Who is Truly Justified?
Notes
Transcript
And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:
Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican.
The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.
I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.
And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.
I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
Introduction:
Introduction:
It seems that every national survey that raises the question revels that most people assume they are good enough to go to heaven, or at least too good for God to send them to Hell.
In a survey, performed by the Barna Research Group in California said that one out of every ten people who describe themselves as born again Christians also believe that people are reincarnated when they die.
Nearly 1 in 3 claim that it is possible to communicate with the dead.
50% of professing Christians believe that it is possible that a person can earn salvation based upon good deeds even without accepting Christ as the only way to eternal life.
Nearly 2/3 of Americans believe that they will go to heaven when they die.
And as you look at other religions and cults that are in the world, one of the areas that false religions have in common is that they all believe that you can earn your way to their version of heaven by good works.
In fact, the book of Mormon says in Moroni 10:32:
“Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourself of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourself of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind, and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you....”
Listen, not only is that works salvation, but is there anyone who has loved God perfectly?
And if there is no one who has loved God perfectly, who then can be saved?
Jesus Christ, like He did so many times with the religion of the day, gave a poignant lesson about grace towards the humble and punctures the self-righteous pride of the Pharisees.
And, as common course for Christ, He used an illustration of two people that stood so many worlds apart on the social, economic, and religious scale, that the stories infuriated the Pharisees and scribes.
People are so concerned today with being Politically Correct that when they are speaking the truth it can be seen as hate speech.
In this story of Christ to suggest that the lowest sinner can justified while a devout religious leader is rejected sounded like it was an all out attack on divine justice, the Mosaic law, and every rule of righteousness.
If God graded human behavior on a curve, the Pharisees would have been at the head of the class.
But Jesus was pointing out that God does not adjust the scale of righteousness to accommodate human failure.
As we have told many times the last several weeks, God’s standard is absolute, uncompromised perfection.
To fail in one point, is to fail in all points.
For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.
The most infuriating part of this parable, from the perspective of the Pharisees, was in the last verse of the parable.
I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
It cut to the very core of their belief system that some gain a right standing before God, apart from works, any religious ritual, the absence of any self-atonement, and without performing any deeds or merit.
Not only did Jesus say that God accepted this humanly rejected person, but that God rejected this humanly accepted person.
This was stunning to hear.
How can such a thing be possible?
Have you ever wondered why Christ preaching law instead of grace?
The answer is because the law is what they needed to hear.
The religious people of the day did not feel the full weight of the law, they did not believe themselves to be lost.
When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
Listen, the gospel has nothing to say to those people who are satisfied with their own righteousness.
The gospel is not really good news for someone in that state of mind.
If I believe that I already possess righteousness, then it is not good news to hear that I can be forgiven and receive the righteousness of God in Christ.
All who are determined to establish a righteousness of their own will fail and thus condemn themselves; but those who submit to the righteousness of God are graciously justified by Him.
The principle is the simple dividing line between the gospel of Jesus Christ and every other erroneous or demonic belief system, it is self-righteousness versus Imputed righteousness.
Most people think exactly like the Pharisee in Jesus’ parable: “I am not as bad as other people, I should be OK.”
The kind of religion of man, and by comparison this Pharisee, is the kind that seeks no mercy, no grace, no forgiveness, no sympathy for himself.
He asks God for absolutely nothing, because he can think of nothing he needs.
His is simply thankful that he is not unrighteous.
I want to break this parable down for you in four digestable sections.
I. The Purpose of the Parable (vs. 9)
I. The Purpose of the Parable (vs. 9)
And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:
Luke tells right away about the target of the words of Christ.
The purpose of the parable was to target, evangelistically, those that, first of all, trusted in themselves for their own righteousness.
The word for “trusted” is “πείθω” and it means those that depended on themselves.
Christ was speaking to those that put their confidence in themselves.
This was a message for the purpose of speaking to all of those people who are depending on themselves that they are righteous, instead of looking to Christ for the imputed righteousness that they need.
Those people that trust in their own righteousness miss a very important part.
And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.
There is a kind who is pure in his own eyes, Yet is not washed from his filthiness.
Which say, Stand by thyself, come not near to me; for I am holier than thou. These are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day.
The Lord is stating that you are so self-righteous and trusting in yourself that the smoke of your sacrifices is a constant irritation to me.
