31/10/2025
God loves and accepts the person who humbly looks for mercy, while he rejects the one who exalts himself. Therefore, we must count on and trust in the righteousness of Christ to justify us. However, because of our self-centered nature, we naturally want to hold up our good deeds as grounds for our justification. Or to put it another way, we put our hope and trust for our justification in ourselves. But Scripture teaches us that the basis of our justification is not our righteous deeds but is only the righteousness of Christ that is imputed to us through the mercy and grace of God. And since it is only through the righteousness of Christ that we are justified, we must fight against the tendency and temptation to trust in ourselves.
Luke 18:9-14
9 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’
13 “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.’
14 “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”