Luke 18:13-14 (ESV)
13 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!’ 14 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.”
Jesus tells a story that compares two men. One is a religious guy who stands before God in full confidence. The religious man believes himself to be righteous before God because he has obeyed a set of rules and has done what is required to be a good person.
The other man in the story is a sinful tax-collector. This man knows that he has no basis for good standing before God. He has done evil, and he knows it.
When Jesus compares the two prayers of the two men, the religious guy lists off to God his litany of good accomplishments. The tax collector, for his part, simply cries out to God for mercy.
Jesus tells us which one is justified before God. It is not the rulesy religious man; the tax-collector who humbles himself to cry out to God for mercy, he is justified.
Does your gospel understand these verses? When you tell others about Jesus, what are you telling them? Do you help people to know that they are sinners before a holy God? Do you tell them that, as sinners, they have no hope to be right with God apart from his mercy? Or, do you tell them that God really wants to make their lives better if they will only let him? Trust the words of Jesus. No one will be right with God if they think they have a leg to stand on by themselves. The only one who will be truly saved is the one who recognizes himself or herself helpless before God and who will cry out to him for mercy.
Pastor Travis Peterson 