What is the meaning of the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector?

Then follows another parable of a very different character. It is not the value of persistent prayer, and the certainty of God appearing even for the weakest, no matter how apparently deserted (indeed, so much the more, because of it in His own). We have, further, the moral condition of man illustrated in two ways — a broken spirit with little light but a real sense of sin, and another soul satisfied with itself in the presence of God. "And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican." Not that the Pharisee represents a man who denies God, or who is not a religious man. He is religious, but such religion is the most damning thing about him. The evil is not merely his sins, but his religion: nothing more blinding to himself and other men, nothing more dishonouring to God. On the other hand, the poor publican has neither clear light nor peace, but at least he realises the commencement of all true light — he has learned enough of God to condemn himself. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." He alone of the two judged things according to his little light. He judged himself truly, and, therefore, was in a moral condition to see other things aright, as God should bring them before him. There was as yet no such privilege known as a purged worshipper having no more conscience of sins. Therefore, the convicted publican is found outside, beating his breast, and standing at a distance, not so much as looking up. It was suitable that it should be so; for Christ's work was not yet wrought, still less applied to his soul. It would have been not faith, but presumption, I do not doubt, at such a time, and under such circumstances, for him to have come nigh. All was in its season. But if God invites a believer now to draw near into the holiest of all, is it not equal presumption for that soul to quarrel with the grace of God displayed in Christ's work of redemption, and to raise questions about its effects for itself? God may, and does, bear with the wound to His own grace; and He has His way of correcting such wrong; but there is no ground in the parable to warrant what is too often founded upon it. We owe it to Christ to resent every misinterpretation which goes to undo what He has done on the cross. The publican before us was not meant to give us a full view of the Christian state, or of the blessings of the gospel, but of a man taught of God to feel his own nothingness as a sinner before Him; and God's estimate of him, in comparison with the man who was satisfied with his state. It is humility founded upon the sense of unworthiness, which is always right as far as it goes. (Verses 9-14.)

A. (1.) The parable teaches God's judgment of those who trust in their own righteousness and despise others, as the introductory verse expressly says. The entire context shows the setting aside of self for the kingdom of God; of self in any form you please. Self-righteousness is excluded in this parable; self-importance is rebuked in the incident of the little children blessed of Jesus; self, in the way of amiable nature, moral habits, high position, and large possessions, is treated as null and void in the rich ruler. The greatest advantages, humanly speaking, of flesh and world, are a hindrance, not a help, to the kingdom.

A parable He first spoke, for the special benefit of some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised the rest [or, all others]. Sectarianism of the most hateful kind was at work, of which the Pharisaic spirit of the day afforded a good illustration. Two men, both Jews, and therefore equally privileged to share in the dispensational nearness granted to that people, went up into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee, the other a publican. Both professed to have a want to lay before Jehovah, else why go to pray? Both very likely, but certainly the Pharisee, addressed God in silence. And He who reads the heart, and hears unuttered prayer, tells us what each expressed. The Pharisee had no want, no desire, for himself or for another, to lay before the throne of grace. Self-satisfaction filled his soul. He thanked God for what he was not, being, as he said, neither unrighteous, nor a gross sinner, nor like that publican; but assuming the truth of all he uttered, he did not thank God for grace ministered to him — self, only self, occupied him. He told God what he did, fasting twice in the week, and giving tithes of all he possessed. A pattern man in his own eyes! Nothing in his conduct to condemn, or to excuse. Of the publican we next hear. The Pharisee had taken up a position, as he thought, befitting one so good. The publican took a position befitting what he was. He was standing afar off; and not so much as lifting up his eyes to heaven, he smote on his breast, saying, "God, be merciful to me, the sinner." He told God what he was, and cast himself on His grace. The Pharisee thought no one was so good as himself. "I am not as the rest of men" (ver. 11), was his proud, self-righteous boast. The publican thought no one so bad as himself. "Me, the sinner," were his words. The language of each heart was interpreted by God, and the Lord announced the Divine decision. The publican "returned to his house justified rather than the other." He had taken his right place before God, and blessing could consequently result. "For every one that exalts himself shall be abased; and he that humbles himself shall be exalted" (Luke 18:14). He was justified rather than the other; not forensically justified before God, of which Paul wrote, since that follows believing the Divine testimony about the death and resurrection of the Lord (Rom. 4:24-25), and that is justification by faith. Here the question was raised who was righteous. The Pharisee thought he was, and condemned the publican. God's estimate — and that must settle all controversy — was that the publican was justified rather than the Pharisee, being righteous in what he said and did; for then the gospel of the grace of God, which tells of boldness to draw nigh, was unknown. In forensic justification, too, there are no degrees. No one in that is justified more than another.

