we have a much different perspective about pharisees than people in the 1[SUP]st [/SUP]century would have had.
we're like "ah, pharisee, bad people, hypocrites" and we use the word in a derogatory sense.
but in the 1[SUP]st[/SUP] century, if you asked anybody who were the most generous, godly, righteous people in town, they would have pointed you to the pharisees. they were the 100% obedient, above-and-beyond keepers of the perfect law of God, who spent all day, every day, doing everything they could to be in complete compliance with all that is written in the word.
if there was anyone who was holy, it was a pharisee. if there was anyone you could call a man of God, it was a pharisee. if you wanted to talk to someone who knew about the ways of the One true God, it would be a pharisee. if you wanted to hear the wisdom of God and right doctrine and the explanation of scripture, you'd go to a pharisee.
so when we read "your righteousness must exceed that of the pharisees" -- it's lost on us. but to the people who heard Christ say this, it would have been an enormous shock. it would have made them think, "who then can be saved??" -- it would have seemed like it was hopeless.
we almost get a sense of it when He says "be perfect, as your Father is perfect" -- but a lot of us don't even get it. a lot of us think "yeah i can be as perfect as God"
. . . wow.
do you really have that low of an opinion of the perfection of the Father? or that high of an opinion of yourself?
when Christ, an unlearned son of a manual laborer from the backwaters of Galilee, stood up and opposed the pinnacle of human righteousness on the planet, and called them ignorant and wicked, it was a big deal.
that's not going up to Benny Hinn and telling him he's a hypocrite.
that's telling Mother Theresa her soul is black.
that's telling Mahatma Ghandi he's a rabble-rouser.
that's calling Winston Churchill a wuss or Chuck Norris a pansy.
that's saying the Dalai Llama is a bully.
there's evidence of this in scripture, too -- when Paul is going down a list of reasons he could have boasted, or had confidence in himself, or what he might have put on a resume, in Philippians 3, he says he is a Benjamite - the one tribe who never intermarried with the Canaanites - so, a 'Hebrew of Hebrews.' with the next breath, he says, "as for the law, a pharisee"
there was absolutely no such thing as more perfect obedience to the law than to be a pharisee.
but this is who Christ called children of the Devil, and of whom He says, our righteousness must exceed theirs, or we will never enter the Kingdom at all.
that is what makes "law-keeper" Christianity so pitiful, and what makes the grace of God and the gift of the righteousness of Christ by faith to all who trust in Him so extremely great and precious.
because no one could be more obedient to the commandments than a pharisee: as far as the flesh is concerned, it is inconceivable to be more righteous than a pharisee. if you think you're doing great because you are keeping some commandments, it's highly likely that you're nothing compared to them. an heathen by comparison.
i'm afraid we just don't have the right view of them, because we've all heard so much preaching about them as though they were hypocrites and liars. we just think of them like they're some sleazy tv preacher who looks good on camera but is doing coke with prostitutes in the back of his limo on monday morning.
but that ain't the right picture.
we're like "ah, pharisee, bad people, hypocrites" and we use the word in a derogatory sense.
but in the 1[SUP]st[/SUP] century, if you asked anybody who were the most generous, godly, righteous people in town, they would have pointed you to the pharisees. they were the 100% obedient, above-and-beyond keepers of the perfect law of God, who spent all day, every day, doing everything they could to be in complete compliance with all that is written in the word.
if there was anyone who was holy, it was a pharisee. if there was anyone you could call a man of God, it was a pharisee. if you wanted to talk to someone who knew about the ways of the One true God, it would be a pharisee. if you wanted to hear the wisdom of God and right doctrine and the explanation of scripture, you'd go to a pharisee.
so when we read "your righteousness must exceed that of the pharisees" -- it's lost on us. but to the people who heard Christ say this, it would have been an enormous shock. it would have made them think, "who then can be saved??" -- it would have seemed like it was hopeless.
we almost get a sense of it when He says "be perfect, as your Father is perfect" -- but a lot of us don't even get it. a lot of us think "yeah i can be as perfect as God"
. . . wow.
do you really have that low of an opinion of the perfection of the Father? or that high of an opinion of yourself?
when Christ, an unlearned son of a manual laborer from the backwaters of Galilee, stood up and opposed the pinnacle of human righteousness on the planet, and called them ignorant and wicked, it was a big deal.
that's not going up to Benny Hinn and telling him he's a hypocrite.
that's telling Mother Theresa her soul is black.
that's telling Mahatma Ghandi he's a rabble-rouser.
that's calling Winston Churchill a wuss or Chuck Norris a pansy.
that's saying the Dalai Llama is a bully.
there's evidence of this in scripture, too -- when Paul is going down a list of reasons he could have boasted, or had confidence in himself, or what he might have put on a resume, in Philippians 3, he says he is a Benjamite - the one tribe who never intermarried with the Canaanites - so, a 'Hebrew of Hebrews.' with the next breath, he says, "as for the law, a pharisee"
there was absolutely no such thing as more perfect obedience to the law than to be a pharisee.
but this is who Christ called children of the Devil, and of whom He says, our righteousness must exceed theirs, or we will never enter the Kingdom at all.
that is what makes "law-keeper" Christianity so pitiful, and what makes the grace of God and the gift of the righteousness of Christ by faith to all who trust in Him so extremely great and precious.
because no one could be more obedient to the commandments than a pharisee: as far as the flesh is concerned, it is inconceivable to be more righteous than a pharisee. if you think you're doing great because you are keeping some commandments, it's highly likely that you're nothing compared to them. an heathen by comparison.
i'm afraid we just don't have the right view of them, because we've all heard so much preaching about them as though they were hypocrites and liars. we just think of them like they're some sleazy tv preacher who looks good on camera but is doing coke with prostitutes in the back of his limo on monday morning.
but that ain't the right picture.