Tag: humility

Our Righteousness: Stink or Aroma?

Discipleship 1:2

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(*For our understanding, the simplest definition I have heard for righteousness is right standing with God. Let’s bear that in mind during today’s study.)

Our main text today comes from Luke 18:9-14.

Two men, a Pharisee, (an ultra-religious, “separated one”, person), and a tax collector went to church to pray. I can picture the Pharisee going front and center of the church, standing upright, looking heavenward. “I thank You, God, that I am not like other men,” he prayed. Then he began to pontificate on the reasons why, using comparison to other men. Besides being faithful to his wife, he was holy, just, and he did not use force, threats, or illegal means, to gain what he had. In other words, he was not like the tax collector, (whom we’ll get to), who stood afar off, praying. Oh, and by the way, the pharisee also went without food twice a week and gave ten percent of all that he had to the church. He was all of that, a bag of chips, a mega sized drink besides, and vocalized it. Self righteousness stinks.

Sadly, I can relate to the pharisee. I have looked down on others, especially in my younger days. “I do not go to the booze, drug, and sex parties of my peers. I do not use vulgar language or immodestly dress as they do.” La de da. Okay, reflecting back, I do not think that I was as outwardly as offensive as the pharisee or my peers would have approached me as they did. Ah, but God looks on the heart, and sometimes the inner thoughts of my heart stunk.

The point I’m making is that I have battled the self righteous attitude. I may not have been as vocal as the pharisee, but internally it was still there. What I think the big temptation to do here is compare ourselves to one another. Which, now that I am more mature in Christ, I intentionally guard against; however, I have caught myself, even now, being a spiritual snob. At times I must remind myself that my “comparison” is to be made to sinless Jesus only, period, for all of us have fallen short of the glory of God.

The tax collector felt the weight of his unrighteousness. He didn’t go the whole way into the church, would not lift his eyes to heaven, and smote his breast which is a biblical sign of repentance. There was no comparison to others here; he owned his sins and cried out, “God, be merciful to me — I am a sinner!”

I can also relate to the tax collector. Sometimes I drive myself nuts with the things I think, say, or do that are displeasing to God. But that’s why grace, charis, the free, unmerited favor of God toward people who don’t deserve it, is so wonderful. This was the heart of the tax collector. It is my heart when I have done wrong and have humbly come to God to confess it.

My sacrifice [the sacrifice acceptable] to God is a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart [broken down with sorrow for sin and humbly and thoroughly penitent], such, O God, You will not despise. Psalm 51:17 AMPC

This is when righteousness is a sweet smelling aroma as unto the LORD. So who went home forgiven and in right standing with God? The tax collector of course!

I tell you, this man went down to his home justified (forgiven and made upright and in right standing with God), rather than the other man; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted. Luke 18:14 AMPC

The pharisee was not humble in his “praying”, therefore God didn’t hear him, just as he won’t hear us.

If we say we have no sin [refusing to admit that we are sinners], we delude and lead ourselves astray, and the Truth [which the Gospel presents] is not in us [does not dwell in our hearts]. 1 John 1:8 AMPC

Compare the non-effective arrogant “prayer” of the pharisee to that of the effective prayer of the tax collector.

If we [freely] admit that we have sinned and confess our sins, He is faithful and just (true to His own nature and promises) and will forgive our sins [dismiss our lawlessness] and [continuously] cleanse us from all unrighteousness [everything not in conformity to His will in purpose, thought, and action]. 1 John 1:9 AMPC

I hope you will join me in taking some time to self-reflect. Let us ask ourselves: Is there a bit of snobbishness residing in me? If there is, let us humble ourselves, ask for forgiveness, and repent. And like the tax collector, may we walk away forgiven and in right standing with God. In closing, let’s visit the scripture again:

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:8-9 NKJV

Blessed be the name of the LORD.

For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Romans 10:13 NKJV

Oh, the Humanity!

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O love, how deep, how broad, how high,
how passing thought and fantasy,
that God, the Son of God, should take
our mortal form for mortals’ sake!

~from the hymn: O Love, How Deep, How Broad, How High attributed to Thomas a Kempis

This verse coupled with these scriptures from the Message Bible brought tears to my eyes:

Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of Himself … When the time came He set aside the privileges of deity and … became human! … He stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges … He lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death …

… Keep on doing what you’ve done, … redouble your efforts. Be energetic in your life of salvation, reverent and sensitive before God. That energy is God’s energy, an energy deep within you, God Himself willing and working at what will give Him the most pleasure.

Philippians 2:5-8: 12-13 The Message Bible (I capitalized the “God” pronouns)

Think of it, Jesus sacrificially laid down His deity to become the thing He came to save … humanity. What god in their right mind would do such a thing but the God? King of Kings, LORD of Lords, Master and Creator of all, ultimately, Lover — Lover of the crown of His creation — mankind.

That He would stoop from the heights of Heaven to walk with us here in: hunger, fatigue, sickness, disease, weakness, rejection, aging, anxiety, depression, the incessant barrage of the enemy against our bodies and our souls in attempt to break our spirits is beyond comprehension, but this, Jesus did. Such humility! In Philippians 2:5 in the Message version we are told to think of ourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of Himself; He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of Himself that He clung to the advantages of that status no matter what.

He came to us and He also brought Heaven down.

He showed us by example how to live in our “human condition” without caving to the temptations of our enemy. He then demonstrated how to: remain pure, how to live in this world without becoming part of the world; how to heal the sick; how to cast out demons; how to raise the dead; how to defeat the enemy in death; and how to love without measure, even at the expense of ourselves, our own lives; and how to live again. He is Risen! He has ascended to His Father, our Father, where we are seated with Him in heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6).

Our end will be glorious, too. Yes, getting from Point A to Point B is crushing at times; true discipleship is not for the faint of heart. What are we to to do while we travel here? As Paul wrote, Keep on keeping on. I add part of the LORD’s prayer: Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. No matter how it appears we need to keep looking for God’s will here. There is no sickness, disease, heartache, mental illness, or lack of any kind in Heaven, so look for the Cure to meet us here …

… because part of our prayer is to look for His kingdom here, I also add this admonition from Paul in Philippians 4:4 to: Rejoice in the LORD always; and again I say REJOICE! …

… why rejoice? Because it is finished (John 19:30). Whatever it is we are suffering here, It is finished. Whatever we commit to Jesus at the foot of the cross, to be covered with His precious Blood, It is finished. And whether we see and receive our answers to prayer while we are here, I trust that anything asked according to His will will be done.

Regardless, our focus is this: Jesus became one of us. He totally gets us. From birth to death, He was despised, rejected, a Man of sorrows, acquainted with our grief; because of us He was stricken, smitten, afflicted, wounded, bruised, and beaten. He purchased with His precious Blood our peace, healing, deliverance, wholeness, forgiveness, prosperity, and an eternal home with Him in Heaven. Join me today in bowing before Him, thanking Him for His humility, for becoming one of us. Let us take it a step further and ask if there is a particular matter in which we might humble ourselves before Him this day. It’s the least we can do.