“For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” – Matthew 5:20
Oh the Pharisees and teachers of the law. Within churches today they get such a bad rap, they are the ones that people point to and say “never be like them.” The funny thing is that Jesus was a teacher of the law, He was a rabbi. I think that many times when people look at the leaders and teachers of the synagogue they can throw the baby out with the bath water. Let me explain what I mean by that. Unfortunately, no matter where we go in this world we will always find people who start drama, politics, and people hungry for power. This is what was happening in the synagogue in New Testament time, which is why we see Jesus turning over tables in the temple and chasing people out with whips. This was not all the leaders, but unfortunately, it is usually the bad side of the coin that tends to be facing up and drawing attention. But, for a moment, let’s take away the negative and just look at their way of life.
The Pharisees and teachers of the law lived their lives with God being the focus of everything. They had (and still have) prayers of thanks for everything, prayers for giving them life that day to prayers of thanks for the water that they wash their hands with. They had massive amounts of scripture memorized, usually at least the entire Torah. They lived their lives in accordance to the law, they held themselves to such a high standard. Many times, they thought they could consider themselves faultless according to the law, because Jesus is the one who brought to light that the evil in our hearts and minds is also sin. The Pharisees and teachers of the law, lived and breathed Judaism. I think of Paul when he writes in Philippians chapter three verse four, “If someone else thinks that they have reason to put confidence in the flesh, I have more.” He continues to explain his statement saying, “circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law faultless.” Paul is telling the Philippians that he has reason to boast in his flesh, according to the Judaic law he was an extremely righteous man. He had given his entire being over to what he believed in and he was willing to do anything for his God. But, then we see that Paul says, in verse seven, “But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.” According to the world Paul was as righteous as a man can be, and yet Paul came to the realization, when He knew Christ, that his so called righteousness was dirt in the eyes of the Lord. Paul, a Pharisee that I think actually had a genuine heart for the Lord, saw all of his righteousness as loss, as rubbish.
If a man, that the temple would consider fully righteous in the eyes of the law, cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven, then why do we think we would be able to enter the Kingdom of heaven by our works? Paul had literally thrown his entire being into following God, and still his righteousness was rubbish. I think that we can learn a lot from Paul’s life: do we throw ourselves completely into our Christian faith, are we going 110% for our God? And if so, why do we do what we do? Do we think that going all out for God will make our righteousness shine before all man, do we think that we can prove ourselves good through our works? Is that why we go all out for God? In Psalm 37:5-6 it says, “Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him and He will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun.” It is only through Jesus that we can enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, into the presence of God. We are to simply commit our entire life over to Him, and He will wash us white as snow.
No comments:
Post a Comment