18:9 ¶ And he spake this
parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and
despised others: 10 Two men went up into
the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. 11 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. 12 I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of
all that I possess. 13 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. 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.
The obvious point here
is who is more accepted with God; the self-righteous person who acts like God
is lucky to have that person on His team or the humble man or woman who
realizes the sorry state they are in before God?
When Jesus gave His
popularly called ‘Sermon on the Mount’ to His disciples He said;
Matthew 5:3 ¶ Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is
the kingdom of heaven.
Isaiah wrote in
passages given by inspiration of God;
Isaiah 66:2 For all those things hath mine hand made, and all
those things have been, saith
the LORD: but to this man will
I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit,
and trembleth at my word.
Only the person who
realizes they are spiritually and morally bankrupt without God is justified
before Him. The strutting peacock who comes to church in his or her finest with
Bible tucked under their arm acting like they are a part of some kind of
superior social club is lacking in that regard. We have to realize that we are
abject sinners whose condition is miserable without Christ, and whose future is
a gallery of horrors without God’s salvation, in order to turn from our sins,
our dead works, to Christ. What I am saying is that even if they come to church
people will not come to Christ as long as they view themselves as the
proverbial, “all that and a bag of chips,” or, “the cream of the crop.”
Cultural Christianity draws the self-righteous and occasionally one of them
gets saved.
Romans 5:8 But God
commendeth his love toward us, in that, while
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
How many people, one
can only wonder, do not come to church because they feel that air of
superiority, of self-righteousness, directed against them? How many Christian
congregations are composed of a majority of people who are smug and self-satisfied,
who would dislocate their arms trying to pat themselves on the back in an orgy
of self-congratulation?
Along with trusting in
God and accepting His will for your life this is a hard thing for people of
faith, a temptation that damages their testimony.
1Peter 5:5b …Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and
be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the
humble. 6 Humble yourselves therefore
under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:
If a person depends
upon their own righteousness to justify them before God they themselves are not
a blessing but a blemish on the house of God. In one of Paul’s long sentences
he wrote;
Philippians 3:9 And be
found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the
faith of Christ, the righteousness
which is of God by faith:
Ask yourself, which are
you, the Pharisee or the publican (tax-collector)?
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