Dial In with Jonny Ardavanis - The Story That Exposed My Self-Righteousness (Luke 18:9-14)

Episode Date: January 15, 2026

In this episode, we walk through Luke 18:9–14—the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector—and answer one of the most important questions in human history: How can a sinner be made right with God?This episode is brought to you by our ministry partner Accountable2You. Join thousands living in freedom with nothing to hide, and visit https://accountable2you.com/dialin. Use our unique code DIALIN to get 25% off your first year of an Accountable2You Personal or Family PlanThis passage completely reshaped the way I understood the gospel of grace, because it exposes the danger of self-righteousness, especially for people who grew up in church and know all the “right answers.” It’s possible to look religious, speak the language, and still be resting your confidence in what you’ve done—or haven’t done—rather than Christ alone.We cover:The context of Luke 17–18 and the question: “How do I enter the kingdom of God?”Why God’s holiness makes the gospel necessaryWhat a Pharisee would have looked like in Jesus’ day (religious elite, moral rigor, spiritual discipline)Why a tax collector was viewed as the worst kind of sinner in Jewish societyThe difference between pride masked as humility vs true repentanceThe tax collector’s plea for mercy and how it points to propitiation (wrath satisfied by a substitute)Why Jesus says the tax collector went home justified—and the Pharisee didn’tThe core of salvation: merit vs mercy, self-justification vs free gift, works vs graceIf you’ve ever wondered whether you’ve subtly drifted into a “good person” version of Christianity, this conversation will challenge you to re-center your hope on Jesus’ blood and righteousness—not your performance.Passage: Luke 18:9–14Topics: justification, repentance, grace, self-righteousness, holiness of God, gospel clarity, Pharisees, tax collectors, propitiation, Christian testimony

I wanted to frame this episode by maybe looking at the passage that I would say changed my life. It wasn't until a moment in my sophomore year of college or freshman year of college. I heard a message on this passage where I thought, one, I'm either not saved or two, I think I've massively misunderstood the gospel, particularly just with this idea and this passage of self-righteousness and what is actually necessary for someone to be made right with God. It's possible like a Pharisee to know every single answer to have your Ph.D. in theology, to know the Bible backwards and forwards, and yet be a total stranger to God. The next verse is the scariest verse in the Bible to me for those who have grown up in the church.

Hank, how we doing? Johnny, we're doing great. We have two important things to discuss. Hit me. First of all, today is a day of celebration. Do you know why? No. Because we're wild card champs.

Wild card champ. Well, I do know that. Obviously, everyone's waiting for us to comment. This is what the year of Jubilee felt like for the people of Israel. Truly. I mean, this is what watching Miracles real time must feel like. It's of Egypt type. Do you believe?

Secondly, I have a question for you. Can you walk me through the context, which led to the beautiful bandit on your right hand? Lily. Lily got hurt and she wrapped this around my finger. Is there an underlying boo-boo or was it more of a statement? It was... There is no boo-boo. These are the hard-hitting questions you asked me for.

Yeah. With that, this episode is brought to you by the Masters University. If you or someone you know is looking to continue higher education, they can check out the Masters University by going to masters.edu forward slash dial in. that's where I went and studied accounting and finance. I'll have you know. But check out the Masters University. Great school with some great faculty.

Okay, well, in this episode, I wanted to frame this episode by maybe looking at the that I would say changed my life. I can say that about a few different passages in the Bible. Obviously, the collective testimony of God's word is refining. But this passage, specifically hearing this passage taught, I would say is when I share my testimony, the passage that I go to, because I would say that I gave my life to the Lord when I was a young boy, maybe four or five, kind of prayed the prayer type of thing. But I always share when people say, like, hey, tell me your story. I always say, hey, I think I knew the Lord when I was young. But it wasn't until a moment and I typically say it so generally. It wasn't until a moment in my sophomore year of college

or freshman year of college. I heard a message on this passage where I thought, one, I'm either not saved or two, I think I've massively misunderstood the gospel, particularly just with this idea and this passage of self-righteousness and what is actually necessary for someone to be made right with God. Yeah, no, that's, I actually didn't know that, so I'm excited. I'm on the edge of my Are we going to Luke? Luke 18 is the passage, and Jesus is going to tell a story. And in this story, he's going to answer the question that's burning in the minds of the individuals that he's talking to. Just contextually in Luke 17, Jesus has been talking about the kingdom of God, the kingdom of God.

