The humble prayer of the publican in the temple was set by the Lord Jesus Christ in complete contrast to the proud prayer of the Pharisee.

How complete a contrast?

Carefully observe the so-called repentance of the Pharisee. His proud, self-righteous repentance was that he was “not as other men.” He was not an extortioner. He was not unjust. He was not an adulterer. Nor was he “even as this publican” (Luke 18:11). The Pharisee’s repentance was his righteousness before God. His so-called repentance was the reason that God did not need to show mercy to the Pharisee, the reason that God did not need to justify the Pharisee.

In contrast was the publican and everything about him.

The Lord placed the publican in the same place as the Pharisee: in the temple. There in the presence of God, the publican was “standing afar off.” In harmony with his place of standing afar off was his demeanor and posture of deep humility. He “would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven.” He “smote upon his breast” (v. 13).

In perfect agreement with his demeanor and posture, the contrast continued with the words of the publican: “God be merciful to me a sinner” (v. 13).

What was missing from the publican’s words, words placed in his mouth by Christ?

Missing was what was found on the lips of the Pharisee. According to the parable of Christ, the Pharisee spoke words of separation, words of so-called repentance.

But no such words were found on the lips of the publican. He was, after all, a publican. He was the sinner whom the Pharisee had identified in his proud prayer, boasting of his penitence and of his being not “as this publican.”

According to the parable of Christ, the publican had one identification. He was “a sinner.” He was “a sinner” in need of the mercy of God.

Even though the King James Version, for reasons of a good translation, does not indicate it, the Greek records the use of the definite article the in the words “a sinner.” While a more accurate translation (in the case of the New American Standard Bible, for example) has “the sinner,” the English cannot really capture the true use of the word the. The point of Jesus’ use of the definite article was to indicate that the publican had upon his heart and upon his mind only one sinner to talk about: himself. The publican’s mind was not going to compare himself to any other. He did not compare himself to the Pharisee, not even to the one standing in the middle of the temple. No other publican. No other extortioner, no other unjust man, no other adulterer. No, the publican was the sinner. Before God and before God’s holy law, the publican felt the weight of its guilt and condemning power.

Nor was the publican about to compare himself in his repentance to the Pharisee with his proud, self-righteous prayer. It is impossible to suppose that before God the publican would say, “I thank thee that I am not as that Pharisee over there. I thank thee that my repentance is genuine. I thank thee that I might say, ‘God be merciful to me a sinner.’ I thank thee that I might have the humility to be exalted by thee. I am in a right and proper position to be the object of thy mercy.”

Such is the wonder of true repentance—such a good, wonderful gift of God’s grace. Such is its wonderful power that repentance has nothing of which to boast. Repentance simply cannot speak of itself. It must speak of the sinner as sinner, the sinner that is in complete and entire need of one thing alone: the mercy of God.

The reason that repentance cannot speak of itself before God is because repentance has one force and one direction. Its force is self-condemnation as the sinner applies God’s law to himself as the sinner. Repentance allows for no self-justification. Repentance must deny the existence of any good thing in the penitent. Its direction is downward. Repentance is abasing and humbling. Repentance cannot be compromised by the sentiment that the penitence of the penitent is some good thing that gives him a right before God.

True repentance, the repentance that sees only that one is a sinner, has its perfect point for the first part of the publican’s prayer: “God be merciful to me.”

Only broken, only poor, only ruined, only mired in sin and depravity, only burdened with guilt, and therefore in complete and perfect need of the mercy of God, is who that publican was.

There was no exchange to be made. There was no qualification to be raised. There was no condition to be fulfilled. Any such exchange, qualification, and condition had to diminish because they would have ultimately denied the mercy of God.

That mercy Christ properly placed only in the prayer of the publican. In doing so Christ excluded mercy from the prayer of the Pharisee. Despite all of the Pharisee’s speaking about his separation from sinners, there was no plea from his lips for mercy. Despite his giving thanks to God and acknowledging God’s grace for giving him that separation, there was no plea for mercy. He needed no mercy because, as the Holy Spirit indicated in Luke 18:9, the Pharisee was one of those “certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others.”

God’s mercy to the sinner is exactly what his mercy is all about. His glory is to be a God who is compassionate toward the weak and takes pity upon the wretched. His mercy is a mercy that flows from his will alone to the poor and needy. His mercy is to reach all the way down to them and to lift them out of their misery. He is the God who resists the proud but gives grace to the lowly.

