Demand #25 – Your Righteousness Must Exceed that of the Pharisees, for it was Hypocritical and Ugly
For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
—Matt. 5:20
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
—Matt. 23:27-28
For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.
—Mark 7:21-23
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
—Matt. 5:8
Jesus was making quite a point when He said that we cannot enter the kingdom of heaven if our righteousness does not exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees (Matt. 5:20). We could try to be more pharisaical that the Pharisees and follow every detail of the law. By tradition there were 246 positive commandments in the Law (the first five books of the Bible) and 365 prohibitions but Maimonides (1135–1204; Spanish-born Jewish philosopher and physician) put the number at 613 by counting “I am the LORD your God” (Exod. 20:1) and “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one” (Deut. 6:4) as positive commandments. Maimonides counted 248 distinct parts of the human body and we would then obey God with all of our self and in the 365 days of the year we must not disobey God.
John Stott answers:
It is not so much, shall we say, that Christians succeed in keeping some 240 commandments when the best Pharisees may only have scored 230. No. Christian righteousness is greater than pharisaic righteousness because it is deeper, being a righteousness of the heart. . . . The righteousness which is pleasing to [God] is an inward righteousness of mind and motive. For “the Lord looks on the heart.”
Stott points out that our hearts are to be circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands. That is how we can display and inside to out righteousness (Col 2:11)
What did Jesus see when He looked at the Pharisees?
Jesus and the Pharisees: Anger and Entreaty
In Matthew chapter 23 Jesus deeply criticizes the Pharisees. He points out their errors and sins but at the end of the chapter His heart is aching and He says: “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 would not!” (Matt. 23:37). The story of the Prodigal Son was a response to the Pharisees and illustrates their view that they are entitled by their behavior and that they are superior to others. The story was told “The Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, ‘This man receives sinners and eats with them’” (Luke 15:2). There is no love of mercy because a Pharisee doesn’t think they need mercy. The parable is an open invitation to the Pharisees but few ever responded. The heart corruption held most in bondage.
Nicodemus was a Pharisee who seemed to make a change. He came to Jesus at night and heard Jesus say, “Unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). He brought spices to honor Jesus’ dead body (John 19:39) and joined with Joseph of Arimathea to give Jesus a proper burial. However, Nicodemus was the exception rather than the rule.
What the Pharisees Loved: Praise, Money, Sex
Jesus said to the Pharisees in Matthew 15:7-8, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.’” A Pharisee’s heart doesn’t treasure God.
Pharisees loved material possessions more than God (Luke 16:1-9; Luke 16:14). Jesus said, “Beware of the scribes . . . who devour widows’ houses” (Luke 20:46-47). They avoided caring for the poor and even avoided caring for their parents (Mark 7:9-13). Jesus said they were “full of greed and self indulgence” (Matt. 23:25).
Pharisees loved the praise of others. Rather than God’s fellowship they sought the admiration of other. Jesus said, “They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others” (Matt. 23:5-7). Jesus said, “How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?” (John 5:44).
It seems that sexual sin was also present. Jesus calls them a “wicked and adulterous generation.” (Matt. 12:38-39). This is likely in part a spiritual adultery. One of the most reasonable explanations of Jesus writing on the ground when the woman caught in the act of adultery was brought to him was that he was writing names and dates and looking in each face of her accusers (John 8:3-11) from the oldest to the youngest. Each one slipped away.
Hypocrisy: The Cloak of Law-keeping Exactitude
Pharisees are white washed sepulchers and that is what made their posing so heart breaking and disgusting to Jesus. Jesus said “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” (Matt. 23:25). Jesus also said, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness” (Matt. 23:27-28). We must have a righteousness that exceeds what we see in the Pharisees.
Demand #26 – Your Righteousness must Exceed that of the Pharisees – Clean the Inside of the Cup
Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
—Matt. 16:6
You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!
—Matt. 23:24
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. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.
—Matt. 23:25-26
They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.
—Matt. 23:4
When we are pharisaical we don’t see clearly.
Blind to Spiritual Proportion
“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” (Matt. 23:23). “You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!” (Matt. 23:24). “They are blind guides,” Jesus said, “and if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit” (Matt. 15:14).“Woe to you Pharisees!” Jesus warned. “For you are like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without knowing it” (Luke 11:44). So in their blindness they can’t judge between important and unimportant things. I once saw a church and I couldn’t tell what kind of church it was. The only sign on the church was one on the front door that said, “No Chewing Gum”. I’m afraid it might have been a church of Pharisees. Maybe not but it was certainly odd. Pharisees hurt others by leading them astray and like unmarked graves they defile others by their sins. Leading others into a righteousness of works is destructive and it is defiling. It slips in too easy and starts to erode our joy and confidence in the Cross of Christ.
