WHO GETS THE GRACE?

Perhaps, it was from being attacked over being “a legalist” that I was awakened in the dead of night this week by a story Jesus told. The one about the Pharisee and the publican. The story of the self-righteous, glory-seeking, law-contriving, and law-enforcing Pharisee and the extorting, cheating, lying, people-ruining tax collector. People who Quixotically deem themselves lone champions of sola gratia, salvation by grace alone--I’m talking about the ones who are on a self-proclaimed crusade against perceived legalism--love Jesus' tale of the Pharisee and the Publican. I do too. But for a different reason. They think this tale is a gotcha for those they label legalists. However, it is really a gotcha for them as they try to gotcha those they accuse. You remember the story: Two men went into the Temple to pray. The Pharisee positioned himself in a conspicuous place, posed sanctimoniously, and prayed smugly with a volume that commanded the attention of all but God: “O, God, I am so grateful I am not your run-of-the-mill, sinful guy. I am unlike other people who are filthy, rotten law-breakers, like, take for instance, that low-down tax collector over there. God, I’m sure you’ve noticed those big tithes I’ve been paying. And, God, I skipped breakfast to fast before coming to pray—just in case you didn’t notice.” Meanwhile, as he pompously pontificated, the publican slumped in the shadow of the wall most distant from the Holy Place, alternately covered his bowed face in his hands and beat upon his chest in distress as he pled with God, “Please, forgive me; be merciful to me for I am a filthy, rotten sinner—what he said,” he had heard the Pharisee refer to him. Jesus, applying His story, made it clear only one of the two left the Temple right with God that day. Only one got the grace. And it wasn’t the Pharisee. The lampooners of those they label legalists rightly point out the Pharisee’s egregious mistake. He condemned himself and spotlighted his hypocritical self-righteousness by saying, “I thank God I am not like the publican.” Yet, they do not see their own hypocrisy. As they condemn the Pharisee for saying, “I thank God I am not like the publican,” they are at that moment saying, “I thank God I am not like that Pharisee.” Using Jesus’ story to attack those they have arrested, tried, and hung as legalists, they pedagogically preach, “See, salvation is all about grace. The Pharisee’s works counted for nothing. The publican was wicked and deserved no quarter, no salvation, no mercy, nothing from God. He deserved only judgment. It was the publican who got the grace, left forgiven, justified, in the saving grip of God. The Pharisee, the legalist, left condemned.” And, of course, they are correct. But some one can be right and still wrong. Those who rail against perceived legalists and shout at them, “Don’t you know that salvation is all about grace,” have nothing of the repentant publican’s attitude and everything of the pompous Pharisee’s. Again I concede that they rightly condemn the Pharisee for saying, “I thank God I am not like that publican.” But in telling the tale, ironically, they say, “I thank God I am not like that Pharisee.” Only they are. They have the same pride. These remind me of the reality we see in our culture today. None are as intolerant as those who preach tolerance. None are as racist as those who are always insisting that whites as a class are racist. None are as narrowminded as those who call conservatives narrowminded. And none as graceless as those who overweeningly proclaim it's all about grace. They show no grace to those they deem are not about grace. They assail the “legalist” as being proud and self-righteous. But in attacking their straw man of legalism, they are, in reality, boasting of their ultra knowledge, their perspicuity, their prophetic word, and their spiritual superiority. You may say, “You are judging them.” It’s not judging. It is observation. It is no different from being overwhelmed by the odor of someone leaving an Italian restaurant who has stopped you to chat and gets in your face. You cannot but note that he reeks of garlic. Whether you tell him or not. When these begin their tirade against those they erroneously call legalists, their words reek of self-assured hubris. Legalism is wrong. Salvation is by grace alone. Plus nothing. But the truth is, they are not really against legalism and for grace. They are for themselves. Trying to show their smarts, they reveal their ignorance. They do not even really know what a legalist is. This one has accused me of being a legalist. (I have gotten personal But this isn’t about the personal. It’s about a point.) Archives of thousands of sermons I have preached are publicly accessible. Records of hundreds of pages of writing too. My message is that salvation is by grace alone. (I also preach, as the NT makes clear, that grace is not alone. It brings something when it comes. Tit. 2:11-12.) What a legalist is, I’m not. Not Biblically. Not theologically. Not in practice. Not in this or any parallel universe. If you listen to these self-proclaimed only true preachers of the Gospel, their focus on grace is not really on grace at all. It is not on the God who has shown grace, nor on how we recipients are unworthy of grace. Their focus is on themselves. They have a leg up on everyone else in their grasp and understanding of salvation's being all about grace. They, in their minds, are the strongest advocates of grace. They have spotted legalism, and they are the only capable decriers of it. They get it about grace when those lowly legalists (by their labeling) don’t. If you have endured reading this far and the nascent thought is now emerging in your mind that I have been rather graceless in haranguing those who gracelessly aggrandize themselves while pretending to glorify grace, I would beg to differ. None of us deserve grace, and I have shown them far more grace than they deserve. Or would recognize. You, see hypocrites cannot be shown grace. No more than you can water artificial flowers. They are incapable of accepting it. As long as they play the part of the hypocrite. They don’t get the grace. However, I will confess to this: The Pharisee thanked God he was not like the publican. My accuser thanks God he is not like the Pharisee. And I have thanked God I am not like my accuser. Who has thanked God He is not like the Pharisee. Who has thanked God he is not like the publican. In this confession I also submit, that of the four, I pray that God gives me a heart like the publican’s. One that prays, God, have mercy on me. See, the publican is the only one in my tirade that gets the grace. And that’s what I want. Grace. ---Pastor Clifford Hurst