Humility and Grace: The Path to Justification

"Also, He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. Two men went up to the temple to pray. One a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus within himself. 'God, I thank you that I'm not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I possess.'" [00:16:44]

"I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. Again, we got a brief parable from the lips of Jesus, one that is filled with information that concerns our eternal destinies. We would be ill-advised to take this parable lightly." [00:68:22]

"Luke tells us that Jesus directed this little parable to a specific group of people, to people who put their trust and their confidence in their own righteousness. Let me say it again. This parable was directed to people who trusted in themselves and in their own righteousness, and who consequently despised others whom they regarded to be less righteous than they were themselves." [00:30:03]

"Back in 1969, I worked in a church in Ohio, and I was the minister of theology, and my main responsibility was teaching, but I also was the minister of evangelism and I trained over 200 people in the ‘Evangelism Explosion’ program for outreach. I would take 200 people out into the community on a Tuesday night, and we would visit people in their homes and present the gospel to them, but we used the famous diagnostic questions to begin the conversation." [00:59:15]

"Probably, the worst answer ever given to that question I ever heard was from my own son. I said to him when he was a young boy, 'Son, if you were to die tonight and stood before God, and God said, ‘Why should I let you into my heaven?’”, I said, 'What would you say?', and he said, 'I'm dead.' My own son believes in justification by death, that all you have to do to go to heaven is to die, and yet, really in many ways, that is the popular view." [00:53:38]

"How different could they possibly be? The Pharisees were that group of people who separated themselves from the ordinary Am Haaretz, the people of the earth and singularly devoted themselves to righteousness, to obeying the law meticulous, scrupulous in their daily devotion to spiritual duties was required of the people to fast twice a year. These guys fasted twice a week. A man didn't just tithe, but if he found a dime on the sidewalk, he'd make sure that he tithe 10% of that." [00:10:04]

"Here is a man who walks right up to the door of the sacred place of the temple and stands there and raises his head to God, raises his hands in prayer He looks up into the heavens with thanksgiving, 'I thank you, God that I'm not like other men. I see other men who were extortioners and adulterers and robbers and liars and all of that, and I say there but for your grace, ‘Go I’, so thank you, Lord that I'm a pretty righteous fellow.' Now, what do you make of that?" [00:14:11]

"Pelagius said, 'What? Are you asking God to grant you what He commands? You don't need any help from God to do what God commands. If God commands you to do something, doesn't that mean Q.E.D., that you have the moral ability to do it? God would never command you to do something that you can't do.' Augustine said, 'No. I can't do anything without the grace of God.' Pelagius said, 'Look. Grace is a good thing. God has grace. God gives grace, but you don't need it to be obedient.'" [00:15:49]

"Most people still think that they contribute something significant to their own salvation. I'm guessing that this Pharisee was a semi-Pelagian, but you scratch a semi-Pelagian, and inside, there's nothing but Pelagianism left, so it's really a distinction without a difference. This man was Pelagian. He tipped his hat to God for the assistance he got from his favor and from his grace, but in the final analysis, he's standing up there by the holy place supremely confident in his own righteousness." [00:18:30]

"His gaze was on the floor. 'Standing afar off, he would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but instead, he beat his breast saying, 'Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner'.' He had nothing in his hand to bring. He brought absolutely nothing to the table except his sin. He had nothing to offer to God, except his guilt. He didn't come before God and say, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner. After all, I was born and raised in a rough neighborhood, and I was abused as a child and I didn't get the self-esteem I should have had as a human being.'" [00:21:09]

"Then, Jesus ends this little parable by saying, 'I tell you; this man went down to his house justified. That man who couldn't even look up into heaven, who couldn't get near the holy of holies, who could only beat on his chest and repent in sin, plead for the mercy of God, throw himself on the mercy of the court, he walked out of that door and he went unjustified.' Now, you're going to go home sometime today I presume, or if you're on vacation or to be with your family for Christmas at some point. You're going to go home." [00:27:06]

"If you're sitting in this building today and you're not justified, don't leave here until you are. Don't leave here until you tell the Lord God omnipotent that you're a sinner and can't stand apart from His mercy and His grace, because if you throw yourself and your soul on Him and on His mercy and clinging to Christ, you will go home justified. The spiritual guy, the Pharisee, the one who came so close to the holy place, Jesus said, that 'The publican went home justified rather than the other.'" [00:28:00]