Legalism in Seven Movements: The Punisher

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. And you say, “If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.” So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your ancestors! You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? Therefore I am sending you prophets and sages and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Truly I tell you, all this will come on this generation. (Matthew 23:29-36 TNIV)

Deeply ingrained in our Christian psyche is this idea that our sin only effects us and those around us. The idea that punishment for the sins of our ancestors may rest upon us is totally foreign, and some might say unbiblical. Yet this is exactly what Jesus is getting at in this, His final indictment against legalism.

Legalism in Seven Movements: The Bone Collector

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. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness. (Matthew 23:27-28 TNIV)

This indictment against the Scribes and Pharisees is almost identical as the one that came before it. On the surface, it even looks like He is saying the same thing. In a way, Jesus is, but He is taking it a step further.

Legalism in Seven Movements: Dirty Dishes

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. Blind Pharisees! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside will also be clean. (Matthew 23:25-26 TNIV)

One of the most obvious consequences of legalism is hypocrisy. In the case of the passage quoted above, Jesus is dealing with a spiritual hypocrisy. These men look wonderful on the outside, but inside they are still full of sin. They don’t “do” anything bad, but everything they do is tainted by the fact that they are full of “greed” and “self-indulgence.”

Legalism in Seven Movements: Jagged Little Pill

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel. (Matthew 23:23-24 TNIV)

Another dangerous aspect to legalism is that it truly does look like righteousness. Every letter of the Law is obeyed. Every ritual is preformed. The proper amount of money is given to the work of the church. The problem is, it only looks like righteousness, it isn’t really righteousness.

Legalism in Seven Movements: I Swear

Woe to you, blind guides! You say, “If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple is bound by the oath.” You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred? You also say, “If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but whoever swears by the gift on the altar is bound by the oath.” You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred? Therefore, anyone who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. And anyone who swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it. And anyone who swears by heaven swears by God’s throne and by the one who sits in it. (Matthew 23:16-22 TNIV)

This indictment by Jesus against the Pharisees echoes other comments made by Jesus elsewhere against the Pharisees. In Matthew 15, He told them,

And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, “Honor you father and mother” and “Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.” But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is “devoted to God,” they are not to “honor their father or mother” with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. (Matthew 15:3-6 TNIV)

What Jesus is getting at in both of these indictments is that they word their rules in such a manner that people are no longer bound by the commandments of God. In the first instance, they have made swearing by the money on the altar or the gold in the temple to have greater authority than swearing by the temple or altar itself. Most likely this was an excuse for the Pharisees to take public oaths and sound “Godly” but not be bound by those oaths later. It was a way for them to justify their sinful actions.

Legalism in Seven Movements: Converted to Hell

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and then you make that convert twice as much a child of hell as you are. (Matthew 23:14 TNIV)

While the adherent to legalism shuts heaven’s door in people’s faces, they are simultaneously zealous for the gospel. It is this combination that is so deadly. The gospel must be preached, but there are certain people who are unworthy to hear it. You don’t throw pearls before swine, so also you don’t share the gospel with certain types of people. At least that’s what they say.

Further than this, though, is the indictment that Jesus makes against these people. What makes His comment so powerful is that He is not totally critical.

Legalism in Seven Movements: Knocking on Heaven’s Door

At the end of my previous post, I mentioned the word “legalism.” I hear this word thrown around a lot within Christian circles. It comes up especially when someone says that, to be a Christian, you have to act in a certain way. It is almost as if the Christian community is so scared of falling into a works-based mentality that any talk of works is treated with contempt. But this is not biblically true. According to the Bible, if you have no actions to accompany your faith, then that faith is a waste of time. The Bible is clear that just believing is not enough because even demons believe the right things, but, obviously, they are not Christians.

So what is legalism? This is the question that I want to seek to answer in the next seven posts. We will base our entire discussion out of the words and teachings of Jesus Christ. Specifically, we will spend our time studying His comments toward the Scribes and Pharisees in Matthew 23.