Romans 12:3

For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.

Paul has told us to have a Biblical worldview. Now, “by the grace given to him,” he tells us to live it out in humility and sober judgment. And this relates directly to how we think with renewed minds. See Galatians 6:3 and Philippians 2:5-6. Paul says not to “think” too highly of ourselves, but to “think” of ourselves with sober judgment. Martin Luther said, “God created the world out of nothing, and as long as we are nothing, God can make something out of us.” As we’ve seen from Romans 9-11, grace, wrongly understood, can produce pride. It shouldn’t, and rightly understood, it won’t, but Paul had to reprimand the Gentiles for thinking themselves more deserving of grace than the Jews. So Paul again reminds us not to be filled with pride as a result of the grace given to us, but rather to be filled with humility. Of all the things Paul could have spoken about regarding a renewed mind, he chooses to point to how we think about ourselves! See Romans 8:5-9. The Christian is humble; pride is not an option if you rightly understand grace. The lowly man is the one who has caught a true glimpse of the High and Lofty One (Isaiah 6:1-5; 57:15). But it’s more than just eliminating pride toward or of or in ourselves. We should maintain pride but focus it on Christ. Be proud of Christ working in you. Boast in the Lord. Credit God with your successes and credit yourself for your failures.

Notice that Paul makes faith in its God-given measure the standard for how renewed Christian minds think about themselves. Since faith itself is a gift, and since God clearly gives it in different measures, the pride that we might try to maintain after becoming Christians is necessarily eliminated according to the measure of faith we are given. The more we look to Christ in faith, the less highly we think of ourselves and the more we rely on our brothers and sisters in Christ. In other words, as our faith increases, humility sets in and passionate Christian service follows.