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To Some Who Were Confident of Their Own Righteousness
“To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable…”
Luke 18:9, NIV
Luke goes on to record Jesus’ parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. Two men go to pray: a man who is confident in his own righteousness and a man who sure of his unrighteousness. Against all appearances, it is the outwardly unrighteous man who goes home justified. The “righteous” man – the man convinced of his own goodness – walked away even further from God than he had started.
The French philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal stated in his Pensées (or Thoughts): “There are only two kinds of men: the righteous who think they are sinners and the sinners who think they are righteous.” (Pensées 562[1])
When we try to convince ourselves that we are without sin, we delude even ourselves. Those who are the most confident in their own righteousness are those who have the least reason to be.
When Jesus tells the parable, He tells it to “some who were confident of their own righteousness.” We are in the most danger when we think we are without need of repentance. We are in the safest place when we acknowledge our sinfulness to our God who has promised to forgive us our sins and remove them from us as far as the east is from the west. Peter Kreeft writes, “Saints are not the opposite of sinners; saints are sorry sinners, saved sinners.” [2]
“For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” (Luke 18:14b, NIV)
[1] translated by A.J. Krailsheimer, as quoted by Peter Kreeft in Christianity for Modern Pagans, p. 158
[2] Christianity for Modern Pagans, p. 158
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