Luke recounts a parable that Jesus tells to people "who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else" (Luke 18:9-14). This seemed to be quite a problem in Jesus' day. The Gospels are not lacking instances in which Jesus is scolding the self-righteous religious leaders of the time. Self-righteous folks were numerous then, as they are now. It is natural to be self-righteous, no one wants to go around beating themselves up all of the time. We try to convince ourselves that we are quite good, naturally. The world would be a miserable place if I thought myself worthless. "I am no good", "I will never amount to anything", "I do not deserve anyone's love" are simply not phrases that we should go around telling ourselves.
The truth is, it is likely you are pretty good--if you only look around at others. You can always find someone that is doing worse than you. The primary question however--in God's eyes--is not whether we are doing better than our neighbor. The primary question is whether we are righteous.
In the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector (Luke 18:9-14), Jesus tells a parable in which a religious leader and a probably greedy, despised tax collector are both at the temple. Take note that they both find it important to go to the temple, they also both deem it important to pray. Clearly, both of these men believe that God exists. However, their prayers are very different. Their theology is different. The Pharisee prays, "God, I thank you that I am not like other people--robbers, evil doers, adulterers--or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get" (v. 11-12). This man abstains from actions that God disapproves of and commits actions that are seemingly pleasing to God. Commendable.
The tax collector however--the Scripture says, ".....stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner'" (v. 13). A very different approach. This man does not claim to have good works to present before God--he knows he is a sinner. He knows he cannot live up to God's standard--God is simply too holy, too righteous, too perfect. Our lying, stealing, gossip, hatred, and envy just look disgusting next to God's kindness, forgiveness, mercy, faithfulness, and love. The question is, which man is approaching God correctly? Which one will Jesus commend--if either?
Well, Jesus says, "I tell you that this man (the tax collector), rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted" (v. 14, parentheses mine). This just turns things on its head doesn't it? I thought approval before God was all about acting good, you may say. Well, that's not what the text teaches.
Do not get me wrong, God demands works (James 2:14-19), but it is not the works that make us righteous before Him. It is the accepting of Jesus' righteousness that covers our unrighteousness. There is absolutely nothing that can make us just before God other than God justifying us. This is exactly what God the Father did through God the Son on the cross. The tax collector would not have known about Jesus' sacrificial death on the cross at this point (it hadn't happened), but he did know that he was a sinner in need of God's mercy, not a righteous person deserving of God's wholehearted approval. The tax collector understood that God does the justifying, while the Pharisee had too big a view of his works and too small a view of God's majesty and perfection.
Scripture does not exist just to be read, but to be life-changing. Life-changing is not always a good thing. Bad life-change in light of this text would be using the "sin, confess, repeat approach". People that use the carelessly sin, flippantly confess, consistently repeat approach do not have a full view of the cross. The cross tells us that God loves us AND despises sin. If sin were not a big issue then the cross would not make any sense. We are not saved so that we can keep on sinning without penalty. In our salvation we receive the power of the Holy Spirit to resist any temptation that comes our way (1 Cor. 10:13). Do not use your salvation and justification as an excuse to sin, aspire to righteous living with the freedom that you are eternally righteous through the blood of Christ.
Carelessly continuing to sin in the shadow of the cross is no way to respond--hopefully this is evident. How, then, do we respond? Here are 3 action steps:
The truth is, it is likely you are pretty good--if you only look around at others. You can always find someone that is doing worse than you. The primary question however--in God's eyes--is not whether we are doing better than our neighbor. The primary question is whether we are righteous.
In the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector (Luke 18:9-14), Jesus tells a parable in which a religious leader and a probably greedy, despised tax collector are both at the temple. Take note that they both find it important to go to the temple, they also both deem it important to pray. Clearly, both of these men believe that God exists. However, their prayers are very different. Their theology is different. The Pharisee prays, "God, I thank you that I am not like other people--robbers, evil doers, adulterers--or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get" (v. 11-12). This man abstains from actions that God disapproves of and commits actions that are seemingly pleasing to God. Commendable.
The tax collector however--the Scripture says, ".....stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner'" (v. 13). A very different approach. This man does not claim to have good works to present before God--he knows he is a sinner. He knows he cannot live up to God's standard--God is simply too holy, too righteous, too perfect. Our lying, stealing, gossip, hatred, and envy just look disgusting next to God's kindness, forgiveness, mercy, faithfulness, and love. The question is, which man is approaching God correctly? Which one will Jesus commend--if either?
Well, Jesus says, "I tell you that this man (the tax collector), rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted" (v. 14, parentheses mine). This just turns things on its head doesn't it? I thought approval before God was all about acting good, you may say. Well, that's not what the text teaches.
Do not get me wrong, God demands works (James 2:14-19), but it is not the works that make us righteous before Him. It is the accepting of Jesus' righteousness that covers our unrighteousness. There is absolutely nothing that can make us just before God other than God justifying us. This is exactly what God the Father did through God the Son on the cross. The tax collector would not have known about Jesus' sacrificial death on the cross at this point (it hadn't happened), but he did know that he was a sinner in need of God's mercy, not a righteous person deserving of God's wholehearted approval. The tax collector understood that God does the justifying, while the Pharisee had too big a view of his works and too small a view of God's majesty and perfection.
Scripture does not exist just to be read, but to be life-changing. Life-changing is not always a good thing. Bad life-change in light of this text would be using the "sin, confess, repeat approach". People that use the carelessly sin, flippantly confess, consistently repeat approach do not have a full view of the cross. The cross tells us that God loves us AND despises sin. If sin were not a big issue then the cross would not make any sense. We are not saved so that we can keep on sinning without penalty. In our salvation we receive the power of the Holy Spirit to resist any temptation that comes our way (1 Cor. 10:13). Do not use your salvation and justification as an excuse to sin, aspire to righteous living with the freedom that you are eternally righteous through the blood of Christ.
Carelessly continuing to sin in the shadow of the cross is no way to respond--hopefully this is evident. How, then, do we respond? Here are 3 action steps:
- Thank God for the justification that comes through Jesus. Whether we like it or not, we live before a Mighty, Perfect God that is not amused by our imperfection. He understands it, but is not amused. He also knows that we are incapable of climbing out of our sin to heaven. We are capable of marvelous engineering feats but building a bridge between God and us is not a problem solved by our tools. The bridge between God and us is only constructed from God's end, and that is exactly what He has done through the Son's death on the cross. We become legally right (justified) and capable of crossing the bridge to God by accepting, believing, and embracing the Son's death on the cross for our sins.
- Be humble. The Pharisee said, "God, I thank you that I am not like other people". Not the right approach. Instead we should say: "Thank you Father for your Son's death on the cross, please show me how I can be a blessing to your world and lead others to a life-giving relationship with You." We are not the center of the universe, God is--thankfully so.
- Sin no more. Do not walk over the bridge to a relationship with God and childishly wallow around in your sin. God is perfectly forgiving and you are washed completely in the blood of the Son/Lamb, but weakly continuing to walk in sin is insulting. There is a difference between tempting thoughts and sinful actions. The Bible makes clear that temptations will continue to come in this fallen world but consciously falling to the temptations is a choice that should not make any sense in light of the cross. Jesus' death on the cross broke the bonds of sin (Romans 6:6), we should live like it.
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