Rancid Grace

A little bit about the topic of grace. We've been, I guess, reflecting a little bit on that very central core teaching of Christianity, this idea that we have been saved from eternal hell, to put it bluntly, by the sheer love of God. Nothing that we have done, nothing that we can contribute, no good deeds that we can scrounge up is sufficient for the forgiveness of God. God has simply forgiven us because He is gracious. Because of His grace, we are saved.

It is the core tenet of the Christian faith. Particularly last week in Galatians 3, we looked at the important aspect of this amazing grace, and we were reminded that grace is what grows us as Christians. That we are not simply saved by grace, that we are made in fact holy by grace. God finishes the good work He started in us in His saving grace. This morning, we continue with this look by reviewing, I guess, another pitfall in our understanding of grace, another potential pitfall at least.

One that is very dangerous, Jesus says. And that is that we can take grace for granted. We can take grace for granted. We might be tempted to think that somehow we deserve God's saving, sanctifying grace. This morning, from the words of Jesus, we will hear of the horrible implications from a heart that's started to think that way, that you might, in fact, risk never receiving grace in the first place.

Today, we look at a situation where grace turns rancid. And just to be clear, this is never God's sovereign grace that can turn rancid. It is about the heart that appropriates grace and that can turn it into something which it is not. This morning, we're going to look at a parable of Jesus concerning a Pharisee and a tax collector who went to church one day. Let's have a look at how that plays out from Luke 18, verses 9 through to 14.

Luke 18, verse 9. He, this is 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.

So far the reading, this is the word of the Lord. And as we come to the parable, we know a parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. It has one key moral behind it. As we come to the story, we have an interesting lineup of characters. If you know your gospel accounts, you'll probably have already made up your minds who those characters are.

We hear of one man, being a Pharisee. And over the many years, perhaps of being a Christian, listening to many sermons, perhaps we've been conditioned to think that all Pharisees are evil. So mentally, we proceed to put the black hat on him, the bad guy in the story. The other man in the story is a tax collector. And while we probably admit that the tax collector is not the best of people, we suspect that in this story, at least, we're dealing with a good guy in disguise.

And so we put on him the white hat. But if you stood in the crowd on that ancient afternoon, listening to the story Jesus started to weave, as a first time listener, you may not have reached that same conclusion as quickly. You see, in good and decent society of Jesus' day, the Pharisee was a moral success. People's heads would have been nodding along as the Pharisee listed his virtues. Verse 11, that he wasn't an extortioner, meaning he didn't rip anyone off.

He wasn't unjust. He treated everyone fairly. He was not an adulterer, someone who had fallen ever into sexual sin. He says that he fasted twice a week. He sacrificed physical food to fill up his spiritual mind.

He loved God and sought to honour Him above all. He was, in fact, even a generous man, giving away a full 10 per cent of all he earned to the poor and the hungry and the good work of the temple. This man's impressive list of spiritual integrity would not have been a curse in anyone's ears listening that day to Jesus' talk. In decent society, this man would have been admired as an outstanding citizen, a leader worth following. To the listeners of Jesus that day, the Pharisee was a hero.

Likewise, if you, like me, assumed this morning that the tax collector is just your typical lovable rascal, a simple man willing to admit his faults, then you don't understand the reality of tax collectors. More often than not in the first century, they were abusers and thieves. Whenever Rome wanted to tax a region, they would sell the authority of taxing people to the highest bidder. And once a person had purchased that right to tax, he was free to take any commission that he could personally justify. As a result, extortion is built into the job, injustice part of the trade.

This tax collector, to the first listeners, was not one of the nice guys. And so Jesus is setting up this tension. Both men are seen to be doing a good thing. They are at the temple praying. Seemingly, they both know and love God.

But both are severely flawed. The Pharisee is a really good person, but he is arrogant. The tax collector is not a good person, but he is very humble. You could say that they are a mixture of both good and bad. And yet, Jesus concludes the story that it is the Pharisee who goes away worse off.

I tell you, says Jesus, verse 14, that the tax collector goes home justified rather than the other one. One goes home forgiven before God, the other one doesn't. And this is what Jesus is getting at this morning. That if you're not careful, if I'm not careful, you could very well be in the same boat. Because you might be tempted to look at this story and think that it is a lesson about humility and pride.

That the problem is because the Pharisee is arrogant and that the tax collector is humble, but you would be mistaken for thinking that way. Luke explains the purpose of this parable at the start of it in verse 9. He says that Jesus tells this story to those who trusted in themselves that they were righteous. It's got nothing to do with pride. Well, maybe a little bit.

It's got to do with trusting in yourself. Jesus paints the picture of a man with all the benefits of God's grace. He had a knowledge of the scriptures. He had probably been brought up in a healthy environment. His religious life had contributed positively to his character.

But what he did is what the human heart so often does. He thought that the good things given to him had made him a creature worthy of special merit. Even as he thanked God for the grace that caused him not to be an extortioner or an adulterer. In the same breath, he says, "Lord, you have created a great story of my life, but you couldn't have done it without the main attraction." As the Aussie phrase goes, he's got tickets on himself.

The man doesn't realise it, but his show is about to be cancelled. The issue here isn't that he's arrogant alone, it's that he has not understood the life altering effect of God's grace. You see, it's possible to receive the most incredible things from God, the things you and I refer to easily as blessings, including our salvation, and yet somehow forget that they were received apart from anything that we have contributed. We have kids who don't act up, and we think it's because we've trained them. We have skill and strength and think it's because we have practised and applied ourselves.

But who gave you the job? Who gave you the energy? Where has your child's DNA come from? Knitted together, we profess, in the womb of the mother. Who gave you your mental aptitude?

