Podcast
The Story That Exposed My Self-Righteousness with Hank
Dial In with Jonny Ardavanis
Speaker: Jonny Ardavanis, with Hank
January 15, 2026 · 28 min
Summary
Luke 18:9-14 contrasts a self-righteous Pharisee and a humble tax collector to reveal that salvation depends entirely on God's mercy, not moral achievement or spiritual works. The passage exposes how pride masquerades as humility and how reliance on personal righteousness, however impressive, separates a person from God. True justification comes only through recognizing one's complete unworthiness and pleading for God's propitiation through Christ.
Highlights
It's possible, like a Pharisee, to know every single answer, to have your PhD in theology, to know the Bible backwards and forwards, and yet be a total stranger to God because you're resting your standing before him on what you have done and not done.
The worst form of pride is postured humility and having no genuine humility in your own heart, but knowing how to present humility to those around you in order that they might buy into your cloaked pride and fake humility.
If at any point your comparison is to any other human, you're on shaky ground. Your comparative is not someone else. It's the holiness of God.