The woman’s lungs burned from the run. The painful
grip of many hands now held her even though every muscle strained toward
freedom.
“Teacher, we caught this woman in the act of
adultery!” shouted the exquisitely dressed religious leader, huffing from the
chase and trying to be heard above her hysterical weeping. “Shall we stone
her?”
Jesus bent and wrote in the dirt while the Pharisees
shouted accusations. When Jesus stood, revealing what he’d written, perhaps
hidden sins of the accusers, talking ceased.
Rough hands clutching her dropped. Quietly, the Pharisees slipped away.
Jesus looked at the woman. “Go. And sin no more.”
Not long afterward, shock jolted the Pharisees when
Jesus healed a man blind from birth.
Instead of
rejoicing because of the miracle, the Pharisees said, “Get this man out of
here! Don’t you know he’s a sinner? His blindness proved it.”
Then they verbally attacked Jesus. “You can’t be
from from God, for you don’t keep the Sabbath.”
Such actions are why Jesus called the
Pharisees a bunch of poisonous snakes. The Pharisees accused Jesus of being
demon possessed. They tried to stop Jesus from healing a man with a withered
arm on the Sabbath. They condemned Jesus for forgiving the sins of a paralyzed
man as the man jumped up, able to walk, before their eyes.
When Lazarus walked out of the tomb, the Pharisees
didn’t think about a man dead four days living again. Instead, they feared
people would believe Jesus was the Messiah, and the Romans would take away
their temple and nation. That propelled the pharisees to the Sanhedrin with a
more aggressive plot to kill Jesus.
The Pharisees tried to arrest Jesus long before the scene in the garden, and sought to kill Him. Pharisees killed some of the Messiah’s followers, such as
Stephen, the evangelist.
People still practice religion similar to that of
the Pharisees. They craft extreme rules and regulations--admittedly sometimes
based on twisted scripture—showing compassion to few, and watching out for their own
purses, welfare and self.
Sincere Christians have trouble understanding
exactly what was wrong with the Pharisees, other than the way they paraded
around acting holy all the time. Few
understand why Jesus’ teaching targeted the Pharisees’ wickedness, and their
antics fill the gospels and go into the Book of Acts.
After being a panelist at a Christian university on
how my generation viewed legalism and how that affects us today, I discovered even some theologians don't understand the real wickedness of the Pharisees and often laugh at people focused on following Jesus after being born again.. I
knew there was more and went back and studied every word in the New Testament
about the Pharisees.
This is what I found.
1. Although they claimed to be observers of God’s law, the Pharisees in
essence broke all the commandments because they did not love God or others
When Jesus said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all
your soul and with all your mind,” He added, “This is the first and greatest
commandment. And the second is like it:
Love your neighbor as yourself. All the
Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”[1]
That’s easy to understand. The first four commandments are about loving and
respecting God; the last six about loving yourself and others because if you
break a commandment, you hurt yourself or somebody else.
Jesus pointed out the Pharisees’ lack of love for God when he said, “These
people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me”[2].
On another occasion Jesus said, “You pass over love. For you tithe mint and
rue and all manner of herbs, and pass over judgment and the love of God: these
ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.”[3]
He attacked their lack of love for others when he pointed to the grievous
burdens they put on people, and yet wouldn’t lift a finger to share their
burdens.[4]
2. Even if
the Pharisees would have obeyed the commandments, the law alone wasn’t a means
of salvation.
This is today’s biggest argument against legalism, and it’s correct. It is
not by works of righteousness that we have done, but by His mercy through the
washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit He saves us.[5]
God demands righteousness and we only
can attain it His way.
Yet, Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the
prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them…Until heaven and
earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the lest stroke of a pen, will by
any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.” Then he
added, “Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the
teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven
The problem: What
is righteousness? Some say it’s “right standing with God.” What does that mean? How do we attain righteousness?
Isaiah tells us our own righteousness is like filthy
rags. The Apostle Paul wrote, “There is
none righteous, no not one.” Paul continues, “...No one will be declared
righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become
conscious of sin…. This righteousness
from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all that believe...For all have
sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his
grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a
sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.”[6]
The law can make me aware of my sin, but the law can
do nothing about it.
Because sin is so terrible, blood was required to
atone for it from the beginning. Old
Testament sacrifices satisfied the need for blood only because of the promised
Redeemer, Jesus Christ, once offered for the sins of many. [7]
Even in Old Testament days, the sacrifices and
keeping the law were accepted because of people’s faith in God and the Promised
Redeemer. For instance, Abraham’s
obedience and faith caused him to be declared righteous.[8]
And without faith, it is impossible to please God.
Salvation is achieved only through admitting we are
sinners and, with faith, accepting Christ’s sacrifice for our sin. After that,
to live righteously we have to do what Jesus told the rich young ruler to do:
“Come. Follow me.”
That’s when we have to live our lives loving God and
others, which means we’re walking in obedience to Him.
3. The gospel has its legal aspects, but quite
unlike the legalism of the Pharisees.
A legal system permeates the
Bible: Crime (sin); defendant (every person); laws (written in the
Word); Judge (God); Attorney (Jesus)[9];
conviction; punishment for the unrighteous; capital punishment for the Redeemer
(already done and conquered at Calvary); justice; pardon and reward.
It is appointed unto man
once to die, and after this, the judgment.[10]
Anyone who stands before a judge
is fortunate that “guilty” is not the only verdict. “Not guilty” also is
possible. The prophet told us of Jesus: “He was wounded for our
transgressions.... All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned,
every one, to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us
all.”[11]
That makes those made
righteous through His blood “Not Guilty.”
Yes, I read of punishment
for the guilty: “The cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the
sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all
liars—their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”[12]
4. Judgment can be good
news!
Nearly every judgment Bible
passage also talks about reward for those whose sins are blotted out. The list in 1 Corinthians 16:9 of sinners to
be judged ends with, “And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are
sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus.” “The wages of sin is death” ends with “but
the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Jesus’ warning to fear him
that can cast the soul into hell ends with, “Are not five sparrows sold for two
farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God? For even the very hairs
of your head are all numbered. Fear not
therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows.”[13]
The best part of God’s legal system is the “pardon.” Romans 8:1 (KJ) tells us, “There is therefore
no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit. For the law of the
Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.”
By studying
the Word, we understand the Pharisees didn’t actually keep the commandments
because they put power and prestige over love for God, and they didn’t have a
clue about the wonderful things God has reserved for those who love Him.[14]
Lack of
love for God and others was what was wrong with the Pharisees religion, and
many of them died in their sins lost and without hope.
In contrast, genuine love for God with all our
mind, soul and strength and loving others as ourselves carries the gospel
around the world after more than 2,000 years–and will bring these individuals
into eternal life.
Ada
Nicholson Brownell is a retired journalist and author of more than 350 articles in Christian publications and six books.
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