Opening and Introduction
Tonight, is a special day as we celebrate the reformation. Just over 500 years ago, Martin Luther nailed 95 theses on the Wittenberg church door, which changed the landscape of Europe, and the world.
Luther’s disagreement with the Catholic church was very similar to the differences we see in the two men of our text today. The Catholic church taught that good works earn the way to salvation. But Luther found that the Bible had a much simpler way to be right with God.
Tonight, we’re going to explore the idea of God’s view of righteousness by examining the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, and aligning what they did with how scripture explains things to us. We’ll also look at a few ways to show what righteousness means to us and how we can better live by faith.
The Standard of Righteousness
In our text today, we heard about two men who went to the temple to pray. But they had very different approaches.
The Pharisee described that he was doing the right things. He prayed and donated a tenth of everything he earned. As a Pharisee, he studied the law intently, and probably, was very proud of how well he could follow it. He avoided those horrible sinners who flaunt the laws of God and men. He even thanked God, in an arrogant sort of way, grateful that he was so much better than others around him.
Jesus didn’t approve of this man. But why?
It might be helpful to look at what righteous means. Righteous is a legal term referring to how someone appears in the law. If a judge declares you innocent of breaking the law, you are right. So, being righteous is being right in the law.
Moses wrote about following God’s laws. He wrote:
If we are careful to obey all this law before the LORD our God, as he has commanded us, that will be our righteousness. (Deuteronomy 6:25, NIV84)
Those who obeyed the law, all of the law, they were declared righteous.
God is the ultimate judge. If He were to judge each person according to how they lived their lives, how would he decide? If He looks at the sins committed, the outcome is clear. With every sin, the law is broken. Even breaking one sin makes a person guilty.
The Pharisee relied on his own actions to try to MAKE himself righteous. He relied on his good works to take a step closer to God, and a step away from the sinners.
In Paul’s letter to the church in Rome, he addressed people who were trying to put themselves over others. Paul wrote:
Both Jews and Gentiles are all under sin, as it is written: There is no one righteous, not even one. (Romans 3:9b-10, CSB)
Righteousness was a problem for the Pharisee because he didn’t look at it the same way that God did. Good actions don’t replace the bad that we’ve done. God doesn’t look at all the good things that we did and write over the errors we made.
He has one very simple standard. God’s command is for us to obey 100% of they law, 100% of the time, without any mistakes what-so-ever. Anything less than 100% is guilty and should be punished… no matter how many times God was obeyed, no matter how many good things have been done.
God’s standard of righteousness is perfection. That’s a pretty hard standard to meet. We can meet some of the commands, some of the time. But we can’t meet a perfect standard on our own. We need help, a lot of help, to get there.
Scripture doesn’t tell a whole lot about the Tax Collector, but this is how I picture that he might have felt. He probably knew that He wasn’t perfect and had a lot of faults that he just didn’t know how to fix. As a Tax Collector, he probably made mistakes that He knew were wrong. He probably hurt people, and cheated people. Might’ve even stole from people. He probably broke a lot of laws and committed a bunch of sins. He knew that he was guilty and deserved to be punished.
The Tax Collector knew he couldn’t get it right when he said, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner!” (Luke 18:13, CSB)
Like the Tax Collector, we need mercy too. We’re sinful by nature and can’t do anything to justify ourselves in front of God. What we do doesn’t make us righteous. What we say doesn’t make us righteous. Where we go to church, or what translation of the Bible we read, doesn’t make us righteous either.
There’s nothing that we can do by ourselves. We can’t even create faith in ourselves. We need a lot of help, and someone else needs to do the work, because we can’t do it. Lord have mercy on me.
Becoming Righteous
There may be days when we feel like the Tax Collector. When we’ve done things wrong, sinful things, where we can see just how broken we are. When all we can see is the dirty sinful world around us… even then, God is right there next to us in the dirty trenches of the sinful world. He’s there holding out a hand ready to lead us out of that dark place and into the light of salvation that He willingly gives us.
God knew that we couldn’t get it right, so He found a solution for us. He sent His Son into the world. He was born like us, lived like us, was tempted like us. But He didn’t sin like us. He actually met the standard of 100%, 100% of the time! He led a perfect, sinless, blameless life… free from any wrong doing. Then He died, and took all of our sins with Him.
God’s sees us as righteous, because the penalty was paid in full. All the times we avoided God’s commands; the judgement was taken care of. All the times that we ignored God’s will and did something else, the price was already paid. God only sees our redeemed and justified selves.