Not only did they trust in themselves, but the text says that they also “despised others.”
That is the word “ἐξουθενέω.”
to show by one’s attitude or manner of treatment that an entity has no merit or worth
to utterly disdain — to treat (someone) contemptuously as if completely worthless or despicable
And the root of this kind of attitude is a hatred for that person.
This word is used only twice in the NT.
The other time it is used is in the Gospel of Luke.
And Herod with his men of war set him at nought, and mocked him, and arrayed him in a gorgeous robe, and sent him again to Pilate.
The word “mocked” is the same Greek word that is translated in out text as “despised.”
Where Herod, with his men of war, treated Jesus with contempt and mocked him, arrayed Him in a gorgeous robe.
The Pharisees viewed anyone outside of their circle of disciples as good for nothing.
Their name for their own disciples, people who followed their strict interpretation of the law, was haberim (“associates”).
People who did not follow Pharisees’ rules were am ha’aretz (literally, “people of the land”).
The expression signified someone who was unclean- a lowlife.
So, these are the people kind of people that Jesus is addressing in this Parable, and His purpose is to unmask these self-appointed people as very far from God.
So that is His purpose.
II. The People of the Parable (vs. 10)
II. The People of the Parable (vs. 10)
Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican.
There are two main characters in this parable of our Lord; the one is a Pharisee and a tax collector.
Now, the Pharisee, we have seen right often here in the last several weeks.
As you know they were the religious elites of the day, the social religious insider.
They were the separatists.
The Pharisees were the guests of honor at every event.
To have a Pharisee attend a meal or a gathering was a mark of high status.
At the other end of the social spectrum was the tax collectors.
These guys were the most universally despised people if all of Israel.
They were basically turn coats and criminals.
They were morally and ethically bankrupt, patsies of Rome, and the enemies of everything holy.
In fact, tax collectors belonged to the same social category as harlots.
Whether of them twain did the will of his father? They say unto him, The first. Jesus saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you.
For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not: but the publicans and the harlots believed him: and ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe him.
As well as Drunkards.
The Son of man is come eating and drinking; and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners!
Tax Collectors had a reputation for being not only dishonest and cruel, but also morally debased in every conceivable way.
Tax collectors purchased franchises from the Roman occupiers.
The agreement that was made is that they required them to collect a fixed amount of taxes to Romans and anything that they collected above that, they kept for themselves.
They accumulated their wealth by taking unfair advantage of their own people.
So, those are the characters that are in this parable of Christ.
One a well respected religious leader, and the other was known as a traitor and thief and was not even allowed in the synagogue.
So, this makes the one that was truly justified all the more amazing as to the level of the grace of God, and all the more infuriating to the religious leaders that were listening.
III. The Performance of the Parable (vs. 11-13)
III. The Performance of the Parable (vs. 11-13)
The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.
I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.
And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.
As we look at the text, there are two differentiating areas that set these two men apart dramatically.
A. Their Posture (vs. 11a, 13a)
A. Their Posture (vs. 11a, 13a)
The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.
And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.
The posture among these two men is very significant.
The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.
Now, the fact that the text tells us that he was standing is, in and of itself, not the problem.
Standing with face raised towards heaven was actually quite normal and was a posture that signified praise and compliance.
What is significant is that he chose to place himself in some distinctive place where he would surely stand out, and stand apart from everyone else.
The word “stand” there is the word “ἵστημι” and it carries the idea of:
to come up in the presence of others, come up, stand, appear
The idea and the sense of this Greek word here is the idea that this man made sure that he stood where other people were sure to see him.
Jesus mentioned the hypocrisy of such an attitude in the Sermon on the Mount.
And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
The Pharisee, no doubt, chose a prominent place as close to the holy of holies as he could get.
Because, in his own mind, he belonged there.
And what this Pharisee did was to change what should have been a worshipful image to an image that was ostentatious and self-promoting.
Then we come to the Tax Collector.
And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.
Now, the Scripture say that this man, to, was standing as was the custom of the day.
But I want you to notice the word “standing.”
It is the word “ἵστημι” which is the same word as “standing” in reference to the Pharisee.
The different is in the verse concerning the Pharisee, this Greek word is in the Aorist tense, and here in reference to the Tax Collector it is a Perfect Tense.
