Read Textual Sermon from Robert Jeffress
The moment you trust in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, in the great courtroom of heaven, God pronounces you forgiven—righteous. You are in a right standing with Himself.
But other times, the word “righteousness” in the Bible refers to right acting before God. It’s our conduct, our obedience. It’s an ethical—not a judicial, but an ethical—kind of righteousness.
For example, in 1 Peter 3:12, Peter says,
“For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.” (KJV)
One reason we don’t get our prayers answered sometimes is we’re not acting righteously. We may be in a right relationship with God—we may be forgiven of our sins—but if we don’t act righteously, God doesn’t hear our prayers.
Judicial righteousness. Ethical righteousness. But Jesus said the prerequisite for both of them—both a right standing with God and a right acting before God—is to want it. It’s to hunger for it. “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” (Matthew 5:6 KJV)
My friend and Bible scholar R. T. Kendall tells about a time that he was nine years old and staying one night with his grandmother. The next day he had a test at school that he wasn’t prepared for. So when he awakened the next morning, he told his grandmother that he wasn’t feeling well and didn’t feel like going to school. She said, “Okay, well, go back to bed.” And he protested and said, “Well, I would like breakfast first.”
She said, “If you have an appetite, that means there isn’t much wrong with you. So, you go get dressed for school, and I’ll prepare breakfast.” Well, you know, Jesus is saying the same thing here. Your appetite is a pretty good indication of your spiritual health.
If you’re a Christian this morning and you have a hunger—you have a thirst—for being more obedient to God, then you’re in pretty good spiritual shape. You may not feel like it, but you’re on the road to spiritual health. In fact, 2 Peter 1:3 says you have everything you need for life and godliness.
If you hunger for an ethical righteousness—obedience to God—you’re on your way to spiritual health. But if you’re not a Christian this morning—if you’re just here by accident, perhaps you tuned into this broadcast by accident—but you have a desire, a hunger to be clean, to be forgiven, to be in a right relationship with God, it’s a good indication that you are also on your road to spiritual health. In fact, if that’s true of you this morning, you are only seven words away from a right relationship with God. And today, we’re going to discover what those seven words are in a familiar parable. Turn in your Bibles to Luke 18, beginning with verse 9, as we look at the one prayer God always promises to answer. Luke 18.
Two People, Two Postures, Two Prayers
Now, this is one of those parables Jesus told that’s very easy to interpret because Luke gives us the interpretation at the beginning of the parable. He tells us the reason Jesus told it. Look at verse 9: Jesus told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and viewed others with contempt.
This parable is directed toward a group of people—specifically the Pharisees—who trusted in themselves. Literally, in the Greek text, it says they based on themselves thought they were righteous. They thought God looked on them with favor, that they had a judicial righteousness—they were not guilty before God. They also were ethically righteous—they did all the right things. But the reason they believed that was a standard based on themselves.
You know, today there’s a lot of talk about having self-esteem and that people suffer from a bad self-image. But the truth is, the problem with most of us is not that we think too little of ourselves, but that we think too much of ourselves. Dr. David Myers is a psychologist who has written a lot about what he calls the “inflated self” syndrome in America. He reports that when the College Board surveyed high school seniors, they found that, amazingly, 0% of high school seniors thought that they were below average compared to other students. 60% believed they were in the top 10% in their ability to get along with others. He concluded that the most common error in people’s self-image is not unrealistically low self-esteem but rather self-serving pride. It was not an inferiority complex but a superiority complex. That was the group Jesus was talking to—those who thought they were righteous.
And notice the second phrase He uses: they viewed others with contempt. I mean, that’s the byproduct of feeling superior. What’s the good of being superior if you can’t look down on other people, right? And there are actually some people who are proud of their own humility.
Whenever I read this parable that Jesus told about the Pharisees, I’m reminded of the third-grade Sunday school teacher who, after teaching this lesson to the children, said, “Now, children, let’s bow our heads in prayer and thank God that we’re not like the Pharisees—or people who feel that way.”
The purpose of this parable that Jesus told is very clear in verse 9. This parable is not a parable that teaches us how to pray. It’s not a parable that answers the question why God answers some prayers and doesn’t answer other prayers. This parable is about how to be righteous—how to be in a right standing with God. And in this parable, we find two very different approaches to God: one that is based on our goodness, our own works, and one that is based on God’s grace.