Who placed you in middle class Australia? Even as one part of us identifies these things as gifts, another part of us forgets and calls them the results of good work, hard work. Yet, in all honesty, nothing has been earned. But believing for one second that you have earned anything leaves you conceited, arrogant, proud. But here's the scary kicker that Jesus points out.

You may end up thinking that you've earned your good standing with God. There can be an infinite array of issues that you believe will put you in a better position with God. But friend, you would be wrong. That's not how God's grace and forgiveness has worked in your life. And thinking in any way that God's acceptance has come to you because of what you somehow scrounged up, what you have sorted out, what you have cleaned up, is not simply to subtract from that grace, it is to destroy it completely.

And that is the problem of the Pharisee. You don't subtract from grace, you destroy it. Now, on the other hand, the tax collector, Jesus said, stood far off, and he beat his breast. He would not even look up into heaven, and staring at the ground, he whispers, "Oh God, be merciful to me, a sinner." Now again, you might say he was humble.

But you've told us, KJ, that he probably had a lot to be humble about. He was not a good man. But here is the deeper layer of the story, a part of the story that makes you realise the complex nature of the human heart. You see, you can have a tax collector act like a Pharisee too. This tax collector could have stood in the presence of God and said, "Oh God, thank you that I'm not as proud as this Pharisee.

Look at how arrogant he is. I don't pray long prayers in public. I don't pretend to be a religious type. At least, I know that I've sinned and I'm willing to admit it. I am not a hypocrite, and I thank you for that."

And I know so many people who are like this, and it's just as deceptive a place to be. They think somehow that because they don't trust the church, that they might be more spiritually healthy as a result. That God is on the side of the honest, the little guy, the battler who's horribly inconsistent and often unrepentant. But hey, at least, he's honest. The irony is that the tax collector would be just as conceited as the Pharisee if he was to think that way.

It's the same problem from a different angle. Because if you want to play the game of corrupting God's grace, you can play it from any position on the board. Now, by choosing these two characters in the parable, Jesus is actually highlighting that both the Pharisee and the tax collector are deeply flawed. And in a sense, it doesn't matter what their job titles or their positions in society were. The singular difference that Jesus points out is that it is the tax collector who doesn't look to his left or to his right, to those around him, and even with his eyes to the ground, his heart is simply fixed on God.

The reason that this man goes home forgiven is that he simply stood before God and whispered, "God, be merciful to me. I am a sinner." This is the real reason the Bible comes to us every week. Every Sunday, we are reminded that it's not simply the right religious duties that gets us right with God. Now, we remember that the benefit of coming into God's presence regularly is that when we come to see God for who He really is, every Sunday morning, when we see God for who He really is, we really see ourselves.

And against His holiness, and against His perfection, and the things that He demands of us every time we hear His rules, His laws. It's only then when you see your sin that you cry out to God for forgiveness. And it's only by honestly undergoing that deconstructive process regularly, hopefully, again and again, that you really start understanding the sweetness of God's grace. We will never outgrow our need for grace. Even now, as you realise that you've taken God's grace and you've allowed it to become putrid, rancid in your self righteousness, now, as you hear a simple story about inconceivable grace, realise this morning that the more you know of God's light, the more you see of your own shadow.

And yet, this is where we're called to live. In the tension of being utterly devastated of your spiritual poverty and utterly aware of your dependence on God. That is the secret of humility. Being aware of God's grace protects this church from disunity and division. Being utterly aware of God's grace protects us from a useless irrelevant church because useless irrelevant churches won't reach the lost.

Churches who have lost sight of God's grace will think that the lost, who don't know Christ, should bring themselves to know Christ. They simply haven't tried hard enough. They haven't pursued truth as we have. Sick Christians and sick churches are the ones who feel special because they think they are the objects of God's grace since they have it together. But lift the bandages on those Christians and those churches, and you won't smell the scent of a fresh country garden.

You'll smell grace gone rancid. The saving, redeeming power of the gospel that has empowered every great Christian and every great church is found in minds and hearts, clean of all false notions of deserving anything good, so that they may bask in the only reality that gives lasting joy, the sheer surprise of God's infinite grace. Humility comes from looking into the face of God who is the full measure of holy love and loving holiness, and while looking into His face to see ourselves and our need for forgiveness, and to hold out our hands in desperation for a love that is completely free. And to say, thank you, Lord. It's a love made possible through one thing alone, the death and the resurrection of the Saviour Jesus Christ on your behalf.

Friend, if you and I remember that every second of every day, our lives have been shaped by that grace, a sheer free gift, then your Christian life will take on love, peace, and joy that cannot be faked. May the Lord give us a sense of His glorious love to shake us out of any self righteousness. Let's pray. Lord, have mercy on us sinners. We thank you for what has been done for us, what has been promised for us, that Jesus Christ, at His own initiative, did not consider equality with the Godhead something to be clasped onto, something to be gripped, but let go of it and became human, taking the form of a servant.

He went to the cross, that He bore the burden of our punishment, and thereby, He set us free from guilt, shame, and condemnation. Lord, you will find us this morning in all places in life, hearts that are close to you this morning, hearts that have wandered away. Lord, you find us as a church across a broad spectrum this morning, but the one thing we all need is the single thing we need. It is to know that you love us. It is to know that we have been forgiven.

And it is to know that we have not contributed a single iota to that forgiveness. If we are tempted to stand on our good life and our external actions, Lord, humble us out of that. And Lord, if it is to feel pride about our little rascalness of battling with you, at least honestly, and yet often unrepentantly anyway. Help us this morning to see the truth from the fiction, and help us to accept the gospel of Jesus Christ that will change our lives forever if we're willing to receive it, to believe it, to be changed by it. In Jesus' grace and in His mighty name, we pray. Amen.