Normally, the Perfect Tense will describe an action that is completed in the past but has results up into the present, but that is only in the indicative mood.
But what we have in this verse is a Perfect Tense that is a Participle.
This describes a stative verb, which describes a state of affairs or condition that exists with no reference to change or progress.
Why is Luke using this part of speech?
Because he wants to emphasis the state or condition of the tax collector versus the Pharisee.
This man stood in a place afar off.
He did not place himself in the middle of traffic so that everyone would notice him, but he stayed, probably, on the outer edge of the temple grounds.
Why?
Because he knew that he did not deserve to be in the presence of God or in the presence of other worshipers.
He saw himself as a pariah; not only to the society but also to God.
He was so ashamed that he stood far away from everyone else, would not even lift his head to heaven, and he beat of his chest repeatedly.
He was overwhelmed by profound guilt, intense shame, and an utter sense of disgrace.
He knew that he was unworthy, he would confess his sins without excuse and there was no hint of pretence or self-justification.
This man, no doubt, felt the full weight of his alienation from God, everything about his posture said so.
Jesus said that this man, “beat on his breast.”
Now, in this culture, to pray with your head down and your hand over your heart was a posture of humility.
But this man went beyond that to beating on his chest.
“Beat” is the word “τύπτω” and it is an imperfect tense verb.
Speaking about continual action in the past.
Jesus shows this man to be so lamenting over his sin and who he was, that he was repeatedly beating on his chest in sorry.
And, listen, you do not continually “beat” your chest with your open hand.
This man was beating, continually, on his chest with his fist.
The imagery needs no explanation, except to say that this man is clearly in a state of extreme anguish over his sin.
Filled with remorse, shame, sadness, and every other related emotion.
And could not even lift his head to heaven.
But why pound the chest?
Why not pound somewhere else on the body?
Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.
Our true character is defined by what is on the inside, in the inner person.
The seat of thoughts, emotions, and desires are on the inside.
Scripture speaks of this as the heart.
For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,
Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness:
All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.
Therefore, this man beating his breast symbolizes this man’s remorse over the evil he had treasured up in his is own.
And it made him sick, it made him unbelievably sad.
And this parable mad the Pharisee’s unbelievably mad.
But not just their posture:
B. Their Prayer (vs. 11-12, 13)
B. Their Prayer (vs. 11-12, 13)
Interesting how Christ speaks about the prayer of this Pharisee, “he prayed with himself...”
Now, this might mean that he was praying, like Hannah, in an inaudible voice in 1 Samuel 1:13.
But that was probably not what Christ had in mind here, because the Pharisees had the habit and loved to pray loudly so that they could be seen of people.
This Pharisee was praying loudly, very self-congratulatory, because he took pleasure in reciting and hearing his own accomplishments.
In fact, in the span of two verses (vs. 11-13), the Pharisee uses the first pronoun five times.
Though he thanks God for what he is not like, there is no actual praise from his lips.
Asked nothing from God, no mercy, no grace, no forgiveness, and certainly no help.
This man’s only unequivocal confession to God was the assertion about his own merit and how he is not like other people.
And to make sure God got the message, the Pharisee was as specific as possible.
As normally is the case, self-righteous people always seem to compare themselves with the worse of the worse.
He mentioned people who steal:
The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.
He mentioned the people who normally hung around the tax collectors and spoke loudly in an effort to really point the finger at the tax collector in a way that the tax collector would know who the Pharisee was talking about.
But he did not stop there, he then began to list his accomplishments.
I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.
The law, in Lev. 16:29-31 only required one fast annually, in preparation for the passover.
This Pharisee fasted twice a week believing that he would get more of God’s favor by doubling up on the amount of times he fasted.
But the only thing that this Pharisee was doubled up on was self-esteem.
But the tax collector, in his prayer, made no pretense of self-righteousness, he only said these words:
And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.
And, interestingly enough, in the original Greek Jesus adds in the definite article “the.”
So, what this tax collector thought of himself was that he was so vile and wicked, they he saw himself as “the sinner.”
Paul said the same thing about himself.
This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.
This man is concerned with his own guilt, not someone else’s.
And he confessed his need for grace, something that the Pharisee made no reference to.
IV. The Principle of the Parable (vs. 14)
IV. The Principle of the Parable (vs. 14)
I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.