“Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ (Luke 18:10-13 ESV)
In Luke chapter 18 Jesus told the parable of two men who prayed. He did this to create a contrast between those who thought they were right with God (the self-righteous leaders) and a tax collector who admitted that he was a sinner, and asked the Lord for mercy and forgiveness. It is a striking contrast between the prayer of a Pharisee with that of a tax collector. The Pharisee tells God, “God, I’m the best, I don’t do bad things, in fact, God I only do good things.”
Our attitude while praying is of vital importance. The people who had great self-confidence and scorned everyone else were the Pharisees and other religious leaders who saw themselves as the only ones good enough to be acceptable to God.
To these people – the leaders who were always giving Jesus a hard time, He told a story about two men who went into the Temple to pray. These two men were as different as could be: the one was a super-religious law-keeping Pharisee, the other a dishonest tax collector. These religious leaders viewed tax collectors as the worst of sinners.
I knew a man once whose daughter was a Christian and her husband was a pastor. He was a nice enough fellow. Yet he began to berate Christians in general, even though they were among his family. He would say: “I think I am just as good or better than most Christians”—many such phrases. So we can find the attitude of a Pharisee among the nicest people, who though they do good things as humanists, have erroneous views about why they do not need mercy from God, and they may go so far as to denigrate Christians as crazy holy rollers or those who believe in fables and the like. Unfortunately, this man died unrepentant about a year later.
This Pharisee’s actions and his prayer provide a picture of his life and occupation—he was a separatist, but his separatism and desire to remain perfect before God had hardened into a lifestyle of self-righteousness. He stood by himself and prayed. The words of this prayer, however true, were not prayed in the correct attitude of humility before God. He thanked God that he was not a sinner like everyone else. While the Pharisee was probably not like everyone else in a lot of ways, he erred in thinking that he was “not a sinner.” He may have had an extensive checklist marking off just how good he thought he was.
This Pharisee felt that he was far better than the tax collector whom he saw praying across the way. Tax collectors were not known for their honesty, so this Pharisee compared himself favorably, telling God that he had never cheated or sinned or committed adultery. And, by the way, he also fasted twice a week and tithed from his income. He was confident of himself in his holier than thou righteousness, while at the same time despising this other man, even though he too was in the Temple praying to the very same God. The Pharisee did not welcome the tax collector who was seeking God; instead, the legalistic Pharisee gloated that he was so much more righteous.
The focus shifts to the tax collector who had come to the Temple and seemed to have known full well the extent of his sin. He felt so downright low that he did not think he could even lift his eyes to heaven towards God; instead, he beat his chest (a sign of sorrow), praying for God to be merciful to him. He recognized himself as a sinner. He had been convicted of his sin and had come to the one place where he could find forgiveness. He had come to God, humbly recognizing that he did not deserve mercy.
As Jesus tells the story, we find out God’s viewpoint of how He views these two men’s attitudes expressed by these two very different prayers.
“But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat 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. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 18:13–14 ESV)
Surprisingly enough, only the tax collector returned home justified – which means forgiven with right standing before God – “justified” means God’s act of declaring people “not guilty” of sin. Only the tax collector recognized his sin; therefore, because he confessed his sin “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” he was the only one God justified. The self-righteous Pharisee had said that he had no sin; therefore, there was nothing for God to forgive – to justify this Pharisee as “not guilty.” He simply didn’t believe that he was in need of any mercy or forgiveness from God. He thought he was in A-OK standing with God. He returned home no different than when he had entered.
What do we learn from Jesus? The principle is that no one has anything of value to bring to God to deserve salvation, mercy, justification, or even a second glance from God. The proud will be humbled, but the humble will be honored. Acceptance before God cannot be achieved by good deeds, piety, or any amount of self-proclaimed righteousness.
The Pharisee did not view himself as a sinner. The apostle Paul, noted that we all have sinned and are worthy of death: “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 6:23) What the Pharisee did not realize is that he was every bit a sinner as the other man when he exalted himself before the Lord. Salvation is offered to the humble who come to God, through Jesus and confess their sin, and ask for mercy: “everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Acts 2:21 ESV)
In this way, the tax collector got right with the Lord – he asked for mercy – he recognized his sin before God. Once a person asks God for fogiveness in Christ’s name, he is saved, he has no more fear of death, because he will receive eternal life in Christ, who paid the price for all of our sins by dying on the cross. “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23 ESV)
A final thought: God justified the repentant tax collector before his going down this house or home, and this justification – his forgiveness by God, was valid now and indefinitely. God acquits, as the judge. He delivers and pronounces the verdict that frees from guilt and punishment. Since justification by faith in Christ is the central doctrine of the Scriptures, the sinner’s one hope of salvation, the parable that Christ used to teach this must be properly understood.
The parable of Jesus makes it clear that only the tax collector as the confessing sinner was forgiven and made right – justified by God, whereas the Pharisee was not, namely by comparing the two with each other. It would be an incorrect view that the one was justified more than the other because no degrees of right standing with God are possible in justification – the judge pronounces the acquittal – the pronouncement of forgiven and hence not guilty or refuses to declare it and leaves the sinner in his sin, guilt, and condemnation. It is not to be confused with the matter of the sinner’s feeling of having been justified by God. The divine act takes place in heaven, outside of, apart from, and only regarding the sinner who is on earth. His knowledge, conviction, and feeling (all of which are personal) are to be derived directly from the Word of God. The scriptures make it plain that the acquittal of every repentant sinner is assured.
It is not by degree of purification or adjudgments of self, but upon trusting only the scriptural faith assured in the Bible such as defined by Jesus in the parable of the two men praying in the Temple.
God loves to forgive. He is glorified when you accept His gift of salvation in His Son. He that exalts himself shall be humbled, every last one; but he that humbles himself shall be exalted and enter into the family of God. By faith, you needn’t “fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” (Romans 8:15 ESV) You get the sense of our new childlike trust in God, as the scripture uses the word “Abba” which means, “Daddy.” You can trust our heavenly Father’s love.