Luke 17-19: A Sinful Tax Collector

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody 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 up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and 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 everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”  - Luke 17: 9-14 NIV

I have to remind myself of this over and over again.  It is not what I do, it is not all of my good deeds that redeem me.  My only redemption, my only worth, comes at the foot of the cross.  It is at the foot of the cross where I fall and confess that I am a sinner, that I am not worthy, that I will never be worthy.  It is at the foot of the cross, where the drops of blood fall on me that I am made new, washed clean, made white as snow.  My confidence is no in my own righteousness, in my tithing and giving, in my abstinence from sin.  I am nothing but a sinful tax collector.  My confidence is solely in God's mercy.  That is all I need.  We can't exalt ourselves, only his forgiveness.

2010 Post - Luke 17-19:  Will He Find Faith?