He's been saying since he arrived, the kingdom of God is at hand, it's near. Now, the logical question is if he's been preaching on the kingdom of God, the logical question is what? How do I get into the kingdom? How do I get into the kingdom? If the king of the kingdom is a king of holiness, how can I as a sinful individual, be made right with that God, how can I be guiltless before him? And this question that Jesus answers, I think if I had one message to preach before I died, I'd come back to this passage because the answer Jesus provides to this question,

well, first of all, it is the most important question in human history. How do I know if I'm made right with God? And the answer Jesus gives is so clear, so unmistakable, that ultimately it is the reason why a couple chapters later they kill Jesus, because it's so antithetical to what they expected. Do you want to read the passage for us? Maybe just read 9 through 17. Yeah, absolutely.

Actually, just read 9 and 10. Okay. And it begins. And he also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and viewed others with contempt. Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.

Okay, so just from introductory perspective, he's telling this story to people that trusted in themselves. and they view other people who are not as good as them with a level of contempt. Now, by the way, growing up, I would not say like, oh, I look down on people. But there is that type of like, hey, I haven't done anything crazy. And then he gives, let me just kind of break it down for you. I want to look at the setting. He tells a story of two men that have a lot of similarities on the surface.

They have the same ethnicity. They're going to the same service. But behind their faces are massive and dramatic differences. But the setting is the temple. This was a normal Jewish custom. It says two men went up into the temple to pray. If you were a young Jewish boy, you would go to the temple. There were sacrifices that were being offered there every single day at 9 and 3 p.m.

This served as this perpetual reminder to the people of God that while God is loving, he is holy and just. And so what was taking place there every day was these sacrifices. And it would serve as this constant reminder that God is holy, he's just, he doesn't tolerate sin. sin must be punished, but in his love, he has provided a way where he can maintain his holiness and his justice and not contradict himself. This is, I think, an important place to start because we live in a world, as I've said before, where we reduce God's holiness to kind of this grandpa that laughs off iniquity. But the God of the Bible is very serious about sin. He hates sin. He doesn't tolerate sin, and everybody's sin will be punished forever for eternity and hell,

or it'll be paid for by a substitute. And that's what the sacrificial system was ingraining in the people of God for thousands of years. That's what it was there to ingrain, whether people were catching it or not. And that's, we're moving quickly here. But that concept of God's holiness, we've done prior episodes on it, and partially why we're moving here fairly quickly. But you've emphasized the point, God's holiness. If we were to understand the various attributes of God,

his holiness, who would be right to say would be kind of the central. The hub of the wheel. The hub of the wheel. Spokes coming off of it, meaning like, We say God's attributes are not pieces of a pie. Right. You know, he's all of his attributes all of the time in. Full measure.

Full measure. But God's holiness doesn't just speak to his moral purity. It speaks to his otherness. His love is a holy love. His sovereignty is a holy sovereignty, meaning he's unlike everything and everyone else. But here at the temple, a lamb at 9 and 3 p.m. would be lead, examined to make sure it was spotless.

It would be bound with ropes upon an altar. and then it would be slaughtered, and it served as this constant analogy being played out in front of the people of God every single day for thousands of years that God is holy, he's just, and he's love, and the sacrificial system maintained that. As we embark on a new year,

one of my new goals is the same goal I had last year and the same goal I had the year before, and it's just to grow in my walk with the Lord and in my personal holiness. That's the will of God for my life. First Thessalonians 4.3 says, this is the will of God. your sanctification, that is that you become more like Jesus.

