The Pharisee in the Parable of the Pharisee and Tax Collector (Luke 18:9-12)

The Parable of the Pharisee and Tax Collector reveals how righteousness is and is not attained. The Pharisee in Luke 18:9-12 shows that righteousness is not attained by works. The tax collector shows that righteousness is attained by grace through faith. Table of contentsOur Works Can’t Make Us Righteous Before GodEven Job Was Not Righteous EnoughEven the Pharisees Were not Righteous EnoughThe Parable of the Pharisee and Tax Collector Teaches How Righteousness Is and Is not Attained“I’m a Good Person” Is the World’s Most Common LieWe Need the Law to Reveal Our SinfulnessThe Parable of the Pharisee and Tax Collector Teaches Pride Leads Us to Look Down on OthersThe Parable of the Pharisee and Tax Collector Teaches Pride Comes from Thinking About What We Don’t DoThe Parable of the Pharisee and Tax Collector Teaches Pride Comes from Thinking About What We DoWe Can Do the Right Things the Wrong WayOnly One Person Was Righteous EnoughPaul Said, "I Count It All as Loss" https://youtu.be/DnAtVJhcnxw The Parable of the Pharisee and Tax Collector reveals how righteousness is and is not attained. The Pharisee in Luke 18:9-12 shows that righteousness is not attained by works. The tax collector shows that righteousness is attained by grace through faith. Job asked the most important question: Job 9:2 (NKJV) How can a man be righteous before God? The question comes up again later in the book… Job 25:4 (NKJV) How then can man be righteous before God? This is the most important question we can ask because it determines where we spend eternity. There can’t be a more important question than this one. This is the question that every religion asks. This sounds good at first, because it means religions are asking the most important question. But the problem is, every religion outside of Christianity gets the answer wrong. Every religion believes we are righteous, or right before God by being good, or by works. But the Gospel is that we are righteous, or right before God by grace through faith. Our Works Can’t Make Us Righteous Before God Job continued wrestling with being righteous before God: Job 9:15 (NKJV) Though I were righteous, I could not answer Him; I would beg mercy of my Judge. Job said he couldn’t even be righteous enough to ANSWER God. Instead, he would have to beg for mercy. Job 9:20 (NKJV) Though I were righteous, my own mouth would condemn me; though I were blameless, it would prove me perverse. Job said even if he was righteous, his mouth, or his words would still condemn [him] and show him to be perverse. Even Job Was Not Righteous Enough It is interesting that Job, of all people, recognized he couldn’t be righteous before God, because if there is anyone who looked righteous before God, it is him. Consider how God himself described Job to Satan: Job 1:8 The Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that THERE IS NONE LIKE HIM ON THE EARTH, A BLAMELESS AND UPRIGHT MAN, WHO FEARS GOD AND TURNS AWAY FROM EVIL?” Can you imagine a better description of someone, from God himself? Satan told God that Job only feared God because of how much God blessed him, so God let Satan remove almost every blessing Job had, and then again: Job 2:3 The Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that THERE IS NONE LIKE HIM ON THE EARTH, A BLAMELESS AND UPRIGHT MAN, WHO FEARS GOD AND TURNS AWAY FROM EVIL? He still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me against him to destroy him without reason.” Job was so righteous, even Satan himself couldn’t turn him from God! Yet he still couldn’t be considered righteous before God. Even the Pharisees Were not Righteous Enough Consider what Jesus said to the people in his day who thought they could be righteous enough: Matthew 5:20 I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. The religious leaders were the picture of righteousness attained by human effort. Everyone knew it was impossible to be more righteous than them. When Jesus said this people would’ve said, “There is no way we can, not just match, but EXCEED the righteousness of these men.” At this point it should be obvious we can’t be righteous in our own effort, but is there a sacrifice we could bring that would allow us to be righteous before God? Is there an offering we could bring that would allow us to be in God’s presence? The prophet Micah asked this: Micah 6:6 “With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? 