Luke 18:9-14…
These prayers reflect the pride and self-righteousness which the Lord will judge when He returns, and the repentance and faith which He will reward when He returns.
Justification means being declared righteous before God. Often overlooked is the fact that when the Pharisee prayed he was thanking God. He was not saying how great he was by himself. He knew he needed help, but felt that his cooperation with God is what justified him. This is subtle but is explained by saying that for some to justify is to be made righteous rather than to be declared righteous. The difference is the difference between a saving faith that relies on an external atonement for sin and a misplaced faith that relies in an internal abatement of sin.
This is the great danger, the teaching that the imparted righteousness whereby we can indeed do good works is the grounds of our justification, instead of the imputed righteousness of Christ to our account. Our good works give evidence to our faith (Matthew 7:20 / James 2:18) but they do not save us (Romans 3:20). God does indeed develop righteousness in everyone to whom He imputes righteousness, but we never achieve perfection in this life (Philippians 3:4-19).Works are the fruit, not the root of justification (Ephesians 2:8-10).
I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. Justification cannot be done on the basis of our works, but must be based on the merits of Christ (Galatians 2:16). We can never earn, deserve, or merit God’s forgiveness. What we must do is to accept the sinless life and atoning death of Jesus Christ as our substitute. Christians should be thankful that we have been given a measure of freedom from the power of sin in this life, but we must be careful to never equate this with our righteous standing before God. You are not to thank God for your righteousness compared to others, but thank Him for His righteousness accredited to you because of the Atonement (2 Corinthians 5:21).
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