The Pharisee and the Tax Collector

Confusion

I’d like to start out with a short review and clarification on something, and it’s necessary before we get into today’s parable. The last parable I taught on was the Prodigal Son which had a heavy emphasis on repentance and we went over how repentance and faith go hand in hand.

But since then, after talking with many of you, I’ve noticed some potential confusion on the subject, mainly when I speak of my own testimony of coming to place my faith in Christ. I’ve used some language that when brought to my attention, I can now see from different perspectives, how it might be confusing. I’ve said before that I gave 99% and it wasn’t until I gave up the remaining 1% that I was saved.

And so questions arose, rightfully so, of what does that mean? Do I need to do something to be saved? Do I need to give up everything in my life to be saved? Am I not saved if I haven’t given everything to Christ? Well the short answer to all of those is: No. 100% means complete, full, done. And so it was my bad for choosing to use that.

Testimonies from the Baptism Service

And btw, when you heard testimonies up here during the baptisms, when talking with them beforehand, I told them my testimony which included the percentages, and they liked that so they used it in their testimony. But it’s not their fault, it’s my fault, ill take the blame.

But what I meant was placing my faith in Christ. I think we would all agree that you must place all of your faith in Christ Jesus to be saved. So, the 1% I was holding onto was trust in myself, a little faith in myself, adding to the work of Christ, which we would all agree, hopefully, is bad. That’s no bueno. So it wasn’t until put my full faith in Christ alone (100% of my faith) in Christ, that I was saved. That’s all I did, that’s all that Christ requires, I didn’t have a list of things ready to give up before I was saved, I didn’t clean my life up beforehand, I didn’t do any works, I came as I was, placed my full faith in Christ, and He saved me by His grace alone.

So today, I thought we could look at a parable of Jesus that is very short, very powerful and very clearly and precisely shows justification by faith alone.

Luke 18:9-14 Read and Pray

Alright, first the context: which is very easy to gather, it’s right in verse 9. Why Jesus told this parable? It was to convince those who trusted in themselves or in other words, self righteous and had haughty eyes, or looked down on other people. (contempt, despise others).