To Love With All Your Heart

The Pharisee: Understanding That I Can Never Be Good Before God

ABIDING PRINCIPLE It is my condition, not my conduct, that keeps me from being acceptable to God. I sin because I was born a sinner.

If you would know the heart of your sin, you must know the sin of your heart. An old divine says, “You say, ‘I have my faults, but at bottom I have a good heart!’ Alas! It is this that deceives you, for your heart is the worst part of you.”?Charles H. Spurgeon

SNAPSHOT Of the four Gospels, only Luke’s recorded a certain poignant parable about two men doing the same thing in the same place at the same time. Where they were and That they were doing is very important for us today. They were in the Jerusalem temple, as close as the typical first-century Jews could be to God Himself. And both men were praying, or so it seemed.

Their prayers are paradigms of two contrasting perspectives on who man is before God. The importance of each man’s perspective is reflected in the outcome and recorded forever as a warning to those of us who follow: one was welcomed by God, while the other was rejected. And the greatest tragedy of all is that the one who stood condemned by God left the temple confident of his approved status before God! His isunderstanding

about his condition led to a mistake about his position. And in this case, it cost him his soul.

Understanding our condition before God as human beings determines our perspective on what it takes to become a Christian, and what it means to live as one. This is no small matter. It is the single most important conclusion we can have about ourselves as Christians. It is a foundation upon which we build our faith.

Getting this right is crucial in itself. Getting it wrong could be devastating?to the point of eternal death. So, what is your present understanding of your basic problem before God as a human being? Do you know? Do you think that it is what you’ve done wrong, or what you’ve failed to do right in life? Is it your sins, those words, deeds, or thoughts that are the diet of your conscience and conduct? Or could it be something more basic yet more deadly?