Last time we were saying that some people mistakenly believe that they are saved because they believe that Jesus is their SAVIOR
Yes, Jesus is our SAVIOR, but He is more than Savior, He is Lord, and we are saved not by confessing Him as Savior only but by confessing Him as Lord
Romans 10: 9 ‘If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved’
This time I want to talk about those people who mistakenly believe that they are saved because they believe that they are GOOD
The reason people mistakenly believe that they are good is because they compare themselves to someone else who they think is bad
Now, thinking about history, who would you consider to be an infamously bad person?
Over the last few weeks, I have been reading Eric Metaxis excellent book about Dietrich Bonhoeffer the Christian Pastor who resisted the Nazi political Movement in Germany in the early 1930’s up till 1945
The Nazi Movement was led by Adolf Hitler who was responsible for murdering millions of Germans and invading Europe, North Africa and Russia
Most people would say that Hitler was a bad person
This might surprise you, Hitler considered himself to be a good person and he considered the millions of people that he murdered to be bad people
Hitler’s quotes about himself:
“My conduct is in accordance with the Almighty”
“As a Christian…I have a duty to be a fighter for truth and justice”
“My spirit will rise from the grave and the World will see I was right”
Here’s what we learn: just because people mistakenly believe that they are good, doesn’t mean that they are good
But to justify their mistaken belief that they are good, people will compare themselves to other people who they think they are bad
They will express their belief like this, “I’m better than you, therefore I am good” – and, “because I’m good, I’m righteous & right with God”
What did Jesus say about this?
Luke 18: 9-12
Two men in the Temple
By comparing himself to the second man in the Temple, the first man mistakenly believed that he was good, and therefore was righteous & right with God
11 ‘I am not a sinner like everyone else…I’m certainly not like that tax collector.’
Let me give you a real-life testimony on this point:
Late last year I was talking with ‘friends’ about their son who was in his early 20’s
The son was attending a large Church here in Nelson
His girlfriend attended the same Church too
He got her pregnant and was living with her
And I asked my friends if their son was a Christian
My friends didn’t want to answer that question and instead they tried to justify their son’s behavior and said, “a lot of the young people at that Church were doing the same kind of things”
The parents were justifying what their son was doing by comparing his behavior to the other young people in the Church
In their mind, their son was OK because other young people in the Church were doing the same kind of things
Back to Jesus story about the two men in the temple
Jesus said that the first man in the temple was not right with God and then drew our attention to the second man who wanted to be right with God!
The second man did this by confessing his own sinfulness and his need for mercy from God
Luke 18: 13-14
In another place Jesus said this
Luke 5: 32 “I have come to call, not those who think they are righteous (GOOD), but those who know they are sinners and need to repent.”
The Word of God is very clear that our inner sinful nature is not good
Romans 3: 9-10
9 ‘should we conclude that we Jews are better than others?’
Here in this passage, Paul said that the Jewish people were mistaken in their thinking that they were good because they considered themselves to be better than the Gentiles (non-Jews)
Paul said no, ‘all people…are under the power of sin’
And,
10a ‘No one is righteous’
12b ‘No one does good’
Paul said, in our sinfulness, the reason we cannot do good is because we are not good
So, if we are not GOOD, not righteous & not right with God, how are we saved –
We are saved by God’s mercy!
Titus 3: 5 ‘He saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy’.
So, are you saved?
Don’t be like the first man in the temple who believed that he was saved because he mistakenly believed that he was good
Be like the second man in the temple who confessed his own sinfulness to God and asked for mercy and went away from the Temple saved
How do we obtain mercy from God?
Through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
Romans 3: 22-25a
![](https://revdotdavid.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/cross-christ-1.jpg?w=620)