Trusting Ourselves

Reading in Luke 18 this morning, I was struck by the way Luke introduced the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector:

"He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt..."

I got to thinking about how we so want to trust our own goodness when it comes to our relationship with God and our standing in comparison with others, when so often it is our trusting of this fabled goodness that gets in the way of our relationship with God and with others. As Luke inferred, the idea that we are righteous in and of ourselves will inevitably lead us to treat those we perceive as being less righteous with contempt, just as the Pharisee of the parable considered the tax collector contemptible.

Jesus said it in many ways, and none quite so blunt as this; we need to get over ourselves. If we want to have a relationship with the living God, we had better take a tip from the tax collector and begin relying solely upon His mercy. Our own imagined righteousness will get us nowhere. We all have to get over the idea that we are responsible in any way for our salvation, sanctification, or anything good within us. Those belong to God alone.

I cannot trust myself to love God as I should. I fail too often for that. But if I trust God's love for me, which never fails, my faith rests on what cannot be shaken. And when I realize that I am what I am only because of His mercy, I cannot ever look down on another. I cannot boast that I am better than another, because anything in me that is 'better' is not of my doing, but His.

"For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted." Luke 18:14b ESV

The humility of which Christ speaks is not pretended or forced humility. It is the kind of humility that the tax collector displayed. The kind that makes a man beat his breast and beg for mercy. When life comes down to the grace of God, my personal holiness is worth nothing. My righteousness is worth nothing. The only thing worth anything is the savior to whom I cling. For there I find the mercy I need.

God Bless