This is a great topic and I appreciate the dialogue.
I'm going to try to use quotes like you did. Hopefully this will make my comments easier to follow. I will simply comment on what your replies are this way we can get to the "meat" of the matter quickly.
=Cee;3405565]Hi Studyman,
Remember, the Pharisees claimed to be God's Children, they claimed to be Abrahams Children. Yet, the Scriptures they claimed to follow condemned their preaching. The Scriptures did contain "life" as they are where the Gospel of Christ comes from, but the Pharisees rejected those scriptures as Jesus points out later.
I think it's important for me to comment already here. First off the Jesus says they searched the Scriptures because they thought in them they could have life. Please notice they were not searching the Scriptures for Him. But Jesus explains to us that HE is eternal life. The Scriptures point to Him. There is no eternal life apart from Him. Which takes us back to the original statement of the Father if you eat of the knowledge of good and evil you'll surely die.
John 5:
45 Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is
one that accuseth you,
even Moses,
in whom ye trust.46 For had ye believed Moses,
ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me.
So this adds to the truth that the Pharisees weren't trying to obey God, they looked at His Word, read His Word, and rejected it. According to the Bible anyway.
Notice here that Jesus is saying BELIEVING Moses, what was it that they didn't believe? They didn't believe in Jesus. Moses wrote of Him. You're right in saying they didn't believe God, but where they didn't believe God isn't in their law, but in not believing Jesus. Did they reject His word? In a sense sure because they rejected Jesus who the Scriptures are about. But we must remember that the focal point here is not in their obedience to the law because that never saved. It was always faith. Even Paul says this to us here:
Romans 1:16
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
No Jew ever got saved, but through Jesus Christ.
Hebrews 8:13
In speaking of a new covenant, He has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.
Why did He make it obsolete? Because obedience to the first covenant wasn't enough. If it was there wouldn't have been room for a second one.
Hebrews 8:7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.
I can keep posting Scriptures about this, Joshua pointed to a greater rest, Abraham looked forward to Christ, all the prophets longed to see what we see today. But the point I'm driving at here and I can keep on going is that its all pointing to Christ. The issue wasn't simply that they didn't follow the law properly because Paul said he was faultless before it. It was actually the INWARD sin that wasn't dealt with and that is what Christ deals with in us.
Well since it is a Christian tradition to reject God's Sabbath, I understand where this definition comes from. But what did the Pharisees do here?
Matt. 12:
1 At that time Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn; and his disciples were an hungred, and began to pluck the ears of corn,
and to eat.
2 But when the Pharisees saw
it, they said unto him, Behold, thy disciples do that
which is not lawful to do upon the sabbath day.
This is another example of them creating their own Laws and rejecting Gods. It was never against God to walk and eat a blackberry or ear of corn on His Sabbath. You can not find anything other than conjecture, that says God considered it a sin to take a walk in fellowship and eat a strawberry you might find on that walk. Just as it wasn't against God to help a brother in need on the Sabbath, or leave an animal trapped in suffering until the Sabbath is over. All these were Laws created by Jews and placed on the necks of the people.
Matt. 23:
4 For
they (Not God) bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay
them on men's shoulders; but they
themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.
But they were not "On God's Laws", that is the whole point. Jesus was, Zacharias was, Abraham was, but the Pharisees were not. There is no place in the Bible that tells us the Pharisees were trying to obey God. They had created their own religion, their own laws for centuries.
I pretty much agree with you until this point. Yes I do agree that they took God's law to another level. They did it out of fear. Because they didn't want to break any of the laws even in a small way. But let's discuss if the Pharisees were trying to obey God.
Matt 23:
23“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.24You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!25“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.Jesus here is saying look you're neglecting the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faithfulness. It wasn't that they weren't keeping the
letter of the law, but they were missing the spirit of the law.
He tells them look CLEAN the INSIDE not the outside. You're focusing on the outside which is outward observance, but inside you are full of greed and self-indulgence. They were focusing on a gnat, but swallowing a camel.
But let's see what God does in response:
Matt 23:37
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!
God once again is focusing on relationship. They killed HIS PROPHETS. Those were the ones who SPEAK for Him. It's important we get this point. They wanted the law. They could follow it and puff themselves up, of course not inwardly which brings us to Romans 7. But they didn't want RELATIONSHIP.
Notice in Matt 23 Jesus discusses that they call those who stoned His prophets their fathers. Why does He do this? Because He's showing them that He's not their Father. Once again we are dealing with relationship. They were not willing to let Him gather them together.
