by Dr Jurie Vermeulen
In Luke 18:9-14, we read: “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 by himself and prayed: “God, I thank you that I am not like other people—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 all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.’”
In this parable, Jesus explains an important, liberating truth: being a Christian is, in reality, humanly impossible. Let me explain.
We have here a very personal picture: two people in the same synagogue, drawing near to the same God, but with two different attitudes. Each has his own understanding of God, righteousness, and salvation.
The Pharisee is bursting with self-confidence. He reasons that he has accumulated so much religious credit that heaven cannot refuse him. He is not simply hoping for the best when his debits and credits are weighed against one another on the scales of Judgment Day – he reckons he stands a good chance of winning the Nobel prize for religiosity with all his good works!
The other person in the story is the proverbial sinner of ancient Jewish religion: a tax-collector. He is off to the side, praying, but he is so acutely conscious of his religious unworthiness and lostness that he cannot even look up. He has nothing of merit to contribute to his own salvation – nothing that will motivate God to receive him. All he can do, is to beat his chest and confess that he is a sinner who will never be able to meet God’s high standards. According to Jesus, these two souls in fact exchange places: the tax-collector leaves as a righteous man and the Pharisee as condemned!
Two further incidents in the chapter illustrate the same truth: children, who are incapable of religious merit, are held up as examples of righteous people, while the source of the wealthy young man’s power – his wealth – is the very thing disqualifying him and keeping him from entering God’s kingdom … just like the Pharisee’s good works. The rhetorical climax of the piece occurs in v. 26-27: “Those who heard this asked, ‘Who then can be saved?’ Jesus replied, ‘What is impossible with man is possible with God.’”
The conclusion? Being Christian is humanly impossible – “camel through the eye of a needle” impossible. Only God can make you a Christian and bring your spirit to life through rebirth (John 3:3). Because the chasm sin created between us and God is qualitative and not quantitative in nature, no amount (quanta) of effort and good deeds can ever replace the cross of Christ and bridge the gap. This is, after all, the difference between death and life, darkness and light. Its nature is also qualitative because God recognises only one unique solution to the problem: the sacrifice of the sinless Lamb.
Despite this, I often encounter Christians from all denominations who practise the quantitative solution with varying intensity – from “at least I support the SPCA” to deep involvement in church, community service, and service to neighbours. Their gospel can be summed up as: “Live as good a life as possible and hope for the best on Judgment Day – God is merciful, after all.” Everyone who thinks in this way lives with the same fear of Judgment Day, when the final reckoning will be done, your credits and debits weighed on the scales, and the verdict about your eternal destination revealed.
This is exactly the non-biblical “gospel” I find in my travels to non-Christian countries: from Judaism to Islam, and everything in between, I see them diligently building bridges – each according to its own recipe. Judaism still adheres to the same 2,000-year-old system of merit and credits based on prayer and fasting, studying the Torah, mitzvah (good deeds), and tzedakah (alms). Today, Jews who are less religiously active can still make contributions to Orthodox groups, in order to share in the merits earned by famed Jewish saints during their lifetimes. It is similar to the medieval Roman Catholic customs that caused Martin Luther to rebel and trigger the Reformation.
Islam also has no concept of grace or justification through faith. Their “gospel” demands of them to work their way tirelessly into paradise by rigidly adhering to the Pillars of Islam. There is no guarantee or certainty of salvation possible on this side of the grave. On Judgment Day, Allah decides whether you have done enough to tip the scales in your favour. The Hindu version of this is Karma; the Buddhists follow Buddha’s principles; Taoism, animism, and all the other manmade religions follow the same philosophy: “Work as hard as you can and hope for the best!”
Through the parable of the Pharisee and the tax-collector, Jesus illustrates the only valid biblical answer to our sin-problem: the tax-collector’s deep realisation of his own incurable spiritual bankruptcy, lostness, and inability. This total surrender draws nearer a seeking God and activates His grace; belief in His cross and His blood alone leads to forgiveness, rebirth, and justification – all on this side of the grave. Paul’s teaching of justification through faith means that the salvation-test is written and passed while we live; that heaven and hell are determined now. We are not condemned to live in unbearable religious uncertainty until Judgment Day.
Paul gives a striking summary of Jesus’ message in Ephesians 2:1-9: “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.”
John formulates the same idea in 1 John 5:12-13: “Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life … I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.”
Reformed theologian John Calvin, who considered assurance an important part of faith, corroborates this as follows: “The principal point in this subject (justification) has been now explained: as justifications if dependent upon works, cannot possibly stand in the sight of God, it must depend solely on the mercy of God and communion with Christ, and therefore on faith alone” (Calvin, The Institutes, 15.1).
We praise the Lord for the good news of the gospel: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9)!
