Bible Truth Foundations
Part 1 of 3: New Life in Christ
Please begin by answering this question honestly in your own words.
Have you ever felt you needed to earn God's approval through something you did? Where did that idea come from?
Ephesians 2:8–9 (NKJV)
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
Read this slowly. Every phrase is carrying weight. Come back to it after the teaching.
The central idea of this lesson
Salvation cannot be earned by religious effort or moral performance. It is God's free gift, received by those who humble themselves and call on His mercy.
In Luke 18, Jesus told a parable to a specific audience. The text identifies them precisely: people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. Jesus was not speaking to obvious sinners here; He was speaking to the religious. Two men go to the temple to pray. On the surface, both are doing the same thing. What separates them is not their location but their posture before God.
Luke 18:9–14 (NKJV)
Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, 'God, I thank You that I am not like other men — extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.' And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me a sinner!' I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."
Note
A Pharisee was not a casual churchgoer. Pharisees were among the most serious and dedicated religious practitioners of their day; they fasted, they tithed, they kept the law with meticulous care. When Jesus chose a Pharisee as the negative example in this parable, He was making a pointed statement: religious dedication is not the same as right standing before God. The tax collector, by contrast, was a figure of public contempt. Collaborating with the Roman occupiers and routinely defrauding their own people, tax collectors were considered beyond redemption by most of their contemporaries. Jesus reversed every expectation.
The Pharisee fasted twice a week and gave tithes of everything he owned. Neither of those things was wrong. The problem was not what he did but what he concluded from it: that his performance placed him in a different category from other people before God. His prayer was not really addressed to God at all. The text says he "prayed thus with himself." He was not seeking anything from God because he believed he already possessed what he needed through his own righteousness.
Caution
Self-righteousness is not always loud or obvious. It does not always sound like the Pharisee's prayer. It can appear quietly as the assumption that God owes us something because of our church attendance, our moral record or our religious history. Any time we find ourselves thinking "I am not as bad as..." or "At least I don't...", we are standing in the Pharisee's place. The issue Jesus is identifying is the belief that human performance can establish standing before a holy God.
The tax collector stood at a distance. He would not lift his eyes. He beat his breast, which in that culture was a physical expression of grief, remorse and genuine sorrow. His prayer was five words in the original Greek: "God be merciful to me, a sinner." He made no claims and offered no credentials. He came with nothing but his need and God's known character as the foundation for his request.
Jesus said this man went home justified. The word "justified" is a legal term meaning declared righteous, acquitted, not guilty. It describes the standing of someone who has been examined and pronounced clean before the court. The tax collector received this standing not because of what he had done but because he humbled himself and appealed to God's mercy.
Going Deeper
The Greek word translated "merciful" in the tax collector's prayer is hilaskomai, which carries the specific sense of propitiation: a satisfying of the just requirements of a holy God. The tax collector was not simply asking God to overlook his sin. He was appealing to the kind of mercy that deals with sin properly rather than ignoring it. This same word appears in 1 John 2:2 (NKJV): "And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world." The tax collector's prayer was pointing forward, whether he knew it or not, to what Christ would do at the cross.
The New Testament word for grace is the Greek word charis. It means the free, unmerited favour of God toward people who have no claim on it. It is not a reward for good behaviour. It is not God noticing your effort and meeting you halfway. It is God giving what no one has earned and no one could earn.
Romans 5:17 (NKJV)
For if by the one man's offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.
Paul calls righteousness a "gift." Not a wage. Not a reward. A gift. The same point is stated directly in the key scripture for this lesson:
Ephesians 2:8–9 (NKJV)
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
The phrase "not of yourselves" leaves no room for a contribution. Salvation is entirely from God's side. This is not a reason for passivity but a reason for freedom. If your standing before God depended on your performance, it would shift every time you failed. Because it rests on grace received through faith, it stands on something that does not change.
Note
Ephesians 2:10 follows immediately: "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." Good works are not absent from the picture; they simply appear in the right place. Works do not produce salvation; salvation produces works. The order matters enormously. A life of good works flows from a person who knows they are loved and accepted by God, not from a person trying to earn that acceptance.