7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” In other words, "Will this allow me to come before God? With this unimaginable number of animal sacrifices? Or tons of oil? What about the most extreme sacrifice: human sacrifice?" Micah asked about human sacrifice, not because he thought it would please God, but rhetorically to demonstrate that even THIS would not allow us to be righteous before God. Sadly, this is the approach many cultures have taken throughout history in their attempts to be righteous before God. Wonderfully God doesn’t expect this of us, but it looks to him being willing to sacrifice his "Firstborn for [our] transgression and sin." In the Old Testament we read: Psalm 143:2 No one living is righteous before [God]. We know Job’s friends were off, but they weren’t completely off. Eliphaz was right when he argued that we can’t be righteous: Job 15:14 What is man, that he can be pure? Or he who is born of a woman, that he can be righteous? In the New Testament: Romans 3:10 There is no one righteous; no not one. The Parable of the Pharisee and Tax Collector Teaches How Righteousness Is and Is not Attained The Parable of the Pharisee and Tax Collector demonstrates the danger of self-righteousness better than any other narrative in Scripture. By the time Jesus preaches this parable he is far into his earthly ministry. But he is still dealing with people who trust their self-righteousness, so he preaches this parable to show how righteousness is and is not attained. Luke 18:9 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: Although Jesus didn’t mention the Pharisees in this verse, he has them in mind. But the parable applies to anyone who does what the verse says: "[trust] in themselves that they [are] righteous." And every person is born believing the lie that we are right, or righteous before God by being good. “I’m a Good Person” Is the World’s Most Common Lie Consider these verses: Proverbs 16:2 All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes We are self-righteous. We think our ways, or actions, are pure! Proverbs 30:12 There are those who are clean in their own eyes but are not washed of their filth. How bad is this: we are so self-righteous we think we are clean in our eyes, but we are not washed of our filth. Think of the Laodiceans: Revelation 3:17 For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. This is not a physical description, but a spiritual one. The Laodiceans were so self-righteous they thought they were great when they were terrible. It is like the apostate northern kingdom of Israel. God sent the prophet Hosea to rebuke them at one of the spiritually lowest points in their history, yet they were saying about themselves: Hosea 12:8 [Israel] said, “Ah, but I am rich; I have found wealth for myself; in all my labors THEY CANNOT FIND IN ME INIQUITY OR SIN.” They were so self-righteous, God was about to wipe them out with the Assyrians, but they thought there was no iniquity in them. God judges us, not just for our sin, but even for the self-righteous that leads us to say we are without sin: Jeremiah 2:35 You say, ‘I am innocent; surely [God’s] anger has turned from me.’ Behold, I will bring you to judgment FOR SAYING, ‘I HAVE NOT SINNED.’ God said he would judge them for being so self-righteous that they would say they were innocent and without sin. Why would God be so upset when we deny our sinfulness? Because he said we are sinners, so we are calling him a liar: 1 John 1:8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us…10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. Declaring we are righteous is also declaring God is a liar. We Need the Law to Reveal Our Sinfulness Because we’re deceived about our righteousness, we need something to show us we are sinners. God has graciously provided the Law. Despite what most of the world thinks, the purpose of the Ten Commandments, or the purpose of God’s Law, is not to show us how to be righteous. The purpose is to show us we’re not righteous: Romans 3:20 By works of the law no human being will be justified (or declared righteous) in [God’s] sight, since THROUGH THE LAW COMES KNOWLEDGE OF SIN. The Law gives us knowledge of our sin as we see how incapable we are at keeping it. Romans 5:20 The law came in to INCREASE THE TRESPASS. This doesn’t mean God gave the Law so we would sin more. This means God gave the Law so our sins would be increased TO US. Romans 7:7 If it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” The Law revealed Paul’s covetousness to him. The Parable of the Pharisee and Tax Collector Teaches Pride Leads Us to Look Down on Others In Luke 18:9 Jesus said those who trust in themselves are "treat others with contempt." Self-righteousness and looking down on others go