Episode Transcript
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Being sacrifice where a lamb would be
slain on the altar to propitiate or or
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a tone for the sins of the
people. And this man is looking from
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a distance at this sacrifice and he's
calling for God to provide the only means
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for him to be considered righteous,
a sacrifice that's totally outside of himself,
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something from God that would atone for
his sins. And with this, this
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contrast between the PHARISEE and the Publican
gets a lot more interesting. You see
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a Pharisee who turns to his own
law, keeping, his own good works,
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his own spotless reputation, to find
right standing before God, whereas this
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publican points to a sacrifice on his
behalf that might give him right standing before
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God. He looks to a righteousness
that is completely outside of himself, as
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Luther called an alien righteousness. And
it is this propitiation, I would argue,
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that is the main character of the
parable and, as we know,
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as we continue reading the Gospels,
the propitiation is the narrator himself, Jesus,
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as we know that these temple sacrifices
are ultimately pointing forward to the once
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for all propitiation for our sins the
sacrifice of Jesus Christ for US forgiveness to
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all who would trust in him and
faith, all who would turn from their
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obvious and blatant sins, but also
from the insidious sin of resting in our
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own good deeds, to repent of
Sin and self righteousness and turn in faith
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to Jesus, the sacrificial lamb come
to take away the sins of the world.
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It would seem here that the idea
of justification by faith is not an
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invention of Paul and Romans, is
it? That's taught right here in the
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gospels, Jesus teaching it to us
that saving righteousness, justification must come from
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outside of us. It must be
given to us, something that the sinner
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in this story understands but the righteous
man doesn't. Well, we are good
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Protestants here right. We understand this
idea of justification by faith. We agree
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with Luther, who said that it
was the article on which the Church stands.
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or false. We say Amen to
Calvin, who says that it's the
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principal article of the Christian religion.
This is important, really important. The
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doctrine that says we are made righteous
not by our own works but by Christ's
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work on our behalf, granted to
us by faith alone. We say yes
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and amen to this. But let
me ask you this this morning, some
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little fought experiment. Let's say this
Publican came back to the temple the next
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week, seven days later, and
had not changed anything about his behavior.
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He continues to defraud the same people, he continues in the same wretched profession
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and he comes back with the same
repentance, beating the same sinful chest,
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asking for God to make up for
the sins that he seems unwilling or unable
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to mortify. All the while we
are doing our darndest to live a holy
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life, and let's say Jesus continues
to send this man away justified. Well,
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that's troubling, isn't it? That
doesn't feel right. Now, before
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you start sending emails to pastor about
this, I'm not suggesting that that's how
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we act. I'm not suggesting that
we should neglect the pursuit of a holy
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life. I'm not suggesting that good
works aren't really evidence of saving faith.
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These things are true, but the
truth of the matter is we, like
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the Pharisee, even maybe not as
blatantly, like to come to God each
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week with an improved report card,
and we so often do this by comparing
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our card to those around us,
those who can't seem to get it together.
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You know the ones, the ones
who aren't as good at parenting,
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the ones who are impatient and their
relationships, the ones who make impulsive decisions.
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We like to justify ourselves by pointing
at them and saying what, I'm
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glad I am not like that.
And we do it constantly, and I
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would argue that in doing that we
show our own need to justify ourselves by
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our own actions. Perhaps we don't
pray it out loud, but we think
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to ourselves, thank you God,
that I am not like them, and
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in doing so we prove to ourselves
and others that we trust, at least
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to some degree, are and our
own semblance of righteousness. But if we're
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honest with ourselves, we too return
week after week with the same old sin,
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the same old selfishness that plagues our
decisions, the same old impatience that
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casts a shadow over our relationships,
the same lustful thoughts and actions that we
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try so hard to cover up.
But we try hard, don't we?
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And by trusting in any level of
our own righteousness, by comparing ourselves to
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others. We run into the warning
at the end of the passage that he
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who exalts himself, who sees himself
as righteous, will be humbled, but
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he who humbles himself will be exalted. As we conclude our want, I
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want to consider something for a moment. Like like I said, this passage
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isn't firstly about pride and humility,
but as we see, it's certainly connected,
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isn't it? It's firstly about righteousness
and how one is justified before a
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holy God. But in teaching us
about righteousness, Jesus gives us everything we
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need to be humble, and he
does it by telling us what it looks
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like to be a Christian, one
who is saved and justified by faith.
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Jesus shows us here that a model
Christian is not necessarily one who appears righteous,
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but one who is so needy that
he or she continually falls on the
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righteousness of Christ on their behalf.
We often have in our heads the idea
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of what a perfect church goer looks
like. It probably looks a lot like
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the PHARISEE, but Jesus turns it
on its head and says, you know
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what a model citizen of my kingdom
looks like. It looks like one who
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is well aware that they have nothing
to contribute to their salvation except for the
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sin that makes it necessary, one
who shows up with need over contribution.
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And that is who we are,
isn't it? Those who come with need,
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need for a righteousness outside of ourselves. And this morning Christ comes to
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us who are humbled this day,
to people who have nothing to hand over
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him except for our unrighteousness, and
he offers righteousness his own. He offers
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a propitiation, a covering of our
sins. He offers to turn away the
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wrath of the father and grant us
his own righteousness, as first John tells
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us, if we say we have
no sin, we deceive ourselves and the
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truth is not in us. But
if we confess our sins, he is
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what faithful and just to forgive us
our sins and to cleanse us from all
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unrighteousness. And and how does this
work? Because Jesus, Christ the righteous,
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is the propitiation for our sins,
as John will say, not only
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for ours but the sins of the
whole world. Jesus is the ATT owning,
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sacrifice and the Alien Righteousness that we
need that righteousness that comes to us
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from the outside, that sacrifice that
is sufficient to cover those besetting sins that
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we try to hide, and also
sufficient to atone for every attempt at selfrighteousness
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that stands between us and the grace
of God freely given to us and his
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son, Jesus Christ, he who
knew no sin, became sin for us
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that we might become the righteousness of
God, that we might be declared righteous,
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declared justified. Oh what glorious news
that is for sinners like you and
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me, desperate for something completely outside
of ourselves. So this morning, in
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light of this, let us set
aside any attempt of selfrighteousness that would cause
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us to show contempt to others who
send differently than we do. Let us
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draw near together, sinners in need
of grace, and let us, with
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common need, hold to this Common
Confession Christ and him crucified for you and
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for me. Let's pray together.
