One day Jesus told His disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up.
There was a judge in a certain city,”He said, who neither feared God nor cared about people. A widow of that city came to him repeatedly, saying, ‘Give me justice in this dispute with my enemy.’ The judge ignored her for a while, but finally he said to himself, ‘I don’t fear God or care about people, but this woman is driving me crazy. I’m going to see that she gets justice, because she is wearing me out with her constant requests!'” Then the Lord said, “Learn a lesson from this unjust judge. Even he rendered a just decision in the end. So don’t you think God will surely give justice to His chosen people who cry out to Him day and night? Will He keep putting them off? I tell you, He will grant justice to them quickly! But when the Son of Man returns, how many will He find on the earth who have faith?”
Then Jesus told this story to some who had great confidence in their own righteousness and scorned everyone else: “Two men went to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a despised tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer: ‘I thank You, God, that I am not a sinner like everyone else. For I don’t cheat, I don’t sin, and I don’t commit adultery. I’m certainly not like that tax collector! I fast twice a week, and I give You a tenth of my income.’ But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, ‘O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.’
I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
Luke 18:1-14
Do you see what I have done here? Is it clearer now? I have put both parables together and highlighted the parts that overlap. Yes we do need to pray and never give up. But what are we praying for? Like the widow we are praying for justice. Ah, but what sort of justice? Do we want justice on a earthly level or justice on a heavenly level? When we ask for justice on an earthly level we are wanting to be pronounced just. I.e. In the right according to the law. Our case is a just one if the law is on our side and pronounces us innocent or free of blame.
But on a heavenly level, viz the Kingdom of God, it is similar but the focus is “right in God’s eyes”. Pronounced right with God. In right relationship with God.
Do we fear God? Do we care for people?
Notice the contrasting statements in the second parable – I am not a sinner vs I am a sinner. Did you notice that when you read this passage before this? It’s huge! One man sees it one way and the other sees it totally differently. And furthermore the Pharisee even has an opinion on the other man’s righteousness or lack thereof. What does God say about it all?
For all have sinned and continue to fall short of God’s glory.
Romans 3:23
We can see therefore that the tax collector has a realistic view of reality. The Pharisee has an unrealistic view of his reality and that of the tax collector. It is pivotal to the point of all of this. The Pharisee chose to give thanks that he wasn’t a sinner, which contradicted what God said about us all, including him. He chose to start his prayer with Thanksgiving. The tax collector started with Confession (repentance). That is where the other parables we have been looking at put the emphasis. Confess and Repent. That is what begins your new relationship with God. The Pharisee chose to by pass that step altogether. Not wise. Notice Jesus told the second parable to highlight those who have great confidence in their own righteousness and who scorn everyone else. We all want justice. We all want to be justified. We seek the justification of God. Justification = just as if ( I hadn’t sinned). Which are you more concerned about? Seeking justice from the world system or seeking justice from God. Be careful because you can’t pull the wool over God’s eyes. Man looks on the external; God looks on the heart. God knows you through and through.
Yesterday I used the quote from Max Du Preez – “The number one job of a leader is to know reality.” Reality is Truth (God’s Truth) with a capital T. If you want to understand this at a deeper Level I would suggest you read Romans 3:21-26. As I said in Gem 157, this passage is the Gospel in a Nutshell. [Gems 151 – 160] If you want to understand how it is that God saves you and why Jesus can make such an exclusive statement that He is the Way, the Truth and the Life, then you must understand this passage. Jesus said that no one comes to the Father except by Him and made Christianity exclusive because there is no other way to God. Your own righteousness will not save you. Isaiah 64:6 tells us our own righteousness is like filthy rags. There is nothing you can do to make yourself right with God. The reality is that you are guilty as charged. You can’t argue with God about how you really are. Jesus said to Nicodemus in John 3:10, “How can you be a teacher of Israel and not know these things?” The Pharisee ought to have known all of this. He of all people should have known Reality. Truth. But he was guilty of placing confidence in his own righteousness and then to make matters worse, despising others who didn’t measure up in his eyes.
The LORD has told you what is good, and this is what He requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.