Now let’s look at the two characters—the two players—in this parable. Verse 10: Jesus said, “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.” If Jesus were telling the story today, He might say two people went into the church to pray—a preacher and a prostitute. That’s the contrast Jesus is trying to give us here.
The Pharisee. Let’s look at him first of all. Now today—this is so important to understand—we think of the Pharisees as the villain. They were highly revered, respected men. They knew the Old Testament backwards and forwards. And not only that, they were thought to be truly godly people. They had a desire to be godly. Their problem was they had the wrong idea of godliness. They thought godliness was based on themselves and not the grace of God.
Now notice his prayer. The Bible says Jesus said this Pharisee, when he went to pray, stood to pray. A lot of people make a big deal out of that. “Oh, look how proud he is—he stood.” There’s nothing wrong with standing to pray. In fact, a good Jew would stand to pray. Today, if you go to the Western Wall—the Wailing Wall—people stand there and pray and pour out their hearts to God. The problem with this man’s prayer was not his posture; it was his attitude. And you see that in the second phrase: he stood and he prayed to himself.
Isn’t that a funny phrase? He prayed to himself. Now, he probably didn’t think he was praying to himself, but you look at the prayer here—it was a prayer of self-congratulations about all he had done. Look at verses 11 and 12: The Pharisee stood praying this to himself, “God, I thank You that I am not like other people—swindlers, unjust, adulterers—or even like this tax collector over here standing next to me. I fast twice a week. I pay tithes of all that I get.”
This Pharisee’s problem was he had an “I” problem. I, I, I, I. He was focused on himself.
Have you ever noticed people today who try to give a testimony, but they can’t help but make themselves the hero of the story? Their testimonies are what one friend of mine calls braggamonies. It’s about me, me.
Contrast him to the other character in this story—the tax collector. The Jewish people hated tax collectors for two reasons. First, they were helping fund the oppressive Roman government that was occupying their land. Second, they were cheating people—taking more than they were supposed to take.
And so this tax collector went up to pray as well. Don’t miss the point that this tax collector was just as much under God’s judgment as the Pharisee was. They both went to the temple to pray. But notice his prayer in contrast to the Pharisee’s: “And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, ‘God be merciful to me a sinner.’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other…” (Luke 18:13–14 KJV)
This is one of the shortest prayers in the Bible—seven words in English, six words in the Greek text. And yet this prayer reveals the two essentials for righteousness, for a right standing with God, for God’s salvation.
First, he expresses sorrow for his sin. You hear that in the prayer. “Be merciful to me the sinner” is what it actually says in Greek. It’s articular—there’s an article before the word sinner. It’s not “Be merciful to me, a sinner” just like everybody else in the world. No—“Be merciful to me, the sinner. I am the chief sinner of all.”
By the way, notice his position. He stood some distance away. Away from what? Probably away from the altar of sacrifice representing the presence of God. But he even stood away from the Pharisee. “Oh, I can’t be near a holy man. I can’t be near to him, and I certainly can’t stand near to God.” But here’s the paradox: by standing far away from God, he was closer to God than the Pharisee.
Here’s one thing you understand: the more you understand the true holiness of God, the more you understand how sinful you and I really are. A real encounter with the genuine God leads you to understand your own unholiness. That’s what happens to any sinner who confronts a holy God—you’re aware of your need.
But an expression of sorrow for your sin isn’t enough to be forgiven. It’s not enough for salvation. There’s a second ingredient you see in this brief prayer: he requested God’s mercy to cover his sin. He said, “God, be merciful to me, the sinner.”
Mercy Seat, Great High Priest, Eternal Redemption
Now, that Greek word translated “merciful” is not just any word for mercy. It’s a very special word—a form of the word used to describe the mercy seat in the temple. Remember, in the temple the holiest place of all was the Holy of Holies. It was behind a veil, and only one person could enter the Holy of Holies once a year—that was the high priest. Remember, in the Holy of Holies, behind the veil, there was the Ark of the Covenant. And that ark, among other things, contained the two tablets—Moses’ tablets with the Ten Commandments.
On top of the ark—which was more like a box—there was a lid covered in gold. It was called the mercy seat. On each end of the mercy seat was the replica of an angel, a cherub; and the cherub on each end had outstretched wings. They were thought to protect the holiness of God. It was believed that the Spirit of God dwelt between the cherubim on that Ark of the Covenant.
The picture was very clear: it’s a picture of God’s judgment. God—a holy God—is looking down on the Law, His Law which He gave His people, a Law which the Israelites broke every day of every year. It was a picture of the judgment that God’s people deserved for the Law they had broken.
