"Forgiveness." "Redemption." "Freedom from the soul-destroying, peace-robbing guilt of sin." "Peace with God." Only someone who has been truly convinced of sin can even start to understand the excitement of these words. But who receives divine forgiveness? Human religions put a price on forgiveness, a very high price. Holding it out like the proverbial carrot in front of the suffering sinner, they demand works and deeds before forgiveness is offered-and then it is usually only a partial, uncertain forgiveness, liable to be lost at the first misstep.
Our Lord illustrated who actually receives forgiveness as well as those who think they do and yet do not. For his example of a "religious" person he chose a Pharisee-a strict observer of the law, a "man of the Scriptures"-and thus someone many New Testament Israelites assumed to be right with God. To represent someone vile he chose the dreaded and hated Roman tax collector. With this contrast in mind, hear the Lord's words:
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, the 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. (Luke 18:10-14)
They tell you in seminary not to use illustrations that will cause your audience undue discomfort, but our Lord violated that rule. He turned the "norm" on its head, offending the "godly" and presenting the "ungodly" as finding God's favor. Everything in this story strikes at human religion. The Pharisee was in the right group; he did the right things; he lived an outwardly moral life. He engaged in religious ceremonies unashamedly. He even tithed!
Anyone putting a Pharisee beside a tax collector could say, "See, the Pharisee is godly, the tax collector is not." And, in a sense, that would be right. The tax collector was a traitor to his people, a minion of an occupying government, and thus the very definition of an outcast. He had nothing to show in the way of religious accomplishments, no "good works." And he knew it! That was what separated him from the Pharisee in the final analysis. The tax collector came to God without a single positive thing to say about himself. He offered no excuses, claimed no self-righteousness. He did not say, "I'm not as bad as some tax collectors I know!" He confessed the truth: he was the sinner. He did not even challenge the Pharisee's reference to him, for he knew it was true. He came to God as an ungodly man, begging for mercy. And he received it.
It is those who beat their chests and say with true conviction, "God, be merciful to me, the sinner!," who find God gracious. But Pharisees who think highly of themselves, who think that their gifts and works and activities are so valuable in God's sight, find no mercy. They leave the temple precincts utterly oblivious to their spiritual plights and still under God's wrath.
From the human viewpoint, this is the great irony: God forgives the ungodly, not the "godly"! Of course, this is a matter of perspective-from God's holy viewpoint, there are no "godly" people at all. All human beings have sinned, all of us fall far short of God's glory (see Rom. 3:23). But only those who see and acknowledge their state before God find forgiveness. Those who, like the Pharisee, continue to point to their "good works" only prove that they have no sense of the depth of their sin.
Closed Mouths
The Apostle Paul addressed this same issue when he presented the gospel to the church at Rome. Before he proclaimed the gospel's words of hope, he drove home the "bad news" of man's sin and his fallen state (see Rom. 1:18-3:20). Many today rush to proclaim forgiveness and eternal life, but Paul soberly lays out our need in the light of God's righteous wrath. He stresses that the condemnation of sin extends to all of Adam's posterity, Jew and Gentile alike, and then brings his argument to a head by stringing together a series of quotations from the Old Testament in Romans 3:10-18. He finally concludes:
Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be closed, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. (Rom. 3:19-20)
This passage is often overlooked, sandwiched as it is between verses 10-18, with their bleak commentary on humanity's condition, and the fantastically hopeful summary of the gospel of grace that begins at 3:21. But we must not overlook it, for here Paul describes the demeanor of those who are ready to hear about the forgiveness of sins, the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Paul's word-picture is very evocative. Why has he emphasized the universal guilt of sin? "So that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God." Both phrases describe the proper posture of a guilty party as he stands before the judge. We have all seen the opposite posture on television: sometimes people continue, even after a guilty verdict is delivered, to protest their innocence, to question the court's fairness, and to assert their basic goodness and self-righteousness. The mouths of these people are still open, filled with complaints and bitterness and self-promotion. "I'm not as bad as that person! I've done this good deed and that good deed! I'm being treated unfairly! This isn't just!"
Paul's words portray the exact opposite. Instead of an open mouth, filled with claims of self-worth and righteousness, the mouth is closed and the head is down. The defendant's very posture acknowledges the verdict's correctness. "Yes, I am guilty. I await my punishment." His eye does not dare to meet the judge's face. There is no thought of challenging his right to pronounce judgment, no rejection of the court's authority to impose sentence. The defendant admits his guilt and confesses his sin. The battle is over. He surrenders to the authority of him who has pronounced him guilty.
We must see this truth. Self-righteous people have no claim upon God's forgiveness. God does not justify those who claim to be righteous. Just as the Pharisee found God's ear closed to his recitation of his self-righteous deeds, so those who stand before the Judge in self-righteousness will face nothing but wrath. But when the mouth is closed, as it was with the tax collector, and no excuses are offered-when instead there is the heart-felt acknowledgement, "I am the sinner. I am guilty before God," and accountability is admitted-then the message of grace, redemption, and forgiveness can find a place. Mercy can meet the guilty sinner, but not the self-righteous.
This is why the Scriptures refer to those whom God justifies as "the ungodly." Obviously it is not God's intention that they remain ungodly or that as believers they live ungodly lives. But the key issue is the attitude of the heart of those who find mercy at God's hand. As Paul says: "And to the one who does not work, but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness (Rom. 4:5). "For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly" (Rom. 5:6).
