Seeing Ourselves as God sees us. Luke 18:9-14. Most people today admit they are sinners, but they don’t view it as a big problem because everyone is a sinner. Many also say, “But basically, I am a good person. Oh yes, I have done a few things I shouldn’t have, but I’m a good person at heart.” The parable of the two men who went to the temple to pray challenges the common idea of what it means to be “good.”
This parable, along with the four other examples that follow, provides insight into one’s relationship with God and how a person enters the kingdom of God. The first is that a person recognizes the fact and admits they are a sinner. Second, anyone who enters the kingdom of God does so with childlike faith. Third, someone who is willing to give up all they trust in and possess will be in the kingdom; fourth, call out in faith to God for help. The fifth example is in the first verses of chapter nineteen, where Zacchaeus joyfully receives the Lord Jesus Christ and makes restitution for his sin.
Eight times in the Gospel of Luke, we read about Jesus praying, and eight different times He taught about prayer. In the second parable in chapter eighteen, the Lord Jesus continued His teaching on prayer by emphasizing a broader truth about values in God's kingdom. Pharisees were serious about obeying God's law and living righteously as they understood it. There was a clear contrast between their righteousness and religion and the publicans, who represented those who were irreligious and openly sinful in their business practices and likely in their overall lives.
Self-righteousness does not earn God's approval, as He judges the heart of each person, not their outward actions or words. Five times, the Pharisees used the pronoun “I” in just two verses. It seems he believed God should be grateful to him for his religious acts of fasting and praying, and for being different from others. The Pharisee, like many of us, looked down on those who were less committed to righteous living. We also tend to think others should be like us in their religious practices, and if they are not, we consider them lesser in God’s eyes. Not only does the Pharisee in the parable miss the point of having an honest heart when communicating with God.
People who pray every morning and night, and attend church when they can, are often confident that God accepts them because of these actions. Some genuinely believe they are destined for heaven because of what they do. They believe their acceptance by God depends on their own efforts, rather than on God. Those who describe themselves as “basically good” are exemplified by the Pharisee who stood in front of everyone and prayed, “God, I thank Thee that I am not like other men.” People who trust in their own righteousness to enter the kingdom of God are sadly mistaken.
Like the Pharisee who “prayed thus with himself,” people who “drive a hard bargain” but claim they are being “thrifty” don’t see themselves as extortioners. The Pharisees robbed widows of their homes, and as far as they were concerned, that was just good business. People who don’t think they are unjust often don’t mind being unfair or unjust in “just a little thing.” To most people, watching movies and pornography isn’t considered committing adultery, or even having sex between “consenting adults,” as long as “nobody gets hurt.”
If we trust ourselves, we can find ways to justify almost anything as long as it doesn’t conflict with our sense of right and wrong. The broader view of this parable suggests that there is no room for anyone to excuse themselves, as nothing is hidden from God. Pride causes a person to look down on others and elevate themselves. It will stop us from learning anything from God. People are forever separated from God because of pride, which destroys the soul.
Contrast the Pharisee with the tax collector who faced himself before the holiness of God and felt his guilt so profoundly that he wouldn’t lift his head. He went so far in his remorse that he beat on his breast, the symbol of the stroke of death he knew he deserved. The seven words of his honest prayer reached God's ears and heart. God can and will show mercy to lost sinners because the Lord Jesus Christ paid the price of sin. The Lord Jesus commends the humbled spirit of repentance. It is only God’s mercy and grace that can deliver a sinner from his sin and its consequences. We do not earn God’s love and forgiveness in any way; they are freely given to those who know they are unworthy of even His smallest mercies, and in repentance, they gratefully rest on what God says to them personally in His word.