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Jesus told this parable to those "confident of their own righteousness" and who "looked down on everyone else." It's easy to think this parable doesn't apply to us—that it's for someone else, perhaps someone sitting next to us. But the truth is, this parable is for all of us. We all wrestle with self-righteous attitudes. We all wrestle with spiritual pride. We all, at times, think we're better than other people. Please don't allow a prideful heart to keep you from having an open mind and open heart to what Jesus wants to say to us through this parable.
Let's read the parable together from Luke 18:9-14:
To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable. Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed, "God, I thank you that I'm not like other people, robbers, evildoers, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, and I give a tenth of all I get." But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven but beat his breast and said, "God, have mercy on me, a sinner." I tell you that this man rather than the other went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.
We see three things in this parable: first, a warning against spiritual pride; second, the effects of spiritual pride; and third, the remedy or the cure for spiritual pride.
Jesus could not have put two more different people in the same parable. These two men are polar opposites.
In Jesus' day, the Pharisees were highly respected, highly esteemed leaders. They were honored, admired, and seen as the good guys. They were disciplined, intelligent, and devoted to keeping the law. They were trained from a young age with immense knowledge of the Old Testament scriptures. The Pharisees led in local synagogues throughout Israel. They resisted Roman occupation and wanted to preserve Jewish tradition and culture. There was so much about them that was good.
When people heard Jesus say "there's a Pharisee," they thought, Oh, there's the good guy. But when Jesus said "there was a tax collector," they thought, Oh, there's the bad guy.
Tax collectors in Israel were Jews who worked with and for the Romans. They were seen as traitors because they collaborated with Rome to oppress the Jewish people through taxation. Tax collectors often took extra money from the Jewish people to pad their own pockets, and Rome allowed this because it kept the system of oppression operating. Bottom line: tax collectors were despised.
Yet both men came to the temple to pray.
The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed:
God, I thank you that I'm not like other people, robbers, evildoers, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, and I give a tenth of all I get.
Notice the word "I" appears four times. This is shocking because he's saying these things in a prayer to God, and he feels quite comfortable lifting himself up, exalting himself, talking about himself. His prayer is like a resume.
This isn't really a prayer at all. In shocking self-confidence, he essentially looks God in the face and says, "God, thank you, but I'm doing just fine on my own. I don't need your compassion. I don't need your forgiveness. I don't need your strength. I don't need your wisdom. I don't need your help." He lists his good works to feel better about his spiritual state.
Behind his words, he's establishing himself as the ruler of his own life. He's declaring himself righteous and in good standing before God based on what he's doing and has done. The Pharisee doesn't know the truth about God.
In contrast, the tax collector:
stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven but beat his breast and said, "God, have mercy on me, a sinner."
Do you see the difference? The Pharisee comes confidently, looks up to heaven, and his prayer is all about lifting himself up and exalting how good he is. The tax collector stands at a distance, doesn't look up, physically displays a sign of remorse and repentance, and prays knowing he's not good. He knows there's nothing in and of himself that he can bring to a holy, righteous, and powerful God. He knows he needs help. He knows he's a sinner, and he's wrecked.
Jesus then tells us what this parable is really about:
I tell you that this man rather than the other went home justified before God.
If you were in the crowd that day, you likely would have gasped. What? The tax collector justified over the Pharisee? Everyone would have been surprised. This was scandalous. How can a person be justified when they're a sinner, when they're a tax collector—despised and working with Rome—over someone like the Pharisee who is so good and so moral?
The word justified is a legal term. In everyday speech, we say someone "was justified" by their actions, meaning they had good reason. In court, someone is "justified" when the penalty has been dropped or they've satisfied the conditions of the law.
But the biblical meaning is this: Justified means that God as ultimate judge looks at a person and declares them righteous, acquitting them of all guilt and punishment. They're in right standing with God. I like to phrase it this way: being justified is like "just-if-I'd-never-sinned." That's my right standing before God—sinless, blameless, righteous, based on what God has said and done.
The warning for us is against confidence in our own works. It's a warning against self-righteousness. We must not think or believe that our obedience, our generosity, our praying, our church attendance, our Bible reading, our not swearing, our not getting drunk, our not cheating—that any of these things will make us right with God. That's spiritual pride. Because at the end of the day there's nothing that we can do in and of ourselves to be justified before God. Nothing.
Spiritual pride is so dangerous and toxic. It does two devastating things to us:
The Pharisee is so deeply convinced of his own righteousness that he cannot see who God truly is. Only God is good. Only God is holy. Only God is sovereign and all-powerful. Only God is righteous, and only God has the authority to declare anyone righteous and justified.
Look at what God says in Romans 3:
There is no one righteous. Not even one. There is no one who understands. There is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they've together become worthless. There is no one who does good. Not even one. Therefore, no one will be declared righteous in God's sight by works of the law.
Spiritual pride tempts us to think that we can be good like God, that we can be righteous like God. But only God is good. No one is good. Not even one. We can never be declared righteous based on our own behavior or our own good works.
Spiritual pride leads us to minimize our sin, rationalize our sin, justify our sin. It always leads us to think we're better than we really are.
The Pharisee has a clear hierarchy in his mind. He thinks, "God, thank you that I'm not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers, and especially not like this tax collector." He's convinced he's in a better spiritual condition than everyone else.
