Trusting in God as a Means vs Trusting in God as an End

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men - robbers, evildoers, adulterers - or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.'

"But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'

"I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

- Luke 18:9-14 (NIV)

Not an Overt Legalist

As far as we know, this Pharisee was a total advocate of the sovereignty of God. As far as we know, he would have said, "Not I but the grace of God in me has worked this righteousness." He says, "I thank you, God, that I have this righteousness." That was not his mistake. His mistake was that he trusted in this apparently God-produced righteousness for justification.

- John Piper, Did Jesus Preach the Gospel of Evangelicalism?

The point is not that the Pharisee did not trust in God. The Pharisee did trust in God. The point is that the Pharisee trusted in God in order to trust in the fact that he trusted in God.

Simply trusting every day
Trusting through a stormy way
Even when my faith is small
Trusting Jesus, that is all

Trusting as the moments fly
Trusting as the days go by
Trusting Him, whatever befall
Trusting Jesus, that is all

"To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy - to the only God our Saviour be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen." - Jude 24-25 (NIV)