The Hellish Condition of Being Mercilessly Demanding
Hypocrites are demanding. “They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger” (Matt. 23:4). They have no mercy. Jesus said, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in” (Matt. 23:13). Hypocrites don’t have any mercy for those who can’t jump through their hoops.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves” (Matt. 23:15). “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and . . . he sent me. . . . You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires” (John 8:42-44). Their inclination and will is fashioned by the flesh and the kingdom they live in. (Matt. 12:26; Matt. 12:34).
Clean the Inside So That the Outside Also May Be Clean
The heart of the problem is that their heart is evil and “hard” (Mark 3:5; 10:5). They had it all backwards. Jesus said to the Pharisees, “Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. . . . But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone” (Matt. 15:17-20).
Jesus said to the Pharisees, “Did not he who made the outside make the inside also?” (Luke 11:40) and “You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean” (Matt. 23:26) and also “But give as alms those things that are within, and behold, everything is clean for you” (Luke 11:41). Instead, they gave as alms the minimum of those things without to be seen by men and everything was unclean for them. First, the inside by the power of Christ and then the outside.
This is the systemic problem with a purely social gospel. Doing good is a product of righteousness and is not the means of producing righteousness. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them(Eph 2:10). Remember also that for a work to be “good” it must be done when God says, in the way He says, and with no other thought but for His glory.
Stott Was Right
As Stott said, “Christian righteousness is greater than pharisaic righteousness because it is deeper, being a righteousness of the heart. . . . The righteousness which is pleasing to [God] is an inward righteousness of mind and motive. For ‘the Lord looks on the heart.’” Cf. 1 Sam. 16:7; Luke 16:15. However, righteousness will necessarily produce visible fruit.
An Ugly “Righteousness” Is Easy to Exceed—and Hard
So in a way the righteousness of the Pharisees is easy to exceed and yet in another it is very hard. God calls us to an active dependence on Him. We work in His strength and change in His strength in ways that clearly bring home to our consciousness our inability apart from Him.
Six Antitheses Show the Righteousness That Exceeds That of the Pharisees
Piper points out 6 contrasts from the Sermon on the Mount that Jesus gives us to illustrate the righteousness that we need to have God work in our life.
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. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished” (Matt. 5:17-18). Jesus took the Law and drove it into the heart. We can respond “Lord Jesus help us when we face His command to heart obedience.”
From No Murder to No Anger
Jesus moves the commandment not to murder down into the heart and says not to be angry at a wrong (Matt. 5:21-26). So a righteousness that exceeds that of the Pharisees is produced by a heart that has experienced an internal change that does not get angry when wronged.
From No Adultery to No Lust
Jesus moves the command not to commit adultery down into the heart and says not to to lust: “But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matt. 5:28). Jesus doesn’t just demand external chastity but he demands a purity of heart.
From Divorce to Faithfulness
Jesus also removed the idea of a “legal” divorce of convenience and made it a moral issue (Matt. 5:32). Transformation of the heart becomes the first obligation rather than the last resort and divorce is the last resort.
From Oath-keeping to Simple Honesty
Jesus refers to the commandment “perform to the Lord what you have sworn” (Matt. 5:33). Why would you need a “stick a needle in your eye” oath? It is because you tell lies. If you just tell the truth then your yes is yes and your no is no. Life is much simpler if you don’t sin by lying.
From Retaliation to Loving Contentment
Jesus quotes the law, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” Then He gives six demands: “But I say to you, [1] Do not resist the one who is evil. [2] But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. [3] And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. [4] And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. [5] Give to the one who begs from you, and [6] do not refuse the one who would borrow from you” (Matt. 5:39-42). All of these are behaviors, not just inward dispositions.
These six commands are impossible to do without an inner change that puts our contentment and security in something other than what this world offers, namely, in Jesus. You are scared to follow God in these things because you think that it will be unfair. Who do you trust to make life fair? If you are not trusting God to make things fair eventually then you may as well despair because (in case you haven’t noticed) things are not all set right on this side of the grave.
From Limited Love to Loving Our Enemies
Jesus quotes the distortion of the Old Testament law (Lev. 19:18): “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy’” (Matt. 5:43) and contradicts the distortion: “But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matt. 5:44). Love is first a change of the heart in which we really do pray for those who are persecuting us. If an evil person is persecuting you then they really are in a dangerous place. You need to pray for them while fully realizing the grace that has been poured out in your life.
Demand #27 – Your Righteousness Must Exceed that of the Pharisees, for Every Healthy Tree Bears Good Fruit
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
—Matt. 5:8
But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.
—Matt. 5:28-30
Every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit.
—Matt. 7:17
The Pharisee’s failure resulted from cleaning the “outside of the cup” while neglecting the purity of the heart. So at the end of your life, will you have won this battle? Well being in the battle is the goal and Christ’s promises give us peace in this fight.