Paul wrote about faith and our righteousness in his letter to the church in Rome. He wrote:
The righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” (Romans 1:17, ESV)
As a monk, Martin Luther struggled with his sins and didn’t feel at peace. He’s known for spending 2 hours in a single day to confess his sins, when others spent only a few moments. He was a lot like the Tax Collector. He didn’t feel worthy in God’s eyes.
Luther read this text and it was one of those ‘light bulb’ moments. You know, those times when you suddenly read something and if finally makes sense?
He finally understood. People didn’t become righteous because of what they did or what they said. Works didn’t make a person better. Someone was righteous because of our FAITH in what Christ has already done for us.
It’s the grace that sent Jesus into the world for our sins that makes us righteous in God’s eyes. It’s the faith that He gave us, that allows us to receive that grace. Paul, in his letter to the church in Ephesus wrote:
For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—not from works, so that no one can boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9, ESV)
Faith is that gift that allows us to receive His grace and hold onto it, even if we might feel like we’re so far and away and so unworthy of anything God has ever given us.
By Grace, Through Faith
Our faith shapes how we view ourselves and shapes our understanding of how God views us too. Luther saw this. Saved by grace, through faith.
Finding ways to expand our knowledge of God, and live out what He’s taught us, are ways to grow our understanding of His grace just a bit better. So, in the time that we have remaining, I’d like to look at two ways that we can live more deeply in our faith.
First, we can strengthen our faith by getting into God’s Word. Faith connect us with God and as we continue to grow in faith, we learn not just how to appreciate, but to really embrace the grace that God has shared with us.
Faith can give us hope for the future, strengthen us when things aren’t going so well, and help get us through the rough spots in life.
When we read the Bible, God talks to us in the scriptures. I have a daily reading plan that I follow. Right now, I’m reading about King David. Concordia makes Bible reading as easy as we can by offering daily scriptures delivered to your e-mail box. You can sign up on our web site.
Devotions are another way to dive into God’s Word, and most don’t require a lot of time. They’re a big part of life for many families at Concordia. In the narthex, we have Portals of Prayer books that have devotions for every day. There are other types of bible studies and faith related books in the @Home area, as well.
If you’d rather be with other people, there are several groups where you can learn about a variety of topics. Sometimes other people can open our eyes to a new way of viewing a passage. We have groups for men and women, married couples and young adults, and a study open to everyone that just started on the book of Joshua. On Sunday mornings, we have two adult Bible classes that are always a joy to attend.
There are many ways to strengthen your faith by getting into God’s Word. Whether it’s as a group, or by yourself, there’s more than one path to build up faith.
Second, we can let our faith show by living it every day. We can strengthen our faith, and perhaps build the faith of those around us, by living out what we believe.
It might be something as simple as holding a door open for someone, or greeting those around us with a smile and a warm greeting. We can love everyone by being kind, generous and forgiving, just like Jesus did. It doesn’t always take a lot of effort to love others as ourselves.
Consider this for a moment. There are many people around us that don’t go to church, may have never heard of what Jesus did for us, and don’t understand what our faith is. How we live out our lives, may be the only example of Jesus they may ever see. Someday, that example, might be what opens the door in their lives to finally ask for God’s help. When we least expect it, we might reflect the love of the Gospel through our actions.
Another way to live out our faith is by serving those around us that might need a little bit of attention. We have several ministries that take care of people.
The Church Under the Bridge and Taking It to the Streets, work to help of the homeless population in town. Other ministries include stocking food pantries and helping with the Children’s Hunger Fund. Still others call people on the phone, visit those who are not well enough to come to church, or lend a helping hand, when some can’t do things for themselves.
Whatever your personality or interest, there are always ways to show God’s love through our actions.
Like we say at the end of each of our worship services, “shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life” (Philippians 2:15-16, NIV84). Living out our faith, is exactly that, being a dot of light, in the dark and sinful world around us.
Closing
So, what can we learn from two men praying in a temple?
The Pharisee tried to earn his righteousness, but couldn’t overcome his sins. He focused on the good, but failed to take into account everything else he did.
The tax collector had a different approach and put it all in God’s hands. He understood the damage that sin does, and that God is the only way to make it right.
We don’t get grace by what we do. We get it by what was done for us, and that’s what makes us righteous in God’s eyes.
