好人失丧，坏人得救？
路加福音十八章9至14节
9耶稣向那些仗着自己是义人，藐视别人的，设一个比喻，
10说：“有两个人上殿里去祷告：一个是法利赛人，一个是税吏。
11法利赛人站着，自言自语地祷告说：‘ 神啊，我感谢你，我不像别人勒索、不义、奸淫，也不像这个税吏。
12我一个礼拜禁食两次，凡我所得的都捐上十分之一。’
13那税吏远远地站着，连举目望天也不敢，只捶着胸说：‘ 神啊，开恩可怜我这个罪人！’
14我告诉你们：这人回家去比那人倒算为义了。因为凡自高的，必降为卑；自卑的，必升为高。”
信息分享
耶稣为何讲这个比喻呢？请再读第9节。祂是刻意讲给那些自以为义的人的，他们认为自己并不像其他罪人那样需要神的怜悯。
比喻中的法利赛人同样认为自己毫无错失。他并不觉得自己需要求神的怜悯。他已经成为众人的典范。然而，耶稣却说，最终是那税吏蒙神接纳（14节）。为甚么呢？为何不是那位表现敬虔的法利赛人得到神的接纳呢？
税吏是以罪人的身份，来到神的面前，求取神的怜悯，他称呼自己为「罪人」。他说：「神啊，开恩可怜我这个罪人。」「怜悯」的意思，就是求神的忿怒不要临到他的身上。他求神赦免，但他自知不配，所以才要求神格外开恩。
税吏的祷告，只是一个简单的呼求；但基督却说这人回家去比那人倒算为义了──税吏在神面前得称为义。在福音书中，耶稣似乎仅在这里用过「算为义」这个措辞。
反观保罗在其书信中，却经常用「算为义」这个措辞。保罗是法利赛人（年少时的他，岂不像比喻中的法利赛人吗？）可是，当他遇见基督之后，他便清楚看见自己是个罪人；他甚至说自己是个「罪魁」。因他相信基督的救恩，使他在神面前得称为义。
你被神算为义了吗？
A GOOD MAN LOST - A BAD MAN SAVED
Luke 18:9-14
9 Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:
10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
11 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.
12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’
13 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!’
14 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.”
Message
Why did Jesus tell this story? Read v.9 again. He was speaking to those who felt they were self sufficient and did not see themselves as needy sinners before God.
The Pharisee saw nothing wrong in his life. He saw no need to ask God for anything. He was there to be seen. But it was the tax collector whom God accepted (v.14). Why? Why not the religious Pharisee who said he had done so much?
The tax collector took his place before God as a needy sinner. He actually said 'the sinner'. In other words, 'I see myself as the worst of sinners, please be merciful to me'. The word merciful means 'let your anger be removed from me'. His need is forgiveness, but he recognises what he really deserves.
His was a brief simple call, but Christ said he went home justified - made righteous in God's sight. This is perhaps the only time Christ used this word in this way.
It was Paul's word. He had been a Pharisee. (Was he the one in Christ's story?) But one day he met Christ and saw himself as THE sinner. He called himself the chief of sinners by~ he was justified, made righteous before God, through Christ's death.
Have you come to that place? Everyone needs to.