Here is the true wonder, the glorious grace of true repentance. Finding no good thing in self but finding only what is evil and condemnable is the way to call on God’s mercy. Finding and bringing before God some supposed good in self is to find no mercy but only judgment.

Exactly here understand that the plea of the publican was completely different than the thankful declaration of the proud Pharisee. The difference was God’s grace alone. Grace alone had to give the publican his true repentance. Anything less, as indicated by the words of the Pharisee, was not of God but of man.

Legal repentance, the repentance that is seen to prepare, qualify, or condition man for God’s mercy, is truly no repentance at all. It is not of God at all. Because it is not at all of God, it is no recipient of the mercy of God.

The wonder of God’s sovereign grace is to work this prayer by his Holy Spirit in the hearts of those upon whom he chooses to show this mercy. Only God’s grace can so thoroughly break the pride of the self-righteousness of all whom God has chosen, so that each one of them prays this prayer of the publican: “God be merciful to me a sinner.” His grace is the only power to break the stubborn, proud heart. His grace is the only power to strip away all self-righteousness, especially the selfrighteousness of legal repentance. His grace is the only power to so humble the elect sinner in the heart and soul to bring about this blessed, glorious prayer: “God be merciful to me a sinner.” The antithesis between the Pharisee and the publican in their respective manners and prayers was of God’s mercy alone.

God’s mercy is always first, just as his grace is always first. Mercy upon mercy is the way of God, as well as grace upon grace.

The end of the parable was the declaration of the Savior about the publican: “I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other” (Luke 18:14).

The mercy sought by the publican in his prayer he received. Not the penitent was justified. Not even was the truly penitent justified. The sinner was justified. After the language of Romans 4:5, God justified the ungodly sinner, who was the publican.

That end of the parable, the justification of the publican sinner, powerfully connected to the beginning of the parable. God’s justification of the sinner was the rebuke of the one who trusted in himself that he was righteous rather than others. All the pronounced righteousness of the Pharisee—his outward signs of repentance and expressed superiority to other sinners or even to “this publican”—was not honored by God but rejected. The Pharisee’s righteousness had no standing before God. All of the Pharisee’s boasted righteousness was his condemnation by God, in spite of the Pharisee’s words of thanksgiving. He was the one who did not return to his house justified.

There is yet another way that Christ’s distinction in this parable between the publican and the Pharisee must be applied. What of the penitential prayer of the publican? What was its true relationship to his justification by the God to whom he prayed? Was his prayer answered with the mercy of God to justify the publican because he had the correct attitude? Because he had the right demeanor and actions? Because he said the right words and made his entire appeal to God’s mercy alone and nothing in himself?

Certainly not!

First, such a notion must overturn the entirety of the parable. It must violate the very reason for the parable, according to scripture. Taking up this parable to teach a condition or a way can only lead to a new brand of self-righteousness—a self-righteousness of humility, of outward confessions of sins, and of smitings upon the breast. It can only foster the very same doctrine taught and practiced by the self-righteous Pharisees—justification before God by works. It can only lead to a new crop of Pharisees, now become publicans and now aping these actions and parroting these words in order to go to their houses justified rather than the others.

Second, such a notion denies the very reason for the last statement of the Lord: “He that humbleth himself shall be exalted” (Luke 18:14). What a perversity to turn humility into a new pride!

How often and how badly this is done! How perverse is sinful pride! Not the whole law but only circumcision. Not meritorious good works but good works done by grace in gratitude. Not good works but coming forward, accepting the invitation, and praying the sinner’s prayer. Not coming forward and accepting the invitation but only faith as the act of free will. Not faith as the act of free will but faith as the good deed or good work. Not faith as a good deed or a good work but only as a doing, an active faith. Not faith as a mere condition but as a condition fulfilled by God’s grace. Or faith not as a condition fulfilled by grace but only in the way of.

It all becomes a new pride, a new self-righteousness, which cloaks itself in humility.

Not in words and in feelings but in the truth of the words is the teaching of Christ. The truth is that there is only one cause for justification: the mercy of God in Jesus Christ. That truth was reflected in the one, glorious supplication of the publican. Glorifying God as the God wonderful in mercy, the publican had to speak accordingly of himself as only the sinner in need of that mercy of God.

The glory of repentance, then, is the glory of God’s mercy reflected in repentance. It is the brokenness that needs wholeness. Repentance is the death that needs life, the sorrow that needs joy, the emptiness that needs fullness. Repentance is the sin that needs righteousness for its covering. Repentance is the humiliation that needs the exaltation of God’s mercy.