And then it tells us what sanctification looks like. It says that you walk in sexual purity, that you abstain from sexual immorality. And so that's one of the goals for my life because that's God's will for my life. And so in that regard, one of the tools that I use to help me on my quest for personal holiness through the power of the spirit

is accountable to you, which provides accountability for me as I live in this digital world. You live in a world that so often lacks digital transparency. see people look at things and have this idea that no one else would know. And I highly encourage and challenge guys to eliminate and women to just eliminate from their life, even that idea. And so one of the things that Accountable to You does is it provides you with this partner

relationship where people can see what you're looking at online and ask you questions, if need be. It's a tremendous and needed tool to walk in freedom from any sort of impure sin. And so if you want to learn more and I highly encourage you to do this and to join thousands of others, you can go to accountable to you.com slash dial-in and use our unique code dial-in to receive 25% off your first year for your personal or family plan. Now, if we continue in the passage, it says that these two men, well, let me just give you the description. It says two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other

a tax collector. Now, you grew up in the church. What's your basic understanding of a Pharisee? Absolutely. I was going to say instantaneously, I'm thinking like Pharisees, the bad guys. We know from Sunday school on, these are oftentimes like the enemy of Jesus. But your point is that we can absorb kind of a Sunday school understanding and actually miss what it would have been like to be walking around amidst the Pharisees. What would they have appeared like to us? Well, I think, first of all, you know, this was the religious elite. They would have been marked by a couple main things.

You know, they would have memorized the scripture at a young age, the entirety of it at that point, their life was marked by moral virtue, meaning they'd never listen to bad music. I don't know what was going on back then. You were not fans of hip-in. Yeah, yeah. You know, they never cussed. They were, it was morally rigorous. They were good citizens. And in their life would have been secondly marked by religious devotion. They read the scripture. They prayed the scripture. They were fervent in fasting. They were conservative, a tremendous amount of respect for the word of God. They were committed, all chips in type of thing, no days off in your pursuit of God. They would have been the the people leading churches, like religious elite.

And then there's this tax collector, which far from what we do with the Pharisees is we kind of magnify and go, oh, the bad guys. The tax collectors, we kind of minimize because of our understanding of Zechias. You know, Zekees was a wee little man. And if someone owed him five bucks, he'd be like, hey, give me 10 or all, you know. Like maybe slightly greedy. Yeah, slightly greedy. No, the tax collector was a scum of society.

It was the worst of the worst. And I think we have a deficient understanding of a tax collector because so often our understanding is divorced from the biblical drama. Now, at the time, Jesus is ministering who's ruling the world. Rome. Rome ruled basically a landmass that spread from England to India. And they were murderers, they were rapists, they were thieves, and they continued to conquer enemy nations with their massive army.

And then, once they conquered a territory, they would force that body of people to become a part of their regime. I've said it before, but they used to crucify men, women, and children for 40 miles leading up to a city so that you would know, do not mess with Rome. It was Herod the Great who killed every single baby boy in Bethlehem. It was Herod, the tetrarch that literally chopped off the head of John the Baptist. Sometimes we get this idea of like the flowering beauty of Rome and oh, it was just kind of like the democracy.

This is not democratic society. No, it was brutal. The Romans were despised, they were hated, they had a massive army and they were well-funded. Now, because there's no Pentagon at this point, you're not just conquering nation. with enemy missiles. Now, how do you support a massive army? Taxes. Taxes.

So a Jewish tax collector would have betrayed their own people, their own families, extorted them, watch this, to continue to fund the regime that their people so deeply hated. And they would have done this all initially because of the love of money, because they're just getting money from their people. But then, like when Paul says the love of money is the root of all evil, after they did this in a way where they betrayed their own people, funding the regime that the Jews hated,

they would have just kind of produced this free fall into iniquity where they would use that money to satisfy their lust and cravings. There is bottom line, no moral equivalent in our society as that of a tax collector that had been abandoned their people, abandoned God every single time they would have walked into a synagogue. It would have been, what are you doing here? You don't belong here. You're an enemy of God.

Yeah. And so to your point, this is not like the difference. We're belaboring it, but this is not the difference between a, 15 and 25% marginal tax rate. This is... Yeah. Extortion, robbery, thugs. And leads to every form of depravity. They're inflicting on these people. And they're doing so with Roman rule. Yeah. But doing so like at the neighborhood level of terror.

