“O Wretched Man That I Am!”
There is a vast difference between the view the
self-righteous lost sinner has of
himself and the view the saved sinner
has of himself. The problem lies in
natural man’s depravity which renders him totally incapable of discerning good
and evil. For this reason, they judge those people who are moral, sincere, and
dedicated to religion to be “good people” in spite of the fact that the
Scripture plainly declare: “As it is
written, There is NONE righteous,
no, not one: There is NONE that
understandeth, there is NONE that
seeketh after God. They are all gone out
of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is NONE THAT DOETH GOOD, no, not one.”(Rom.3:10-12)
Without question, every sincere, dedicated, moral religionist considers himself
to be better than he was before. How many times have you heard this saying? “I’m not what I should be; I’ll never be
what I ought to be; but thank God I’m not what I used to be.” Is this how
you judge your position before the true and living God?
We have an
example of this wicked and evil practice displayed in the parable of the
Publican and the Pharisee in Luke 18.
The parable is prefaced with this important statement: “And he spake this parable unto certain which
trusted in themselves (i.e.,
they didn’t trust in Christ’s righteousness alone, but their own
self-righteousness) that they were
righteous, and despised others.”(Lk.18:9) Notice the Pharisees’ view of
himself-“The Pharisee stood and prayed
thus with himself (his prayer was to himself, NOT TO GOD), God, I thank
thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even
as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess,”(vss.11,12).
Isn’t that amazing? He “thanked God”, i.e., he even gave God the credit for
making him into this new and improved creature which he judged worthy of
salvation. If you are a lost sinner, I know you consider yourself to be a “good
person”, and this opinion of yourself reveals how little you value both the
person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Publican in
this parable shows us how every truly saved sinner, whose heart the Spirit of
God has opened, views themselves before God-“And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his
eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful (literally, be my mercy seat, a
propitiation) to me a (the) sinner.(Vs.13) Every
child of God begins this journey with this solitary confession: “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver
me from this body of death?”(Rom.7:24) And when we come to the end of this journey, our plea
will be the same: “O wretched man that I
am! WHO SHALL deliver US from this body of death” Who can deliver us? Paul answered this
question: “I THANK GOD through (because of) JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD”(Vs.25) Christ justified and delivered
every son of God He represented with His one time sacrifice at
Richard Warmack,
Pastor of Grace Baptist
in