A Good Citizen

I broached the subject of salvation with a good friend, who spurned my efforts to tell her about Jesus. She returned with these fierce words.  “I don’t need that. I am a good citizen. Enough is enough!”  Oh, dear. 

She reminds me of a few Bible characters who thought they were just fine the way they were. Remember these fellows?

Jesus told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves and were confident that they were righteous, that they were upright and in right standing with God. They scorned and made nothing of all the rest of men:

Two men went up into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.

The Pharisee took his stand ostentatiously and began to pray thus before and with himself. 

“God, I thank You that I am not like the rest of men—extortioners, robbers, swindlers, unrighteous in heart and life, adulterers—or even like this tax collector here. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I gain.

But the tax collector, standing at a distance, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but kept striking his breast, saying, O God, be favorable, be gracious, be merciful to me, the especially wicked sinner that I am!”

And Jesus added, “I tell you; this man went down to his home justified, forgiven and made upright and in right standing with God, rather than the other man; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted. (Luke 18:9-14, AMPC)