s we mature in Christ, we take on more and more of His likeness. We now obey because of a clean heart, and righteousness becomes a habit. Yes, we participate in our sanctification by submitting and by practicing spiritual disciplines. But the internal work of sanctification is a result our new life and the work of the Holy Spirit.
There’s a problem that plagues us occasionally. Like the Israelites who began to think they were responsible for their wealth and for the favor of God on His chosen people because of their obedience to the law, so we as believers tend to forget that we are not responsible for our righteousness. We did not seek God. He is NOT lucky to have us on his team because we’re such great players. We are still, to this very day, recipients of mercy when we deserved none.
When we forget to look back to who we were, we lose our wonder at our salvation. We tend to be less thankful, because we have forgotten what we left behind. For some of us, we were not very old and hadn’t had much opportunity to experience how great a sinner we really were. Some of us grew up in Christian homes where morality and obedience to the Scriptures were part of our culture, and there wasn’t much of an external change at our salvation. NEVERTHELESS, we were ALL sinners in need of mercy. Romans tells us that ALL have sinned and fall short of God’s glory, and that no one seeks after God.
The reason believers can live a righteous life is because of God’s mercy and His righteousness that He imputed to us at salvation, not our good deeds. Good deeds are profitable and helpful, as they are an external evidence of an internal change. We honor God by serving others and showing them the mercy that we have received from Him.
Sometimes we cloud that process up with pride. We judge the unregenerate man with the attitude that our holiness is our gift to God, and wouldn’t it be great if these unsaved people could get their act together and start living a righteous life like we do. What we forget is that it is the natural thing for them, as it was for us, to follow after evil desires. They may be good individuals who do good works, or they may be rotten people who take the lives of others or do great harm to others.
Jesus told the story of a Pharisee and a tax collector. If we were to witness the outward righteousness of a Pharisee, we would be truly impressed. Jesus said in Matthew 5:20, For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. To the Jews of the day, such a statement would have been discouraging because they knew how righteous the Pharisees really were.
Yet in this parable, Jesus told of another person who was greater than the Pharisee in God’s eyes. It was a man, who by contrast, the Jews would have considered the greatest of sinners—a tax collector. When the Pharisee prayed, he reminded God how righteous he was, and thanked God that he wasn’t like the tax collector. Yet when the tax collector prayed, he asked for mercy, knowing that he was not deserving of God’s favor, and yet he wanted it. Jesus finished the parable saying, I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.
It is important, as Paul reminded Titus, that we should remember our beginnings. We should not compare our righteousness with the unrighteousness of the unsaved. Instead, we should be gentle, and show perfect courtesy toward all people. Paul goes on to tell Titus why:
Titus 3:3-8
For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people.
To be fully thankful for our salvation, we need to remember that we, too, were “like them” before God showed us mercy, and we would still be “like them” if He had never done so. Let us set aside our rehearsal of our own righteousness and spend that energy in praying for those who have yet to find the joy of eternal life and in bringing them the gospel of mercy.
