Trinity and Humanity

Part 1a: 29min

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Part 1b: 29min

“https://trinityandhumanity.files.wordpress.com/2019/03/2018.09.09.the-pharisee-and-the-tax-collector-part1b-luke-18.9-14-guest-andrews-tah.mp3”

Full Message: 

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Main Passage: Luke 18:9-14

“In Jesus’ parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, we see the danger of self-righteousness, our human need for mercy, and what it means to be justified by faith. God calls us to recognize our sinfulness and our need for His mercy and in humility to proclaim the gospel of grace to those who trust in themselves. “-The Gospel Project

Theological Theme:

God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, exalts the humble and humbles the exalted.

Christ Connection:

The tax collector’s cry was for God to turn away His wrath from a sinner. Through His life and sacrificial death as our substitute, Jesus was the Wrath of God that our sins deserved. Like the tax collector, we too can cry out to God to have mercy on us! We can receive Jesus as the Wrath of God Who absorbed and put our sin to death in his suffering and death! We can also receive the forgiveness he grants full and free in his abundant grace!

Missional Application:

God, through His Holy Spirit, calls us not to look down on others but to look up to Him for salvation so that our participation with Him in humility and grace would be attractive to those who are still trusting in themselves.

“All the worst pleasures are purely spiritual: the pleasure of putting other people in the wrong, of bossing and patronizing and spoiling sport, and backbiting; the pleasures of power, of hatred…A cold, self-righteous prig who goes regularly to church may be far nearer to hell than a prostitute.” –C. S. Lewis 

“Self-righteousness wears many disguises. The scary thing about self-righteousness is that we usually don’t recognize it in ourselves. We think because of our religious practices that we are okay with God. We think because of how we pray that we are trusting in Him, not in ourselves. We think because of how we live that we are doing better than the people around us. Self-righteousness stinks; unfortunately, we are the last to smell it on ourselves….

But even when our self-righteousness is cloaked in words of gratitude or manifested in actions that, on the surface, appear to be done out of a desire for God’s glory, self-righteousness is still self-justification. It is misplaced trust that leads to misplaced judgment. As it has been said, “We judge others by their actions and ourselves by our intentions.” We judge people around us more harshly than we would dare judge ourselves….

The parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector gives us a vivid portrait of pride versus humility, of justification by works versus justification by faith. As Darrell Bock comments:

Pride preaches merit; humility pleads for compassion. Pride negotiates as an equal; humility approaches in need. Pride separates by putting down others; humility identifies with others, recognizing we all have the same need. Pride destroys through its alienating self-service; humility opens doors with its power to sympathize with the struggle we share. Pride turns up its nose; humility offers an open and lifted-up hand.

According to the gospel, we are to trust in God alone for our salvation, and we trust in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness,” the old hymn goes. The gospel cuts to the heart of our tendency to trust in ourselves and in our own righteousness. The gospel also shatters the sense of superiority we may feel toward others. As long as you are looking up to God for salvation, you can’t look down on anyone else. Once you know how much you need the mercy of God, how in the world can you look down your nose on someone else in need of the same mercy?” -The Gospel Project

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