Am I self righteous?
Luke 18:9–14 “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” (v. 14).
After encouraging persistence in prayer by telling the parable of the widow and the unjust judge (Luke 18:1–8), Jesus turned His attention to the problem of self-righteousness. We see this in today’s passage, which records our Lord’s parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector (vv. 9–14). In showing the folly of those who look to their good works as the basis of their status before our Creator, Jesus gives us essential instruction regarding our justification—our being declared righteous in God’s sight.
The original audience of the parable consisted of those “who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt” (v. 9). Luke’s introductory comment reveals that if we have contempt for those who appear to us to be less righteous than us, we are trusting in our own righteousness for our position before God. When we hate others and think ourselves more worthy of God’s favour than they are, we trust our own goodness, not God’s grace alone.
In the parable, we read of a Pharisee and tax collector who pray in the Jerusalem temple. The Pharisee thanks God that he is more righteous than others, giving evidence to prove it, such as that he fasted twice a week (vv. 10–12).
He far exceeded the demands of the law, which requires fasting only on the Day of Atonement (Lev. 16). John Calvin states in his commentary that the Pharisee’s problem is not rejecting the necessity of grace for salvation.
His thanksgiving to God implicitly recognizes that his good works come from grace and are given to him by God; otherwise, there would be no need to thank God for his righteousness.
The issue, Calvin argues, is that the Pharisee trusts in the merit of his works for salvation. It is not enough to confess that our good works come from God Himself, but we must also recognize that as good as these works may be, they are never perfect on this side of glory and cannot merit heaven. “All our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment” (Isa. 64:6).
Many first-century Jews regarded the Pharisees as paragons of true righteousness and tax collectors as terrible sinners. Thus, they were undoubtedly shocked when Jesus said that the tax collector, not the Pharisee, went away from the temple justified—declared righteous. He was justified because he did not trust in his own works, even those God gave him. The tax collector forsook his righteousness, admitting his sin and humbly asking for mercy (Luke 18:13–14).
John Calvin writes, “Though a man may ascribe to God the praise of works, yet if he imagines the righteousness of those works to be the cause of his salvation, or rests upon it, he is condemned for wicked arrogance.” God gives His people good works to do, but our salvation is not based on those works. It is based only on Christ and His righteousness, which we receive through grace alone through faith in Jesus (Eph. 2:8–10).
