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Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. [SUP]26 [/SUP]Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.[SUP]27 [/SUP]“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. [SUP]28 [/SUP]In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness. Matt23:25-28
They are teachers of the word of God (the word law in hebrew means the word of the lord, or the OT) and act like they follow God because they do all these works, and do not commit sins (the pharisees in Jesus time were seen as the most righteous people on earth, the people who were looked up to because they followed Gods law so well, better than anyone else alive) but they failed to realise. the law they followed and taught condemned them.
Just like the people in here, they teach the word. they act like they follow the word. But they fail to realise, the same word they teach still condemns them.
God gave us the requirements to earn salvation, perfect adherence to the law.
Only one mad ever fulfilled that law. and he hung on a cross.
these people reject the cross. because they think they have earned the right to be called children of God. and have rejected the grace gift of God. they replace the righteousness of Christ (which is perfect) with their own righteousness (which falls far short of God) and somehow think they will get to heaven.