Verse 9. We have next, the moral features of, and suited to, the kingdom, the characters which are in harmony or discord with the state of things introduced by grace. The Pharisee and publican set forth, not the doctrine of atonement or of justification by faith, but the certainty that self-righteousness is displeasing to God, and that lowliness because of our sin is most acceptable in His sight. The Pharisee does not set God aside. He "stood and prayed thus with himself: God, I thank thee." But then he thanks God for what he is, not for what God is. The only hope of the publican was in God Himself. He was very ignorant, no doubt, but he had the right spirit to get at God. Light had broken in and shewn he was a sinner, and he submitted to the painful conviction, and confessed the truth of his state to God. He was cast on God's mercy to his soul. He dared not appeal to justice, he did not ask indifference, but that mercy which measures the sin and forgives it. The revelation of grace had not yet come in, the work of reconciliation was not yet done, so that the publican stood "afar off," but his heart was touched, and God was what he wanted. If a soul is brought to a sense of sin now, it need not, and ought not, to stand afar off. The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared. Nevertheless, though he did and could not thus know grace, the publican gives God and himself their true character. It was not full knowledge, but the knowledge, as far as it went was true. "I tell you this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted." Universal truth! but where so shewn as in Jesus? For if the first man, exalting himself, was abased to hell, He who was God, made Himself of no reputation, humbled Himself to the death of the cross. "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him," etc.

157 In one sense men cannot humble themselves, because they are sinners already, and cannot go lower; a saint may. True humility is forgetfulness of self.

Job and his three friends asked many hard questions which would have taxed the wisdom of Solomon to answer, some of them indeed, he could not have answered. In Job 9:2 the patriarch asks "How should man be just with God?" It is from the Lord Jesus we have the answer when He spake a "parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous." The proud Pharisee who presumptuously paraded his self-righteousness before God is condemned, but the repentant publican who "smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner … went down to his house justified rather than the other" (Luke 18:9-14). The Lord answered Job's question by showing that the way to be just with God is by condemning ourselves before Him, confessing in true contrition that we are sinners, and casting ourselves on His mercy. The full answer to the question awaited the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and in the Epistle to the Romans we learn that we are justified by God's grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, and on the principle of faith.

You see it in the poor tax-gatherer. When the Pharisee was saying, 'God, I thank Thee I am not like other men; I am a better-man; I do not drink; I do not swear; I do not go to gamble or anything of that kind; no, I am a good man, much better than other people' — there was the poor tax-gatherer, to whose soul God had spoken, and who, instead of looking to find other people as bad or worse, can only say, "God be merciful to me the sinner!" It is not merely "to me a sinner." For many, many years I have been struck with the great beauty of that expression "God be merciful to me the sinner, if ever there was one. I know my sins and they are so overwhelming I do not think about others. God be merciful to me the sinner; me only." That man went down justified rather than the other. It is not what is called "justification by faith"; but it was the right thing that always takes place in a converted soul — self-condemnation before God. And it is the light of Christ, somehow entering, that produces that. And therefore now that the work of Christ is done He is exalted to give repentance and remission of sins to every one that looks to Him.

First (vs.9-14) one must have a righteousness far superior to that of the Pharisees. The Lord's parable was spoken to those whose confidence was in their own self-righteousness and who therefore despised others, two things that go together. The Pharisee and the tax collector are put in total contrast. In fact, the Pharisees favored such contrast. The Pharisee prayed "with himself," but addressed "God;" for his god was really himself, and his prayer is an expression of pride in not being like certain other men, including the tax collector. But what special merit is there in not being an extortioner, unjust, or an adulterer? Thousands of others avoid these things just because of the folly of them. The Pharisee prided himself also on missing two meals out of 21, and giving tithes of all his possessions. In his eyes these things so outweigh his sins that he did not even mention that he was guilty of any.