Yeah, no, they were, yeah, terrorists, you know, of sorts. So now I want to look at the prayer that's a two men offer. And I want to, you know, look at the Pharisees prayer first. And again, acknowledge the reality that you've already mentioned that we've been conditioned to, entrained if you've grown up in the church to know that the Pharisees were off. But the Pharisees themselves, again, Jesus is telling the story to people that trusted in themselves that they were righteous. The Pharisees themselves did not think they were proud. They would have been marked by a projected humility. And again, this is helpful to know, I think even in my own life, this is why the past it became so convicting for me. 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, you say things like, oh, it's just humbling, but you don't even know what it means to be humbled. You know, the person that's fraudulently humble says things like, oh, I'm so unworthy, but they do so because it sounds spiritual, not because they recognize that that's the reality. And so we've been conditioned, and I think we just need to acknowledge that with the Pharisees, as it relates to their, you know, kind of their DNA,

the worst form, the most dangerous form of pride is feigned, fraudulent, fabricated humility. Absolutely. Should I read real quick? Yeah, read verse 11. Read verse 11. With that backdrop in mind. So it says, the Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself.

God, I thank you that I'm not like other people, swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I pay ties of all that I get. Yeah. And he's basically saying, God, I thank you. I don't drink, I don't chew, I don't sleep around, and I don't hang out with those who do. And it says that, you know, we're going to get this idea because the tax collector later on is going to stand far off from the temple.

He's ashamed that this guy is up close and kind of Connor McGregor walks into the temple like, I've got it here. Now, I think the way that I've grown up hearing this passage preached is kind of like the fake prince, you know. Yeah, totally. You know, God, I thank you that I'm not like that loser, you know, type of thing. But again, Graminally obvious Yeah, obvious. Like, oh, it's repulsive.

Yeah. But again, I want you to think, if you're, if you're an intelligent, well, you know, biblically equipped guy, I think the Pharisee's going like this. God, I do thank you that I'm not like other men. You've preserved my life from iniquity. I want to thank you. Remember, this Pharisee isn't no dummy. He's no fool.

He knows how to play the game. and he knows that and he keeps this in mind he says in verse 12 i fast twice a week i pay ties of all of that i get it was prescribed that you had to fast one day a year and he's saying i fast twice a week so he's just i think he's just acknowledging god i you have you've really done it with me you know like comparatively and well and to your point just hopping in briefly the pharisee would have been one who could have said verbally like oh yeah i am fall short of the glory of God. I'm need like I'm a sinner. All of sin and fallen short of the glory of God. They would have been the first ones to admit that reality. But your point is just because you can

utter those words does not indicate the state of your heart. No, not at all. And he says, I thank you that I'm even, I'm not like this tax collector in verse 11. And he's just basically saying, God, I think, I thank you that you've preserved my life from the iniquity that I see rampant in other people. And so, yeah, I mean, this guy is smart. He knows how to play the game. Now, the mood shifts and the dramatic music goes, a major key to a minor key. Camera pans. Yes.

And then this contrasting conjunction in verse 13. But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breath saying, God be merciful to me, a sinner. Now, this tax collector, it says he's standing some distance away. This is a guy who understands his sins at the point where he doesn't even want to approach God's house.

He's overwhelmed with shame, and his shame is manifested in his posture. It says he's beating his breast, not in pride like Mighty Joe Young, but in total contrition, he's already been deeply impressed with this sense of alienation that he has with his people, but now he deeply understands this alienation

that he has with God, and he finds a corner, so to speak, and he hides there and hangs his head, and he beats his chest. Now, I also think, know, just even what you think about with people that have lived a rough life. There's always someone you can compare your life to, meaning like, he doesn't say, at least I haven't gone this far.

No, he doesn't find someone worse than him. He just says, God be merciful to me. Now, this is important grammatically. He says, God be merciful to me, end of 13. He doesn't say a sinner. He says what? The sinner. The sinner.

This is big. I mean, his understanding of his own sin is that he has sinned like no one else in the world. You know, I even going back to accounting, I had a professor in college. His name was Prof Powell, kind of a legend. Shout out, Prof Powell. Yeah, shout out. He used to make our accounting test so hard that, you know, the highest grade in the class would get like a 77.

And then he would grade everyone else accordingly, what you call grading on a curve. Curve. I was well equipped with the curve. Yeah, thank the Lord of the curve. I knew the curve well. And I think sometimes we get this idea that God himself grades on a curve. God in the scripture, and the tax collector understands, God is not a lenient professor.

