So, I've been pondering prayer / approaching God /
"living by faith" / my heart's desires...
the past couple of months...
and this post and subsequent ones
will probably be a bunch of questions,
observations, scripture, which will lead to
a bunch more questions...no doubt.
I'm a "face value" person...
meaning I take things pretty much at face value.
It can be a positive trait...
I see with relatively simple eyes...
as well as a negative one...
black and white can be grossly unloving.
It serves me that I'm not morbidly introspective,
but sometimes "face value" means
I struggle to see "another side,"
I struggle to ask "but what about...?" questions,
I struggle with being critical, judgmental,
impatient, unmerciful and unloving...
and I call myself "Christian"?
Now...I'm totally aware and wholeheartedly believe
that my being "Christian" is absolutely and only about
God filling me with faith to believe
who Jesus Christ is and to trust
in his sacrifice on the cross on my behalf.
Yes, he suffered God's wrath, which I deserved,
for my sin...critical, judgmental,
impatient, unmerciful and unloving
sin.
He did what I could never do...
he satisfied God's just punishment
intended for me.
All I know is grace.
Galatians 2:20-21 says,
"I have been crucified with Christ.
It is no longer I who live,
but Christ who lives in me.
And the life I now live in the flesh
I live by faith in the Son of God,
who loved me and gave himself for me.
I do not nullify the grace of God,
for if righteousness were through the law,
then Christ died for no purpose."
How often do I
nullify the grace of God
by trying to earn righteousness
through the law...
by what I do, or don't do...
by trying to be what ends up being
my definition of "a good person."
Take the parable of the two men
who went to the temple to pray...
one a Pharisee and one a tax collector.
Luke 18:9-14...
"He [Jesus] also told this parable
to some who trusted in themselves
that they were righteous,
and treated others with contempt:
'Two men went up into the temple to pray,
one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus...
'God, I thank you that I am not like other men,
extortioners, unjust, adulterers,
or even like this tax collector.
I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.'
But the tax collector, standing far off,
would not even lift up his eyes to heaven,
but beat his breast, saying,
'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!'
I tell you, this man went down to his house justified,
rather than the other.
For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled,
but the one who humbles himself will be exalted."
The Pharisee, obviously a very religious man,
saw himself as deserving...even entitled
to God's attention and blessing.
After all, look at all he did and who he had become.
He was an expert in religious law...
meticulous...self-disciplined...determined...
a user of God.
The tax collector was not "religious."
He was probably a very wealthy man,
after all, he padded his pockets
by charging people more taxes than the government required.
He was a take charge kind of guy...
a self-starter...self-motivated...determined...
a user of people...
yet, he came to see himself as undeserving and totally in need
of God's mercy.
Isn't it interesting that the one Jesus said went home justified
was not the religious man
but the tax collector.
The Pharisee...the religious man...
really didn't recognize his need for a Savior
because he thought he was so good at keeping the law...
so how could God not be crazy about him?
The ironic thing is...
the law was given to expose sin,
to show how God could not be reached by good performances.
It was given to magnify the holiness of God...his "other-ness"...
his unattainability by human measures.
But, true to man's sinful nature...
man accepted the challenge and set out to prove
that he could, indeed, attain righteousness through the law
by "becoming like God"...
the lie we've all been believing since Genesis 3.
The tax collector...the secular man...
recognized the true state of his heart before the Holy God
and did the only thing he could do...
he begged for God to be merciful.
Jesus said he "went down to his house justified."
I wonder what his life looked like after that day?
What should my life look like as a follower of Christ?
Of course, he was just a character in a parable...
he and the Pharisee weren't "real" people like me...
Or are they?