The parable ends with a principle: everyone who humbles himself will be exalted. This is not a narrow offer. The tax collector stands as a representative of everyone who knows they have no standing before God in their own right.
Romans 10:13 (NKJV)
For "whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved."
The word "whoever" removes every qualification. Religious background, moral history, nationality, language. The one requirement is that the person calls, which presupposes the same recognition the tax collector had: that they need to. And for those concerned that their past disqualifies them:
1 John 1:8–9 (NKJV)
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
The promise is unconditional in its scope: all unrighteousness. There is no category of sin excluded from "all." The basis for God's faithfulness in this promise is not the quality of the confession but the character of God and the completed work of Christ.
Going Deeper
John 1:17 (NKJV) draws a direct line between the two covenants: "For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." The law defined the standard and revealed the problem; grace arrived as the solution. The Pharisee in the parable was operating entirely within the framework of the law, measuring himself against a standard and finding himself satisfactory. The tax collector had no such framework to appeal to. Paradoxically, that is exactly what qualified him to receive grace: he had nothing else to offer.
Practical Tip
If you find yourself feeling distant from God after a failure, notice which person in the parable you are imitating in that moment. The Pharisee stayed away from the tax collector because of superiority; many people stay away from God after failure because of shame. The tax collector shows a third way: come anyway, with exactly what you have, and say what is true. The same God who justified the tax collector is the God you are approaching.
Work through these on your own before your group meets. Type your answers directly into the table below. Your answers are saved automatically in your browser.
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| Question | My Answer | Group Discussion Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Read Luke 18:9. Jesus directed this parable at a specific group. Who were they and what was their attitude toward others? | ||
| Read Luke 18:11–12. List the things the Pharisee pointed to in his prayer. What was he actually claiming? | ||
| Read Luke 18:13–14. What did the tax collector do and say? Why did Jesus say he went home justified rather than the Pharisee? | ||
| Read Ephesians 2:8–9. Paul says salvation is "not of yourselves" and "not of works." What do you think that means for someone who feels their past disqualifies them? | ||
| Read 1 John 1:9. What does God promise to those who confess their sins? What does "all unrighteousness" tell you about the scope of that promise? |
These questions are designed for open conversation at any level of experience. There are no trick questions and no single correct answer.
Salvation by grace is not only a doctrine about how you began; it shapes how you continue. Consider what changes when grace is genuinely believed.
| Context | How I Apply This |
|---|---|
| After failure | When you sin or fall short, resist the impulse to stay away from God until you feel you have sufficiently punished yourself or improved. That impulse is the Pharisee's logic applied in reverse. The tax collector shows the right movement: come immediately, with nothing but honesty, and receive what God has promised in 1 John 1:9. |
| With other people | If salvation is a gift no one earns, then no one stands in a better position before God because of their moral record or church history. That truth should reshape how you think about people you might be tempted to write off. Romans 10:13 says "whoever." There is no one to whom the offer does not extend. |
| In how you serve | Ephesians 2:10 says we are created for good works. But those works flow from being God's workmanship, not from earning His approval. Examine your own motivations honestly: are you serving out of gratitude and love, or out of a felt need to maintain your standing before God? The first produces joy; the second produces exhaustion. |
Tap each card to reveal the answer.
What is grace?
The free, unmerited favour of God toward people who have no claim on it. Not a reward for good behaviour; a gift given entirely from God's side.
What does "justified" mean?
Declared righteous before God. A legal term meaning acquitted, not guilty. It describes standing that is given, not achieved.
How does Paul describe salvation in Ephesians 2:8–9?
Ephesians 2:8–9
"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast."
Ephesians 2:8–9 (NKJV)
Who can call on God and be saved?
Romans 10:13
"For 'whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.'"
Romans 10:13 (NKJV)
What does God promise when we confess our sins?
1 John 1:9
"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
1 John 1:9 (NKJV)
What did the tax collector pray and what was the result?
Luke 18:13–14
"God, be merciful to me a sinner!" — and he went home justified before God.
Luke 18:13–14 (NKJV)