He's a righteous judge. And so he doesn't come pleading his case. He doesn't make a defense. He says, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. And far from the flowering prayer of the Pharisee, this guy doesn't even know how to pray. We value spiritual fluency. We value when someone can get up on stage and say,

God, you know, you are so magnificent and glorious. This guy's just saying, God, please, please, Please be merciful to me, a sinner. And a couple of things to note. And I've told you before, I hesitate to be like Mr. Greek on anything, and I'm no Greek expert. But this is an instance in the scripture where I think the Greek is particularly helpful. I want you to look over with me to Luke chapter 18.

And in verse 38, it says, this is Blind Bartimaeus. Blind Bartimaeus cries out and says, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. In the previous chapter in Luke 1713, the lepers are cleansed, and it says in 1713 that they raised their voice saying, Master, have mercy on me. That is a word that means have pity, have compassion on me. That's not the word that this tax collector pleads.

When he says, have mercy on me, God, the sinner, that is a word used only here in the Gospels and only once elsewhere in all of Scripture. We find that word in Hebrews 217. It is the Greek word Halascomai. and it says therefore he had to be made like his brethren in all things so that he might become merciful, not that word, and faithful high priest and things pertaining to God to make propitiation for the people.

That's our word, Halascahemi, propitiation, which we've talked about before. Propitiation is the satisfaction of the wrath of God. So when the tax collector says, God, be merciful to me, the sinner, he's not saying have pity on me, he's not saying have compassion on me. he is a shrewd accountant and a logical thinker, and he's looking at all of these different lambs being led to sacrifice that very moment, and he's considering the gravity of his sin,

the magnitude of his sin, and he's saying there's got to be a better lamb. And his only thing, the only thing he can do is plead that there is some way where God's wrath towards his sin would be satisfied. So far from justifying his sin, he's begging for a better substitute.

It's just, I appreciated you slung down and pulling that out. I love that it's Luke, like the doctor, the super detail-oriented author. If I was living at this time, I would not have been the one writing the gospel of Luke. You never know. But the fact that he's writing and trying to bring this point to the forefront, as you're looking at the lamb who's being kind of trotted down the aisle in my mind's eye, and just realizing, like, I am so gone that that lamb is not. not going to be the one that can ultimately satisfy not only the things I've done, but like even

the status, the nature of my heart. Like the way I was born, this is, there must be another way or there must be a deeper way. I'm falling at my feet of God's mercy. Yeah. No, and the next verse I often, you know, I've shared with people interpersonally. Is the scariest verse in the Bible to me for those who have grown up in the church. Obviously, I would say this is scary verse in Matthew 722, you know, many, many. But the next verse reads, I tell you this man went to his house, the tax collector, justified. Now, if there was a period there, you would be able to rejoice and say, God saves the tax collector. But it says, rather than the other, for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.

Now, let's go back to the Pharisee for a minute. This man is not trusting in his works outside of any assistance to God. He says, God, I thank you. He attributes his works to God. He thanks God for it. the good works that he brings to the surface are not unaided, he would probably acknowledge. He would say, oh, yeah, I'm saved by God's grace. People always say, oh, the Pharisees thought they were earning their way to God.

No, the self-righteous know how to mask their self-righteousness by postured gratitude. He would not say, oh, the Pharisees think you're earning your way to God. He would say, no, I don't. So what's the problem? Well, the problem is that he is resting his standing before God in part on his own deeds. And he actually, it's possible, you know, you see it here. It's possible to pray without praying. It says the Pharisee prayed to himself in verse 11.

