God isn't
fooled!
Could you think of a list of things from your life that God
your Creator would be pleased with? And would there be another list
you could have of things you know God would not be pleased with?
Jesus has something surprising to say about such lists!
"Jesus told this parable: ‘Two men went up to the temple to pray,
one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.'" The Pharisee had
come with his list of good things! He "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.'" 1*.
But hadn't he a list of things he had done that offended God?
God isn't fooled by people who try to
cover up their sins. "God cannot be mocked." 2*.
For a sinner like you or me to try to claim to be good in God's
sight is foolishness! It would be like a person whom the doctor
knows is dying with incurable cancer arguing with him that he is
healthy because he has good eyesight or a strong heart. The doctor
knows that the cancer will soon destroy the patient's life!
God is not impressed by our list of the things we consider to be
good. Sin is in everyone's life and it condemns us! 3*.
But in Jesus' parable the other man, the tax-collector, did not try
to impress God. He stood at a distance; perhaps watching the Jewish
priest making the animal sacrifices for the sins of the people -
for his sins! 4*. It
was him who deserved the death and destruction that those animals
were suffering! " He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his
breast and said, `God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'"
5*.
The holy and just God demands that "the wages of sin is death."
6*. Yet God was able
and willing to respond to this request for mercy because the
"death" of the temple sacrifices had been paid for sin.
Jesus said, "I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went
home justified before God." 7*.
To be JUSTIFIED means that God no longer considers you to be a
condemned sinner, but one who is at peace with Him having your sins
fully paid for! 8*.
Today no temple sacrifices, or any other offerings or masses, have
any value in justifying the sinner before God! 4*. The sinner can only be "justified
freely by God's grace through the redemption that came by Christ
Jesus. God presented Him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith
in His blood. " And so God "justifies those who have faith in
Jesus," 9*. whose
sacrifice for our sins was "once and for all". 10*.
Have you as a sinner, having faith in Jesus the Saviour, asked
and trusted God for mercy and forgiveness? Do you know the
peace and joy of being able to say "I'm JUSTIFIED in God's sight by
faith in Jesus' death for me - I'm JUST-AS-IF-I'D no sin!"
Read about the sinner Jesus said was "justified" in Luke's Gospel
chapter 18, verses 9-14.
Bye for now,
John Nixon, Ballincollig, Cork, Ireland. P31HD98. Contact: jnixonj@gmail.com
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commentary for Luke's Gospel check out the review index.
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Bible quotations from N.I.V.
1 Luke 18:9-12.
2 Galatians 6:7. 1 John
1:8.
3 Romans 3:10-12, 20-23.
Isaiah 59:2. 64:6.
4 Hebrews 10:10-18.
9:22.
5 Luke 18:13.
6 Romans 6:23.
7 Luke 18:14.
8 Romans 5:1-2.
9 Romans 3:24-26.
10 Hebrews 9:12, 26.
10:10.