Micah 6:8
Notice how foundational this all is in God’s sight. Little wonder Jesus crafts a pointed series of parables to drive the lesson home. No wonder Jesus reserves His strongest statements for the Pharisees who neglected both of these pivotal points. People confuse truth and righteousness. This is especially true in Indonesia when the continuum of benar (true-right) and kebenaran (righteous-truth) are used in the same setting as kebenaran (righteousness). Hence truth, right, righteous and righteousness are all the same word in Indonesian. So we can decide if we want to refer to right, truth or righteousness depending on the context. No. Not at all. These terms are very different in Greek and Hebrew. Righteousness is reserved for when God pronounces you right, in right standing with Him. No amount of human effort is going to get you there. You can’t make yourself right before God. No amount of right living, holiness, effort, keeping the Law is going to do it. You won’t get to heaven by your own efforts and right living. Most people on earth think they can earn their way to heaven by making sure the good deeds outweigh the bad deeds on heaven’s scales of justice. No, that is not the way it works. In fact Jesus said He came to fulfil the Law. He came to top it up and make it perfect. You say don’t murder (in accordance with the 10 commandments) but I say don’t even hate your brother. You say don’t commit adultery but I say don’t even look at a woman with lust in your eyes/heart. God’s requirement is totally and utterly higher than ours. We can’t get there by keeping the law. The Pharisees were on the wrong track from the beginning.
Notice what Paul says in Roman 3:26. God did what He did in Jesus so that He could be just and justifier. These two parables before us are all about seeking justice, wanting the judge to pronounce us just, right, righteous. But as soon as he pronounces unjust people just or innocent he is no longer a just judge. He is an unjust judge. Ah the point of the first parable. Being pronounced in the right by an unjust judge won’t cut it in heaven. You need God’s pronouncement over you to make it to heaven. So how does God make human beings righteous, just, in right relationship with Him and yet still be a just God? How can He be justifier of sinful man and yet remain just? Only through Jesus. There is no other way. He came and paid your price. But that dear friends is the essence of it all.
Abraham was pronounced righteous by faith, before he had done anything right according to the law. Our holiness, our goodness, our rightness is what we give back to God in return for His grace and goodness to us. It doesn’t save us. Only faith in Christ does that and then His sacrifice covers us. That is why Paul talks about us putting on the breastplate of righteousness as part of the spiritual armour when the devil attacks. Many of us think it means our righteousness or our holiness. It has nothing to do with our righteousness. It has everything to do with God’s righteousness given or imputed to us in Christ. When the devil attacks we simply remind him Whose we are BY FAITH. We tell him, “I have the righteousness of God because I am Christ’s. God sees me as righteous in Him.” It is this faith that Jesus is asking for when He returns. When the Son of Man returns, will he find THAT FAITH on the earth? The saving kind of FAITH. The faith Abraham had which made him righteous in God’s sight. What counts is being right with HIM not trusting in our own religious activity to save us. If you do, your end state will be like that of the Pharisee – unjustified. Furthermore if you adopt the attitude of the Pharisee and despise all those around you and lift yourself up you will be humbled. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.
These two parables fit together really well. The teaching that comes from them is foundational to the End Times. There is no point looking for the Son of Man to come in the clouds if you have no relationship with Him before He comes. If you don’t sort that one out, like the Pharisee in the parable, religious and all as he was, went home unjustified. You will too without God’s righteousness in Christ.
Can you see now why I said in Gem 1109 “Do you really want Justice?” No, what you really want / need is justification and you get that with God’s Righteousness. It is only found in Christ.
I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with Himself depends on faith.
Philippians 3:9
When the truth is truly true it is also love.
Al Mohler
If humility is not at the core of a Christian leader then that leader is merely a leader and not a Christian leader.
Al Mohler
The true goal of leadership is not to cross the finishing line first, but to take as many others with you as you can.
Bob Gass
The more aware you are of your own sinfulness, the more gracious you are to others. Judging others reveals self-righteousness.
Rick Warren
Grace is inviting to the unrighteous and threatening to the self-righteous.
Sandra Stanley