Think not that I am come to destroy the law,
or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and
earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all
be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall
break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be
called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach
them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto
you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the
scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 5: 17-20
Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed
and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees… How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning
bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the
Sadducees? Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven
of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. Matthew
16: 6, 11-12
Then spake Jesus to the multitude,
and to his disciples, Saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat:
All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not
ye after their works: for they say, and do not…
But woe unto you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye
neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. Woe
unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and
for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater
damnation. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea
and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more
the child of hell than yourselves…
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the
weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to
have done, and not to leave the other undone. Ye blind guides, which strain at
a gnat, and swallow a camel. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they
are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which
is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. Woe
unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited
sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead
men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous
unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. Matthew 23: 1-28
What would
we call a man who had learned from His past failures that living in a way
contrary to the things taught in the bible was a sure path to destruction? If
this lesson set him on a course to deny the wrong things that his carnal nature
desired and only do those things which the scriptures said pleased YHWH how, do
you think, we would see him as a person? If by the wisdom of how weak a man can
be he determined to avoid even the appearance of evil by making sure he did not
do things that would put him in a place where he might offend; would we admire
his heart for YHWH? Finally, what if this man concluded that despite his
efforts to live as YHWH intended; his limitations as a man would still leave
him falling short so that the only hope of being with YHWH one day was the
sacrifice that YHWH had made for redemption; would we not call him a sincere
believer?
The Jews of
the first century when Messiah walked the earth would call him a Pharisee. Our
redeemer Yeshua would call him an actor and dangerous snake.
If we follow
man’s way that the commands and teachings of the bible are the way we should
act when we make ourselves act accordingly we testify against ourselves; that
we are our makers, that we are actors, and by default we confess we are dead
because we do not have what YHWH calls life within us.
For YHWH
teaches us that sin is death but life is the nature described by the
scriptures. Yeshua did more than provide forgiveness of sin he provided freedom
by giving us His life which is the Fathers life; which is the only life. If our
faith stops at His forgiveness for our sin we make Him the minister of sin.
He is the
minister of Gods life. We must trust Him as the way that our death was finished
in His crucifixion. If we believe with our heart and confess with our mouth
YHWH alone is our maker and through His messiah Yeshua he has made us free from
sins death to have His life shared in us.
The things
which the Pharisees said a man should do were right. The determined trust they
set on themselves to do those things were a veil of flesh separating them from
the life of YHWH. For it is not by men’s might or power but by His Spirit
breathed into us that men can have life.
Abraham
looked at the deadness of His own body and the deadness of His wife’s womb and
saw the immutable promise of God.
His children
looked at the promise and saw only their inability to possess it; so YHWH
carried them into a wilderness where they could see his provision that they
might be brought to faith.
Our Messiah
was taken into the wilderness where He was presented with whether He would
trust in Himself to be the maker of His life or YHWH. The first Adam had chosen
himself and brought separation of self on all men. The second chose that YHWH
was His life and became the first born of many brethren.
We say that
God judges our heart and this is true but the heart of man is deceitfully wicked.
The Pharisees by their dedication to acting as the scripture described life
became nothing more than men pleasers. They showed to men what they considered
holiness and deceived themselves that they had made themselves righteous.
Yeshua said
our righteousness must exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees. So we must do
those things described as life; not by acting against our nature but by possessing
the nature of YHWH through His promise of the same.
