wrath appeasing propitiation for my own sin, which was against Him, yet He saved me!  Before as a sinner my law was my rights.  Now as a forgiven child of God my law is love, the same love I received from my Savior.

            See the humble are able to see how deep, wide, and how high is the great love of Jesus Christ toward them.  In this their own hurts are washed away in the ocean of His gentleness.  When they are able to humbly recognize their own hurt is nothing compare to Christ's, seeing it was it their own sin that nailed Him to that cross enduring hour after hour of God crushing Him in wrath, they find they are already being healed and refreshed.

            What happens when your spouse for family member does not repent for a sin that hurt you as they ought?  The Christian who is clinging desperately with both arms around the cross has no hands left to hold onto such a grudge.  They desperately need their own sins forgiven and so would not dare seek vengeance for yours.  But the person who is not desperately clinging to the cross for their own sins usually has a hand freed to hold onto others sin against them.   Such hypocrites cry for mercy for themselves but are not willing to show the same for others.   The measure you give others will be given back to such, as was the fate of the man in Christ's parable found in Matthew 18:22-35.

          For our fellow Christians we must see with joy their sins are forgiven.  This does not mean we give our trust as easily to persons who severely break it.  We must pronounce sin as sin, as God does to all His children.  Still He also gentle pronounces them all forgiven in Christ.  For unbelievers we humbly see our selves under the God we love and leave the vengeance and haughty looks for Him, for His timing, as He pleases.  He is God not us.  God is perfect and so for every hurt we endure, whether on the cross or in hell, will have its full justice!

            Imagine the apostle Paul who murdered and tormented many Christians!  Imagine Peter who was chief pastor of the church as its father seeking to care for his children.  Steven was certainly a friend of the apostle Peter, whose murder was in part responsible by Paul.   Undoubtedly, there were many others who Peter and the Apostles knew, even friends, who were murdered, persecuted and abused by Paul's own hands!  Yet, the same forgiveness, which Peter received from His Savior's nailed pierced hands, he gave to Paul, without a moment's hesitation!  Peter was there when Jesus speak the parable in Matthew 18.  Peter had even asked Jesus how much do we forgive?  His Lord and our Lord responded we are to forgive as much as they sin; for this was the measure given to them.  Peter had forgiven Paul so much that he stood up for Paul as a friend in Acts 15 in front of many persons.  Peter even humbly received from the mouth of Paul, the same mouth used to pronounce the murder of his Christian friends, a rebuke about doctrine in Galatians 2:11-21!

            We have this extreme example to humble our lofty looks and high opinions of ourselves.  We think we have it worse than everyone else and therefore, deserve to demand our haughty rights.  Christ did not even demand His rights when He was on His mission to save us.  The apostles who knew Him best gave up their haughty rights in exchange for God's free love.  They exchanged the law of pride for the law of love in Christ Jesus.  Peter saw His lord crucified bleeding to death for His own sins.  He saw the expressions of love on His divine face given to unworthy sinners.  He therefore, gladly gave the same measure of love and mercy he receive to others.  By the power the Holy Spirit we to are able to survey the wonderful cross and His blood and expressions of love.   Do you have this sight dear reader?  How often do you take advantage to survey this wonderful screen?

            Lest us not forget that forgiving a Christian is a pleasure, for greater amounts of pleasure is found in closer loving relationships with our spouses and Christian friends.   When by the power of God's Spirit and grace you are able let go of a complaint against a Christian, the more quickly a closer relationship is able to be established and thus happiness with it.   This pleasure and ability is only available to us because Christ has done the most difficult work by already bringing justice for our crimes by suffering for them for our benefit!  He is a wonderful Savior.

            If you are quick to demand haughty rights that are not ours, or if you find it hard to forgive, or quick to get revenge such as a cold shoulder then you are an infant in Christ at best.  For this is what you were saved for!  Consider Colossians chapter 3 verse 12-13.  Here Paul begins the application for the Christology given in the previous chapters.  What do you suppose is the first main implication for being a Christian under the gospel of Christ's grace?  Four times in these two verses forgiveness is mentioned! "Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do."  This "must do," means without this you cannot prove you are saved.   Lest we forget, mercy is forgiving someone who does not deserve it, or showing love when it was not earned, for this is what Christ did toward us!

            Those who see the cross the must by faith forgive the most.  They give kindness, meekness the most.  They are also the ones who are healed and refreshed the most in Christ's comforting presence.  But for some hypocrites this is the very reason why they do not survey the cross too much.  For if they did and received deep levels of healing in their soul they would have to let go of their bitterness and high opinion for why they believe they have the right to demand.  They love their pride more than Christ.  They irrationally like their hurt, in a sense, because it feeds their high opinion of themselves.  Saints instead see the hurt Christ endured for their sin, for their worthless lives and therefore love Him much.  They gladly let go of their high opinions in exchange of high praises of Him who washed them in His blood.

          Dear reader reach for the highest opinion of Christ and leave none for yourself.  Remember the cross.  Remember the cross!

             (5) Conclusion:  By God, being GOD we see it is properly His right alone to mock and be haughty, for only He rules, only He has power.  Furthermore, the suffering of our Lord and Savior leads all who see Him to gladly give up their sinful pride for His loving mercy instead.  God is God; and He is good.  He is infinite power itself; He is infinite moral beauty itself.  In light of this our haughty looks and opinions stick out like a sore thumb as infinitely wicked and foolish.  Likewise His high opinion of Himself appears infinitely righteous.  By surveying the cross we to are able to acquire this high opinion of Him.  Do you want this view dear reader or are you still not willing to let go of yours?       

          God has exalted His great justice and great goodness through His Son at Calvary.  He will soon exalt His righteous haughty look and vengeance on, that Day, "Then you shall know that I am the Lord GOD."

[1][ Proverbs 24:17-18

[2] Psalm 146:3" Do not put your trust in princes, Nor in a son of man, in whom there is no help."

[3] Isaiah 40:17

[4] Proverbs 16:14

[5] In the bible the capital LORD or GOD is the Hebrew personal name of God, Yahweh.

[6] "to His standard of good and justice"  This is one way to define what righteousness is.  God is perfect to His standard of justice and goodness, not man's.  Many foolish allegations against God's injustice dismiss this obvious and clear fact.  Of course God is not just in regards to man's standard of justice, for it is worthless and nothing.  God acts perfect to what He says is just for Him to do! 

[7] BBE Isaiah 40:30