Purity of Heart: To Treasure One Thing
Jesus says in Matthew 5:8, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” He uses the same word “pure” that is translated as “clean” in describing what the Pharisees need: “You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean” (Matt. 23:26). Our impurity causes us to fail to trust and love God. While our heart is made for God—to trust him and love him – our fallen nature causes us to trust ourselves and to hide from God.
Jesus demands a pure heart. We need a pure heart and we need to be born again. Jesus says, “You must be born again” (John 3:7) and also, “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit” (John 3:8). Jesus commands and the Holy Spirit gives the gift.
The Life-and-Death Battle for Purity of Heart
We are not passive in this fight but we must realize where the strength for the fight comes from. Jesus ( John 15:5) says, “Apart from me you can do nothing.” Jesus calls us to a persistent attack on our own sinfulness and says that blessed are “those who hunger and thirst for righteousness” for they “shall be satisfied” (Matt. 5:6). Hunger and thirst drive a person hard. I’ve been in the desert when I’ve been too thirsty. I’ve been in the wilderness when hunger starts to make demands. These are natural signs of life. In April of 2003 Aron Ralston spent 6 days with his hand pinned by an 800-lb bolder before he cut of his hand to save his life. Jesus demands whatever it takes to defeat it because our souls are at stake.
If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell. (Matt. 5:29-30)
Jesus said, “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force” (Matt. 11:12). Piper suggests that taking the kingdom by force may be a way of repeating what Jesus said about the fight against lust: Tear out your eye or cut off your hand—do whatever it takes—to inherit the kingdom and not go to hell. We seem to have trouble turning off the TV. Jesus says your life is at stake.
The Radical Point of Tearing Out the Right Eye
The eye is the first organ to be attacked. “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out.” Even though the issue is sexual sin, he does not say, “Cut off your sexual organ to avoid the deed.” He says, “Tear out your eye to avoid the desire.” The battle is for purity of heart before the purity of the bed.
Fight for a pure heart with the same urgency as tearing out an eye and cutting off a hand.
Fight for your life, cause if you are playing on the edges of salvation and haven’t actually placed your faith in Christ, you may find hell to be the result of a lackadaisical attitude toward this fight.
The Experience of Assurance Rests on Our Location and Demonstration
If we do not have a righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, Jesus says, we will not enter the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 5:20).
Piper lists 6 truths about our location that will give us assurance in this fight if we have trusted in Jesus:
(1) We belonged to God before we belonged to Jesus (John 17:6), that is, we were in God’s favor before we ever had any righteousness at all.
(2) Our names are written in heaven among the citizens whom God intends to bring there (Luke 10:20).
(3) We are justified—declared righteous—by faith in God’s free mercy because of Christ (Luke 18:14). Jesus assured us that we need not, and dare not, trust in any righteousness of our own as the basis for our location in his favor. Luke tells us that Jesus’ parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector was addressed “to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt” (Luke 18:9).
(4) We are ransomed from every enemy that would destroy our souls (Mark 10:45).
(5) We are forgiven all our sins through the blood of Christ (Matt. 26:28).
(6) We possess now the new life of the Spirit which is eternal (John 5:24).
That is the decisive rock of our security and assurance. It is objective, outside of us, and unchanging.
The Demonstration of Our Location
The way we live shows our location. We are created unto good works. None who is located by faith in God’s invincible favor will fail to have all that is necessary to demonstrate this in life.
We know that we will be infallibly enabled by God because:
(1) Jesus promises that nothing can snatch us out of his hand (John 10:28-29).
(2) He promises that a Helper will come and not leave us to ourselves in this battle (John 14:16, 26; 15:26).
(3) Jesus himself promises to be with us to the end of the age (Matt. 28:20).
(4) Jesus prays that our faith will not fail and that the Father will keep us (Luke 22:32; John 17:11, 15).
(5) Jesus assumes imperfection and makes provision for it (Matt. 6:12).
(6) Jesus taught that what is required of us, even when it is impossible from our side, is not
impossible with God (Matt. 19:26).
(7) What is required in our demonstration is that there be evidence of God-given life, not flawlessness.
These and other truths give us assurance that God’s work in our lives will bring about the grace-exalting demonstration required in the last day.
Every Healthy Tree Bears Good Fruit
“Every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire” (Matt. 7:17-19). Jesus was saying, “A healthy tree cannot go on bearing bad fruit.” A tree is cut down not for bad fruit here and there but rather it is cut down for producing bad fruit because that is what it naturally produces. As Piper says, “May God grant us to trust Christ alone for the security of our location in God’s invincible favor and for the help that he promises to change our hearts and lead us in demonstrable acts of love.”
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