Justification is a divine act. God justifies the ungodly, not those who have cleaned themselves up or who can claim a certain level of self-wrought "righteousness." The ungodly are described as "helpless," as those who do not work but rather believe. Romans 4:1-8 contrasts the attitude of the one who is justified with those who do work and thus receive a wage. Those who think their works can make God a debtor who must then "reward" them (even if they insist that their work depends on God's grace) have yet to understand the true nature of saving faith. Saving faith comes to God with empty hands. No claim to even the slightest amount of self-righteousness is allowed.
Self-Righteousness is Central to Man-Made Religions
Paul describes Christ's gospel as something that offends and trips up those who are perishing (1 Cor. 1:18, 23; 2 Cor. 2:15-16). One of the main reasons it does this is that it robs unbelievers of all grounds for boasting. Grace by definition must be free, unmixed with human meritoriousness. As Paul says, "But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace" (Rom. 11:6). Humanity's religions almost always make room for some notion of grace, but they cannot allow salvation to be all of grace, for that precludes all human boasting. As long as the final outcome rests in our hands, God's grace can be praised to the heights, but to what end? It still can't take effect without human action, human accomplishment.
Thus we see the importance of the Reformed faith with its motto, soli deo gloria. To God alone be the glory in everything, but especially in the gospel. If God's glory in the proclamation and acceptance of the gospel must be shared with human beings, then we must have some final and decisive role to play in our own salvation. And when we are given that power over God's grace and purpose, the result is inevitable: we construct systems of religion where we are not truly undone, where we are not truly powerless, and where we are not utterly dependent on God. Through this door self-righteousness enters in all its hideous forms. Man-made religions create structures to "control" God's grace while multiplying the ways in which we can obtain righteousness with God through prescribed acts and activities. Inevitably we are taught that we possess, through our own efforts, some degree of righteousness in God's sight, some standing with him, just like the Pharisee. Mercy and grace, then, are paid to those who earn it.
The depth of our sinful desire to control God's grace and cultivate self-righteousness is glaringly apparent in Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism. To study Smith is to be struck by the fact that he had no meaningful concept of grace. Indeed, his Book of Mormon contains amazing statements like this: "Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind, and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you" (Moroni 10:32).
Biblically, it is by grace that we are saved in spite of all we've done, and if Christ's grace only becomes sufficient for us after we have rid ourselves of all ungodliness and have come to love God perfectly, then what, exactly, does God's grace do? Nowhere is Smith's "God only forgives those who clean themselves up first" more apparent than in his own "version" of the Bible ("prophets" are allowed to issue such versions in Mormonism), for when he encountered the free, gratuitous justification of the ungodly in Paul's gospel, he simply could not understand it. So he changed it. Here is his version of Romans 4:5: "But to him that seeketh not to be justified by the law of works, but believeth on him who justifieth not the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness."
I have emphasized the altered elements (needless to say, there is no basis in any ancient manuscript for such a rendering). Smith's god does not justify the ungodly! He removed the very heart of the good news removed because he never understood the depths of our guilt and hence the glory of the grace of God in Christ. How tragic that the religion Smith founded now has nearly twelve million followers!
A Word to the Introspective
Whom does God forgive? The answer by now should be quite clear. God does not forgive the self-righteous. His mercy and grace cannot be purchased or earned. Indeed, we affront the sovereign King when we offer him the pittance of our sin-tainted works in the place of the full and free redemption that he has provided to us through the work of his Son at Calvary. Spurgeon said it well:
As for myself, I know that I was born in sin, and I know that in me-that is, in my flesh-there dwelleth no good thing. I know also that I once tried to purge and cleanse my own heart, and labored at it, I believe, as honestly as any person that lived. I went about to seek a righteousness of my own, and I endeavored to get quit of sin; but my failure was complete. I do not advise any other person try self-healing. It brought me to despair; it drove me almost to the loss of reason. Therefore speak I of my own experience; and, taught by my own failure, I cannot urge any man to seek cleansing by his own doings or efforts, but I urge him to accept that cleansing which God has promised in the covenant of grace.
What about you? As an elder, I have met some with sensitive hearts who can find themselves wondering, "Have I truly been forgiven?" To such I say with Spurgeon: Look away from yourself! Look to Christ! You cannot bring anything in the empty hands of faith. You cannot bargain with God; you cannot earn his favor; you cannot purchase forgiveness by your works or your labors. You cannot clean yourself up and then hope to find redemption. Your every effort outside Christ is but a stumbling block to peace with God. Do you want peace with the heavenly judge? This is the only way: "Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom. 5:1). We are justified and made right with God by faith, and not by anything we can do. The justified person alone has peace with God-true peace, shalom, wellness of relationship, which includes the pardon and remission of sin.
So whom does God forgive? Forgiveness, full and free, is the precious possession of those who stand with the tax collector and cry out, "God, be merciful to me, the sinner!" Those who stand before God making no pleas to self-righteousness but who instead trust in the God who justifies the ungodly are those who find God not to be an unyielding judge dispensing wrath but an ever-merciful Savior, full of long-suffering and compassion and ready to forgive.
This precious truth not only undergirds salvation by grace alone but also helps us to understand that we are not only saved by grace but kept by grace as well. We do not find God's forgiveness initially by faith alone and then toil away at a works-righteousness for the rest of our lives. No, the forgiveness found in Christ is always full and free, for those who seek him are those who are graciously joined to Christ as his people by the Father's eternal decree, and it is the Son's joyous duty, in obedience to his Father's will, so save them completely, to the uttermost (see John 6:37-39; Heb. 7:24-25). In Christ, we stand complete, possessed of his righteousness, with no need to add to his work in our place! Whom does God forgive? All who come to him and plead nothing but Christ and him crucified! Hallelujah, what a Savior!
