Confident of your own righteousness?

Luke 18:9-14

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee 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.'

But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'

I tell you that this man, rather than the other went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

I think the way that Luke introduces this parable is key. "To some who were confident of their own righteousness". We as humans tend to want to control our own destiny, we read the Bible, we inquire of our pastors and we ask "What do I need to do?" We build a to do list and focus on checking the things we need to do to be righteous off the list. We focus on our behavior and our actions. Then we compare how we are doing to others. It seems that as Christians that at different points in our lives we have been both the tax collector and the pharisee.

Where are you today? Are you the tax collector or the pharisee?

Are you depending on your own righteousness or are you depending on Jesus's righteousness?

Jesus has done ALL the work to justify us, He has done ALL the work to make us righteous, He has done ALL the work necessary for us to come before the Father clean as snow.

We need to stop focusing on us and what we need to do. We need to focus on HIM and what He has already done. When we focus on Him and what He has done instead of on us and what we need to do, we change…not by our power…but His.