The tax gatherer however, stood afar off, his eyes cast down in self-judgment. He spoke of nothing whatever in his own favor (though possibly he might have had just as much to boast of as did the Pharisee). He pled only for mercy from God, confessing himself to be "the sinner" (JND). It is no question of how bad a sinner he was, but of the fact of being a sinner. Of course the fact was just as true of the Pharisee, but he chose to cover it up by talking about what sins he did not commit.

The Lord assures us that the man who faced facts honestly in the light of God's pure truth went to his house justified, rather than the other. The seIf-righteousness of the Pharisee left him in a state of no righteousness whatever, not justified, but actually under condemnation. The honest self-condemnation of the tax collector resulted in God counting him righteous, for his being justified means just this, that God has imputed righteousness to him because he admittedly had none of his own, but had faith in the living God. Compare Romans 4:1-8. The Lord sealed this by re-affirming a principle so constantly outstanding throughout scripture, that one who exalts himself shall be abased, while he who humbles himself shall be exalted. Satan is a striking example of the first, while the Lord Jesus is the supreme example of the latter. This is the first principle of our having to do with God.

Now we turn to look at the other man. The Pharisee lifts up his head, because he sees nothing. The tax-gatherer is in a Presence that he dares not approach, nor lift up his eyes to. Smiting upon his breast, as if his heart were viler than his life, he lays hold upon the horns of the altar with the cry, "God be propitiated towards me, the sinner."

But what was the publican's ground? There was the deepest sense of what he was — a sinner; and he was not even asking to be something better. No doubt he did desire deliverance. He would not have been so troubled about his state if he had been content to be a sinner. He had the deepest sense of what he was; but what was his hope? his resource? the only open door before him? It was what God is, and what God is to what he knew himself to be. It was, "God be merciful to me, a sinner." When the soul is once brought there, there is no doubt as to the issue. The word of God contains an answer now to such a state of soul as was not found even while our Lord was living upon the earth. God's perfect, blessed answer is in the fulfilment of the Saviour's own prediction of His sufferings and blood-shedding on the cross. There was the answer on Christ's part to God, for all the sin, let it be what it may, upon your conscience. There is also God's answer on His own part in the love that gave Christ to take the sinner's place, and stand in the sinner's stead, and die the sinner's death: the answer on God's part to the cry, "God be merciful to me a sinner." Oh! that some here may, through God's own teaching, be led to see how mercy has interposed — how mercy has triumphed. May you see something of the height and length and depth and breadth of mercy, God's mercy, the sinner's only refuge, his only resource. It is not mercy without atonement, without sacrifices, without the full vindication of God's holiness and righteousness. It is not mercy at the expense of these. But as sin has reigned unto death, even so grace now reigns through righteousness, unto eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

And what of the tax-gatherer? He, standing afar off, would not lift up even his eyes to heaven, but kept smiting his breast, saying, O God, be merciful to me, the sinner. It was his evil that pressed on his spirit, as he cried to God. Not a thought had he of good deeds done, of bad ones avoided. He did not dream of hiding himself in a crowd of sinners or a vague confession. He singled himself as the sinner if ever there was one. What did he know of others? or, even if he had a slight knowledge, he knew himself far better and overwhelmingly. "O God, be merciful to me, the sinner." His light from God might be small, but it was real; and as it disclosed his own sinfulness, he owned himself the sinner. He looked out of himself to God about his condition, without a word of self-commendation, or of comparison with others, or of excuse. No, he was the sinner, and before God he lays himself as he is. On God, a God of grace, he relies in simple real acknowledgement of his ruin.

It was the fear of God, and the beginning of wisdom; and the Lord recognises it accordingly. "I tell you, this man went down unto his house justified rather than that." Hence the general principle follows, "because every one that exalteth himself shall be humbled, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted."

It was not "justified by faith" so as to have peace with God. The Lord does not describe one who had heard and believed the word of truth, the gospel of salvation. There was not, nor could be yet, the presentation of the great work of grace, Christ's work. God's righteousness in Him had yet to be manifested. But the tax-gatherer was brought where all the godly in Israel had been before him, to look away from himself to God's mercy; he was believingly taught as a sinner, where the godly outside Israel were taught to renounce self-dependence. See a saint like Job thus broken through severe discipline for his greater blessing: "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes" (Job 42:5-6).