How can a sinner be right with God? Scripture also asks this question another way: How can we have peace with God? To Jesus’ audience, the answer would have been surprising. If even the Pharisees—the religious leaders who were regarded as the holiest and most righteous people in Israel—were not justified before God, then who could possibly be? Through this parable, Jesus teaches that God does not judge by outward religious performance but by the condition of the heart (Jer. 17:9–10). The heart reveals who a person truly is before God. Luke 18:9–14 therefore shows how sinners who continue to struggle with sin and unbelief can nevertheless be justified before God. The defining difference between the Pharisee and the tax collector is humility.
To the Jewish mind, the tax collector represented the last person who could ever be saved. Tax collectors were considered ceremonially unclean, despised as traitors, and grouped together with the most notorious sinners. They were viewed as people beyond God’s favor and deserving only of His judgment. Yet Jesus deliberately chose such a man to demonstrate that no sinner is beyond the reach of God’s saving grace. The tax collector was justified, not because of anything he had done, but because he came before God with genuine humility.
The humility displayed by the tax collector is distinctly biblical. Philosophical humility and biblical humility may appear similar outwardly, but they differ entirely in their foundation and purpose. A person may be teachable, acknowledge personal limitations, and even apologize for wrongdoing, yet still remain in rebellion against God. Such humility cannot save because the heart remains at enmity with Him. Biblical humility begins with a true knowledge of God as He has revealed Himself in Scripture. The more clearly a person sees God’s holiness, the more he desires to humble himself as Christ humbled Himself. Like Isaiah before God’s throne (Isa. 6:5) and Peter before Christ (Luke 5:8), biblical humility is living before the face of God. It exposes the sinner’s spiritual poverty and desperate need for Jesus Christ. Humility itself does not save, but it empties the sinner of all self-righteousness and prepares the heart to receive God’s grace.
This humility is evident in every aspect of the tax collector’s posture. He stood far away, recognizing his guilt and unworthiness before a holy God. He would not even lift his eyes toward heaven because he understood that he deserved God’s judgment rather than His acceptance. He acknowledged that his sin was ultimately against God Himself. Just as someone who commits a crime owes a debt to the law, the tax collector knew he stood guilty before the divine Judge. Since he could never repay that debt himself, his only hope was to plead for God’s mercy and grace.
His humility was also marked by genuine contrition. As he beat his breast, he expressed profound grief over his sin against a holy God. Contrition is deep sorrow for offending God, produced only by the work of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit opens the sinner’s eyes to both the exceeding sinfulness of sin and the infinite holiness of God. This divine work produces a broken heart that longs for God’s forgiveness and salvation. Such contrition naturally leads to true repentance because God looks beyond outward actions and sees the condition of the heart.
A person’s view of God ultimately determines how he responds to Him. The Pharisee remained proud and unrepentant because he had fashioned a false view of God—one that allowed him to feel righteous while ignoring the corruption of his own heart. By lowering God’s standard, he justified himself instead of seeking God’s mercy.
This is why the doctrine of propitiation is essential to the gospel. A sinner who remains centered on himself and attached to his sin will never see Christ’s death as necessary or precious. He will reject the only sacrifice capable of satisfying God’s holy justice. Those who remain in unbelief continue under God’s righteous condemnation because they refuse the only means by which His wrath has been satisfied.
Jesus Christ alone is the basis of our justification. His perfect righteousness is credited to those who believe because no sinner can produce such righteousness on his own. John MacArthur summarizes this glorious truth well: “The gospel is that we cannot earn or achieve reconciliation with God ourselves. Instead, God accomplished it for us by placing our sin on Christ, who willingly bore its full penalty, so that all who believe can be forgiven and declared righteous.” Christ’s sacrifice fully satisfied the Father’s justice, making Him the only object of saving faith. Through faith we receive not only Christ Himself but also His righteousness, and in place of God’s justice we receive His mercy.
The tax collector’s humility was inseparable from honest self-examination. He viewed himself through the lens of God’s law rather than by comparing himself with others. Significantly, he prayed, “God, be merciful to me, the sinner.” He did not merely acknowledge that he was one sinner among many but confessed his own personal guilt before God. The greatness or smallness of his individual sins was irrelevant in light of God’s perfect holiness. The Pharisee, however, continually measured himself against other people, drawing confidence from comparison rather than conviction. Such pride is spiritually dangerous because it breeds complacency and removes any urgency to confront one’s own sin.
When sinners humbly confess their sin before God, He graciously forgives them (2 Sam. 12:13). The Apostle Paul demonstrated this same humility when he wrote, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost” (1 Tim. 1:15). Likewise, C. H. Spurgeon wisely observed, “Brother, if any man thinks ill of you, do not be angry with him; for you are worse than he thinks you to be.” Such statements remind believers that true humility does not minimize sin but honestly acknowledges it before God.
Ultimately, every sin is first and foremost committed against God. Therefore, reconciliation must begin with Him. Like the tax collector, we must come before the Lord with brokenness, confessing our guilt and casting ourselves entirely upon His mercy through Jesus Christ. This God-given humility leads to justification, not because humility itself saves, but because it drives us to the only Savior who can. Having been justified by grace through faith, Christians are called to continue walking in humble repentance and steadfast trust in the Lord Jesus Christ alone.
BIBLE COMMUNITY CHURCH 
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