But once a year on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the high priest—after making an atonement for his own sins—would take the blood of an innocent animal and would come into the Holy of Holies in the presence of God. He would take that blood and sprinkle it on the mercy seat that covered the broken Law. And the picture was: as God looked down, He no longer saw the Law that had been broken, but He saw the covering—the atoning—of that innocent animal.
And, of course, all of that was a picture of what Jesus Christ, our perfect High Priest, would do one day. The high priest, for hundreds of years, had to come in year after year after year. He had to, first of all, make an atonement for his own sins. He came with the blood of an animal, and he had to do it repeatedly.
But Jesus Christ is our perfect High Priest, and He has entered not a man-made temple, but the true temple—the presence of God. And He approached the throne of God not with the blood of an animal that was worthless, but with His own blood. And He obtained—what?—eternal redemption.
“Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.” (Hebrews 9:12 KJV)
Why do I mention this? Because when this tax collector said, “Lord, be merciful to me,” he was asking for a blood atonement—a covering that would wipe away his sins. He understood he was powerless to forgive himself. He needed forgiveness that was based on the sacrifice of the true High Priest, Jesus Christ. You see that even in the way he prayed. James Montgomery Boyce points out the simple sentence structure of this prayer: it starts with God and ends with the sinner, but has mercy in the middle. It is God’s mercy—it is God’s grace—that connects sinful man to a holy God.
“God, be merciful to me, the sinner.” Two men with two very different ways to approach God: one who tries to approach God based on his own righteousness, and one who approaches God based on God’s grace.
Now, if Jesus had stopped right here with the prayer and said, “Now I’m going to give you a pop quiz. Audience, you’ve heard the story. Which man walked away from the mountain justified—in a right relationship with God?” The audience, without a doubt, would have said, “Why, the Pharisee, of course. The Pharisee is the one who ended up righteous. I mean, look at all of the things he’s done. He’s tithed. He’s fasted. He’s not like these adulterers and murderers. He’s righteous. Why would that tax collector think a little seven-word prayer suddenly makes everything all right with God?”
Haven’t you heard that before? “How can people think that praying a prayer of salvation erases all of the bad they’ve ever done before?” They would have picked the Pharisee for sure. And that’s why Jesus turns their expectations upside down in verse 14. He says, “No—I tell you, this man, the tax collector, went to his house justified rather than the other.”
You know what’s interesting to me? I’m sure when the Pharisee finished his self-congratulatory prayer, he felt great. I’m sure he left the temple mount that day saying, “You know, nothing like some good quality prayer time with the Lord.” And I imagine that the tax collector probably left just as miserable as he went—feeling bad and terrible about his sin. But guess what? Your relationship with God isn’t based on how you feel about your relationship with God. It’s based on how God views you—how He sees you, how He feels about you.
And Jesus said, “I’m telling you, regardless of this tax collector’s feelings, he left the mountain that day justified, declared not guilty, because his prayer wasn’t based on his righteousness; it was based on My mercy.” And then Jesus adds these familiar words: “For every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” (Luke 18:14b KJV)
Humbled and Exalted
The person who refuses to bow before God and admit his need for forgiveness will one day be humbled. One day he will be shocked to hear from the Lord he thought he served, “Depart from Me, you worker of iniquity, for I never knew you.”
On the other hand, the person who bows before God and says, “God, I am a sinner. I am the sinner, and I have no hope except Jesus Christ”—a person who humbles himself—will one day be exalted and welcomed into God’s kingdom.
As A. W. Tozer said, “In ourselves—nothing; in Christ—everything.”
“Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” (Matthew 5:6 KJV)
When we ask for righteousness, we can be absolutely certain that God will answer our prayer.
Bible Quotations Used (KJV)
- Romans 4:5
- 1 Peter 3:12
- Matthew 5:6
- Luke 18:13–14
- Hebrews 9:12
Questions This Sermon Answers
- What’s the difference between judicial and ethical righteousness?
- Why does Jesus make hunger for righteousness the prerequisite for both kinds of righteousness?
- How does Luke 18 contrast self-righteousness with mercy-based righteousness?
- What does “God, be merciful to me, the sinner” actually ask for?
- How does the mercy seat and Jesus’ high priestly work explain true forgiveness?
- Why can feelings mislead us about our standing with God?
- Who will be humbled and who will be exalted, according to Jesus?