We all have an inner Pharisee that tempts us to feel superior to others and underestimate the seriousness of our sin. Here's how it works: Sometimes we see a sin in another person's life and we despise it. We think, "Oh, that's so terrible." But when we do the same thing, we think, Well, I just had a bad day. I'm stressed. I just slipped up. Or we think, No one understands my life. We justify it, minimize it, rationalize it. Maybe we think, This doesn't really harm me or others. It's okay. And we tolerate sin in our lives.
The ground is level at the foot of the cross. We're all in the same boat. Sinners. It's only when we come to see ourselves as sinners—just like everyone else—that we're in a position to receive forgiveness and grace and mercy from God.
What's the cure for spiritual pride? The remedy is the gospel of Jesus Christ. The good news.
The fact that we're all sinners means that every single dimension of our being—every act and thought of our experience—is corrupted by sin. The Bible says, "For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We've all fallen short. There's nothing we can do to fix that gap. We can't do anything about it."
But the tax collector knew this. He prayed:
God, have mercy on me, a sinner.
This is a prayer of authentic repentance. The word "mercy" here doesn't mean kindness. It means grace extended to those who have no claim on it, who have no right to it. The tax collector simply asks God to be merciful to him, a sinner. That one word—sinner—encapsulates all he knew to say about himself: I'm honest before God. That's all I know to say about myself. I'm a sinner.
His prayer is devoid of spiritual pride. It's honest humility. The tax collector knows God is good and righteous. He knows he's a sinner. And his prayer is authentic repentance, asking for mercy. And then he receives grace and mercy and walks away home justified—just as if he had never sinned, sinless.
The bad news is that we have all sinned and none of us is righteous. None of us is deserving of righteousness. None of us can attain righteousness on our own. That's terrible news.
But the gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ: God loves you so much that he sent Jesus Christ, his Son—the Lamb of God, perfect in every way. Jesus is the sinless sacrifice who died in our place for the forgiveness of our sins.
When we place our faith and trust in Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord, we receive forgiveness of our sin. We trust in the grace shown to us in Jesus Christ. And in that moment, Jesus' righteousness gets imputed to you. Jesus' sinless, holy, perfect life and right standing before God gets placed on you, and you are justified and righteous.
Look at Ephesians 2:
For it is by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not of yourselves; it is the gift of God. Not by works so that no one can boast.
The remedy for spiritual pride is believing the gospel. The remedy is trusting in the gospel of Jesus Christ each and every day. The remedy is preaching to yourself this gospel each and every day so that we don't fall into spiritual pride.
Here's how I'd like us to respond:
Some of you need to confess the sin of spiritual pride. Be honest with yourselves. Turn from trusting in your own righteousness, your own good works, your good behavior, your knowledge. Trust in Jesus Christ once again for the forgiveness of your sin and being justified before God.
Some of us need to confess that we've been comparing ourselves with others, thinking we're better than others, thinking we don't need as much grace and forgiveness. Confess that thinking. If you've been performing, pretending, pretending that you're something you're not—that you're good when you're not—just confess that. You're sinners saved by grace.
Simply pray and acknowledge and say, "God, have mercy on me. Have mercy on me, a sinner." Acknowledge your sin. Receive God's mercy and grace shown to you in Jesus Christ. Then walk confident—not in your righteousness, but walk in confidence in the righteousness you have in Jesus Christ. You are justified, and that's a fact. But it's nothing that you've done.
Maybe some of you've been boasting about your good works—not overtly, but subtly at times. What you are doing for God makes you feel good and superior to others. Confess that you've been boasting about how good you are. Confess your pride and determine that you will boast only in what Jesus Christ has done for you, not in anything you are doing.
Maybe some of you have never received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, but you want to know God. You find yourself trying to be good, trying to be less bad so that God would love you, see you, maybe bless you, or approve of you. You're trying and striving so hard. Put that striving behind you.
Say, "God, have mercy on me, a sinner," and pray: "Jesus Christ, I do believe that you are the Son of God. I believe that you died on the cross for my sin. Please forgive me of my sin. Come into my life. I trust in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior."
Then receive forgiveness and receive righteousness—the righteousness of Jesus assigned to you—and walk in freedom.
In January of this year, I received grace and mercy from a conservation officer in a way that illustrates the gospel perfectly.
I had a cow elk tag for winter hunting season. We found an elevated spot overlooking a valley. There wasn't much snow, just brown hay stubble covering the ground. Suddenly, a herd of elk came out from the woods. I had an elk in my sights, took a good shot, and the elk went down.
When I walked up to it, I realized my mistake. It wasn't a cow elk—it was a bull elk with two 8-inch single horns on its head. I had shot the wrong animal, and I had done wrong. I was embarrassed, upset, and knew that I had broken the law. The only explanation is that those two horns just blended into the brown hay background in the field.
I picked up my phone and called the fish and wildlife number. I told them exactly what had happened, and they told me a conservation officer would call the next day.
The officer came to my house and sat in his truck with me. He asked me questions for about an hour and a half. I was open and honest, transparent about it. I knew whatever consequences there were according to the law, I deserved them. I deserved whatever the outcome was.
After all that questioning, the officer said to me, "Kent, I'm going to give you two different warnings because you broke two serious hunting laws." He was the only one who had the authority to drop the charges, drop the penalty, and put me in right standing with the law again. And I received that day grace and mercy and walked free. I didn't deserve it. Not at all.
That's what the gospel of Jesus Christ is. We have all sinned. We have all broken God's law. We deserve the penalty. But Jesus Christ, through his death and resurrection, has the authority to drop the charges against us, to drop the penalty, and to put us in right standing with God. When we confess our sin and place our faith in him, we receive forgiveness, grace, mercy, and righteousness. We walk free.
