Then Jesus told this story to some who had great confidence in their own righteousness and scorned everyone else;
Luke 18:9
I was born into a Christian family, with this background I thought I knew something of the bible and that I was better than most, but the older I got I began to realize that I have been stuck in my own world not realizing that none of what I thought made me good was any good at all and I knew nothing of the bible in spite of reading it all my life.
As I read this verse God showed me 3 things that happen when we have great confidence on our own righteousness;
- It distracts us from God given revelation or assignment:
Mark 10:20 21,22,23 depicts the encounter of Rich young man with Jesus, here his conversation with Jesus, underscores the fact that he thought his knowledge and obedience to the commandments could bring right standing whilst sadly he lost the revelation of putting God first.
- It disengages our alignment with God:
Judges 16: 20, depicts Samson, who put his confidence over his anointing and the strength it brought without aligning to God. Once he revealed the secret of his strength to Delilah, the Lord left him and he became like a normal person.
- It makes us disobey Gods calling or instruction:
In Lev 10:1 we see the sons of Aaron Nadab and Abihu who burnt a wrong kind of fire and 1 Samuel 13 talks about King Saul, where he disobeys by burning the sacrifice himself, which Samuel should have done. In both these instances we see that they lost their anointing and it led to their eventual destruction.
So, from these passages we come to know that we abide and have our being purely by the Grace of God, we need to constantly and consistently humble ourselves, 2 Cor 12: 9 says “that his power is made perfect in our weakness”. 2 Cor 4: 7-9 say “But we have this treasure in jars of clay (weak) to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us” and Mat 5:5 says that it is blessed to be meek (humble & submissive). Therefore, let’s follow Jesus’s example and live a life that constantly and consistently glorifies God alone.
Sol. Paul Hudson