The later was the reason for the Lord’s statement that finished his parable: “He that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” It is the mercy of God that exalts the humble. Humility serves the mercy of God. And it is the mercy of God that humbles the proud, to give them the very humility that he so mercifully answers.

To guard against all the abuse of self-deceptive pride, the subject of true repentance for the glory of God’s mercy and the humility of his people must be properly understood in its twofold respect. Like the doctrine of faith, the doctrine of repentance must be distinguished from repentance itself. Understanding repentance, talking about repentance, and being able to distinguish the truth of true repentance from the error of false repentance are not repentance itself. Having and confessing the correct doctrine of true repentance are not repentance itself. And the ability to defend vigorously and successfully the truth of repentance is not repentance.

This difference becomes especially important when considering exactly how repentance is of God’s grace alone and not of man. In this consideration it becomes especially easy to suppose that because one has in his mind that repentance is from God alone and because one has the proper understanding of repentance, he must be repentant. Likewise, one might easily suppose that because he is convinced that repentance is not of man at all and that man’s repentance is not first in any respect, he is indeed repentant.

What is the difference? It is all the difference between the intellectual pride that knows what repentance is and the abasing of all that very same pride, melted in the deep humility of true repentance. It is all the difference between the pride that seeks to hide itself in the vain attempt to make so many distinctions of first, second, and third, what is intervening and what is consequential, so as to ignore that God’s grace alone is in the true repentance itself.

The humility of true repentance must carry its force into all the doctrine of true repentance. This humility will determine that, no, repentance does not precede grace. Humility must determine that, no, repentance does not precede forgiveness. Humility must determine that, no, repentance does not precede the mercy of God. Humility must determine that, no, repentance does not precede faith.

The humility of repentance is the knowledge that God justifies the ungodly. The humility of repentance is the knowledge that God’s grace gives repentance as the fruit of the cross of Christ, the Christ who died for his own while they were yet sinners and his enemies. The humility of repentance is the knowledge that the sinner has nothing good in himself, ever, under any circumstances, that makes him worthy of anything good from his God.

Two simple points make clear the first necessity of God’s grace.

The first is the promiscuous preaching of the gospel. The gospel is first as the good and glad tidings of salvation—what God has done in reconciling sinners to himself through the blood of his Son, Jesus Christ. That gospel is preached to men in the one condition of who they are according to that gospel: sinners. That gospel, preached to all men as sinners, declares to them the blessed tidings of salvation. To be specific, that gospel is promiscuously preached to all men as the tidings of complete salvation in Christ. The gospel proclaims Christ as the complete savior. It speaks not of stages or degrees of salvation. The gospel does not speak of being given certain gifts or blessings; and then, if certain conditions are met, additional gifts and blessings will be given. That gospel is preached with the understanding that through the gospel and its preaching the Holy Spirit blesses with repentance those whom he inwardly calls by sovereign, irresistible grace according to the election of God.

Suppose that were not the promiscuously preached gospel. Suppose it were another gospel, a conditional gospel. That conditional gospel would be that God will show the mercy of justification only to those who truly repent of their sins. The truth is that such a gospel is no gospel at all. It is only law. Further, according to such a gospel in its preaching and doctrine, God would not give the gift of repentance. It would be up to man to produce repentance. It would be a condition on man’s part. Since that man is truly a sinner, totally depraved by nature, he cannot truly repent of his sins. He cannot of himself put himself to death, mortifying the flesh that he is and all that he is.

The gospel of gracious salvation, including the gift of repentance, is the gospel that brings salvation, including with it all true repentance.

The second point, standing in close connection, is God’s gracious administration of the gospel by the Holy Spirit to the hearts of the elect. According to the truth of Psalm 130:4, God must first show himself to the hearts of his elect as being a merciful and gracious God. So he leads them by sovereign grace to repentance because they know him to be a merciful God. This same apprehension of God’s mercy is powerfully demonstrated in David’s supplication in Psalm 51:1. In language strikingly similar to that of the publican, David prayed, “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.” In this same respect stands the proper manner of Psalm 32. First is the word of blessedness in verses 1 and 2: “Blessed is he” and “Blessed is the man.” The rest of Psalm 32 describes thoroughly what this blessedness is. Not only in receiving the testimony and seal of forgiveness that is described in verse 5, but also that blessedness itself is in the acknowledging and confessing of sin.

That blessedness is also powerfully represented in the beginning of verse 6: “For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee.” The blessedness of gracious salvation is in the publican’s prayer: “God be merciful to me a sinner.”