We’re All Sinners

Luke 18:9-14:

Jesus addressed this parable to those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else. “Two people went up to the temple area to pray; one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector. The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself, ‘O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity — greedy, dishonest, adulterous — or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.’ But the tax collector stood off at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast and prayed, ‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner.’ I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former; for whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Blog:

The entire Gospel Story rests on one core Truth – that we’re all sinners in need of a Savior. Without the fall of humanity in the Garden of Eden, Eden is still the Home to humanity – Adam, Eve, and all of us.  Father Abraham wouldn’t have to put Isaac up as a potential human sacrifice, Noah wouldn’t have had to build the Ark, and the Tower of Babel incident wouldn’t have dispersed all of us to the four corners of the earth.  And, most importantly, we would have no need of a Savior.  It’s as simple as this – because Adam and Even sinned originally for all of us, we’re all labeled appropriately as sinners while we navigate the challenges that sin brought into this world.  It’s not too hard to humble ourselves when we think of Who God is and who we are. When we know these two things, what other action is there to take but a Spirit of humility?  The Good News is that Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, came to suffer, die, and rise again in order to save each and every one of us.  The gratitude that this brings is so overwhelming to a Believer that it literally brings folks to their knees with tears in their eyes.  So, let’s be sure to humbly remember who we really are, Who God really is, and who we are in God.