Self-Righteousness # 4

Self-Righteousness # 4

The words translated "be merciful", go further. They mean "offer an atonement for me, be reconciled unto me, through the sacrifice You have appointed." Do you think he would have been offended, as some are now, if he had been called a child of the devil, utterly corrupt, full of iniquity and worthy of nothing but wrath? Far from it: he knew he was a sinner, he felt his lost condition, he made no excuses, he offered no justification, he did not talk about his temptations, he did not make great professions of amendment, as if that could make up for the past; he presented himself at the throne of grace, as he was, weary and heavy laden, casting himself on the mercy of God with all his iniquities, and pleading the blood of the atonement. "God be merciful to me a sinner." Blessed indeed are all among you who have done likewise!

4. Lastly, it remains to consider briefly the RECEPTION the worshipers met with. "I tell you," says Jesus, "this man went down to his house justified rather than the other." The tax collector came poor in spirit, and he was justified. The Pharisee, rich in merits and self-esteem, went empty away. The penitent was not only pardoned - but justified. He had left his house heavy and afflicted by a sense of sin, he returned with joy and peace; he had asked mercy and received it, he had sought grace and found it; he had come hungering and thirsting after righteousness and he was justified. "He went down to his house justified." But the proud Pharisee, not feeling his own needs, not acquainted with his own sinfulness, had sought no mercy, and had found none, and he departed unblessed and unheard; and from the saying the "tax collector went down to his house justified rather than the other," we may fairly suppose this man of self-righteousness and self-dependence had none of that sense of favor and acceptance which the repenting sinner enjoyed.

See now the general APPLICATION which our Lord makes: "Everyone who exalts himself shall be abased - but he who abases himself shall be exalted." Mark these words, "everyone who exalts himself." High or low, rich or poor, young or old, it matters not; for God is no respecter of people, "everyone who exalts himself" and not free grace; who trusts either in whole or in part in his own righteousness and performance and not entirely in Jesus Christ - though he go to church twice a day, though he keep the letter of the Ten Commandments, though he pays everything he owes, though he is sober and moral and decently behaved - everyone who exalts himself shall be abased and condemned, when Jesus Christ shall come to judge.

But on the other hand remember, "he who humbles himself" as a sinner before God and comes unto Christ, though he may have been the most wicked of transgressors, though he may have broken all the commandments, though he may have been a Sabbath-breaker, a drunkard, a thief, an adulterer, an extortioner - whatever his sins may have been, if he acts as the tax collector did, "he shall be exalted." That is - he shall be pardoned, and washed and sanctified and justified for the sake of Jesus Christ, and shall have his place with David and Manasseh and Mary Magdalen and the thief upon the Cross - in the everlasting kingdom of our God and of the Lamb.

And now, beloved, the CONCLUSION let me urge upon all the lesson conveyed in this parable. It is a picture of a very large portion of professing Christians. Some, to be sure, are called by that name - but they never think at all about Christ or their own souls - it would make no difference to them if all the Bibles in the world were burned today - and of course they are going straight to destruction.

But all others, rich or poor (there is no distinction), are either Pharisees or tax collectors. There is no half-way house: they either trust to themselves wholly - or in part, which is much the same. Or else they are always self-condemned and have no confidence in anything they can do for justification.

You cannot search your heart too diligently, for this self-righteousness is the subtlest enemy of all. Beware of thinking, as the devil would have you, that the parable is a very good one for everybody else - but does not exactly touch your case. Be sure in this way you will lose your own souls. If you feel this minute any doubt about your salvation, it were far better to give your soul the benefit of it, and re-lay the foundation of your faith.

But let none forget the point of the parable: the Pharisee was not rejected because he was a moral man - but because he was proud and self-righteous; the tax collector was not accepted because he was a sinner - but because he was eminently penitent. True repentance is necessary for all, whatever be their lives and outward conduct. It is not your morality and your virtues, O you Pharisees, which hinder your salvation - but that proud feeling of something worthy in yourselves, which prevents you from clinging simply and entirely to the Cross and blood of Jesus Christ.

Carry home, then, I entreat you, all of you, that as thee is no way to salvation but Jesus Christ; so there is no character for entering that way but that of the tax collector; and no prayer so acceptable in the sight of your Redeemer and your Judge as "God be merciful to me a sinner!"

~J. C. Ryle~

(The End)