He, his prayer is being directed to God, but it's self-congratulatory, self-righteous, self-promoting. He isn't worshipping God at all. It's possible here to worship God at his place of worship the temple without worshiping him at all. It's possible like a Pharisee to know every single answer, to have your Ph.D. 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. This is, I think, a scary thing. Obviously, when Jesus says, I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other, everyone who exalts himself. Now, that can look a different

way. It's not you just going, hey, I'm the man. It's thinking that you can share in God's glory for saving you for, this is why we sing to him. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus's blood and his righteousness on Christ's solid rock. I think in his heart of hearts, the Pharisee is standing on sinking sand. He would say that, yes, it's God's grace, but it's also that I haven't done this, that I haven't done this, that I haven't done this, that I fast twice a week. And then that's where Jesus says, that's one of the greatest spiritual dangers of, you know, the climates of a heart that anyone can ever be in is thinking that what they've done

are not done, attributes them any favor before God or rings any ounce of mercy from God. And it's just, I'll speak for myself, it's personally convicting because I can think back on times of my life where I could have verbalized like the right sentence structure or the right answer to the question. And yet the reality is subtly in my own heart of hearts, there is this level of either stacking comparisons of what I have not done or the things that you are doing. And the point isn't that you should go on sinning or that you shouldn't seek disciplines that are worthy. But the point is those things are adding nothing to your standing. It goes from a position of receiving God's love, not to earn his love.

You know, I heard MacArthur say one time, but every deviation from the gospel is a variation of self-justification and moral achievement, meaning there's hundreds of religions in the world, but they all boil down to those two categories, self-justification or moral achievement. But salvation, biblically speaking, it's either a free gift or it's something that you earn and deserve. It's either merit or it's mercy. Lots of distinctions amongst the world's religions, but this is what makes it unique. The Bible says that salvation is entirely a gift. And even when you're talking about, yeah, we can acknowledge Romans 323, all of sin and fallen short of the glory of God.

It was in concert with my understanding. I listened to a Martin Lloyd-Jones sermon on Romans 3. And if you ask Martin Lloyd-Jones, what does it mean to be a Christian? he would say it's someone whose mouth has been stopped or shut. And that comes from four verses early in Romans 3, for all sin and fallen short of the glory of God, but Romans 319 says that now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law

so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may be accountable to God. Someone who's saved is someone who recognizes their unworthiness to the degree that they have nothing to say before God. They bring nothing to the table. And now the question is, so what's the basis of our hope and our standing? If the Pharisee was way off and the tax collector was in, well, if you just continue with the story, within two weeks of this parable, this story that Jesus tells in Luke 18, 9 through 14,

the one telling the story would be like one of those lambs at the temple, lead, examined to make sure he was blameless, then he would be bound not with ropes, but with nails. and then he would be slaughtered for sin. Just like those sacrifices were taking place at 9 and 3 p.m. every single day at the temple for thousands of years, Jesus at 3 p.m. on a Friday at a real point in time and real history, he was slaughtered for sin because that's the hope of the gospel. In 1. Peter 318, let me just read it for you.

I know it by heart. I love the verse. Christ Jesus died just for the unjust to bring us to God. And that's our only hope. And this is the parable, the story that changed my life. Because although I could biblically say we are saved by grace through faith in Christ, there are still these remnants where you go, I used to say it this way when I share my testimony, if Romans 9 says, he will have mercy on whom he will have mercy.

I used to think, well, it makes sense he would have mercy on me. Right? Like I'm like a four-star athlete, you know, it checks out. Well, and that just real quickly, I feel like a very low-level, low-hanging fruit practical takeaway, is if at any point your comparison is to any other human, you're on shaky ground. You're in Pharisee, 100%. You miss the gospel. You're not a four-star recruit.

Yeah, your comparative is not someone else. It's the holiness of God. And this tax collector seems to understand something that the Pharisee, with all of his biblical acumen, had missed that it's just the mercy of God. If you were to, you know, the evangelism explosion question, if you were to die today and someone the Lord was going to ask you, why should I let you into my heaven? You would just say what the tax collector would say,

I plead the blood of Jesus Christ. Or the thief on the cross of like Jesus told me I could come. Yeah. Yeah, you just would plead that mercy of God. You wouldn't say I didn't do this. or I did do this, you would just plead that mercy. You could be Jeff Bezos, you could be Elon Musk worth endless billions. But if you don't have Christ, you have nothing.

But if you plead the mercy of God and you relinquish any claim you might have on earning his favor, Jesus says, you can be justified, which means you can be made, reckoned, declared, righteous before him. And this is the passage that changed my life. Well, thanks for sharing it with us today, Johnny. Yeah, thanks, bro.