Jesus gave hope to sinners because He had come to save them. He is not coming back to destroy the world. He did not go to the cross to condemn the world, but to save it. He valued this world, including the sinners who had turned from Him, so much that He went to the cross to save them. This great love which emanated from Him attracted sinners to Him. When the true Jesus is lifted up, He will draw all men to Himself.

         Jesus is the most holy man to ever live. True holiness attracts those who are in darkness because it calls to our innermost being as the way we were created and the way we all know in our hearts we should live. True holiness is not self-centered; it is Christ-centered and self-sacrificing the way He is.

         Self-righteousness repels people. Self-righteousness is the result of self-seeking rather than seeking God. It is built on pride rather than humility which seeks the grace of God. That is why Jesus seemed to have unlimited mercy for sinners, yet none for the self-righteous.

         There is a ditch on either side of the path of life. On one side is lawlessness; on the other side is legalism. We want to stay on the path and not fall into either ditch. However, if we must lean to one side, let us lean away from legalism since it is a most deadly trap and the most difficult to escape. Legalism will lead us away from the path of life—the life of the cross—to oppose the work of God rather than to serve Him, much like the legalists and self-righteous who opposed Jesus.  

         The apostle Paul wrote to his spiritual son, Timothy, saying, “Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (II Timothy 3:12). The true godliness of Jesus led Him to be persecuted by the false godliness of the self-righteous Pharisees. The same is true for those who truly follow Jesus today. Those who truly walk in the footsteps of Christ are persecuted by the spiritual Pharisees of our time far more than by those shackled by sin.

         When the Christian Pharisees of our time grant us their approval, we should be more concerned than glad. When the modern Christian Pharisees find us acceptable, that is not a good sign that we are acceptable to God. Instead, we may have fallen for the greatest deception of self-righteousness, which is at the end of the self-seeking trail. The path of life is one of denying ourselves, taking up our crosses, and doing all things for His sake, not ours. Such is a serious challenge for those who find themselves in this trap of self-righteousness.

         Yet we have this command to “pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14).Again, pursuing peace is not always achieving it. It is not always possible to achieve peace with some, just as it was not for the Lord.

         However, there is a link between pursuing peace and the sanctification we all must have to see the Lord. While reading the Gospels, we may think that Jesus did not pursue peace with the Pharisees, but He did. Such peace does not come from compromising with them or their ways, but from challenging them to forsake their evil and self-righteous ways. To awaken people from deep spiritual blindness usually requires the boldest challenges to the way they live, even to the point of calling them “hypocrites.” However, this must always be done in the hope of awakening them to the only reality that can deliver them. 

         God loves all men and desires that they be saved, including spiritual Pharisees. One of the greatest challenges for those who follow Christ is to love our enemies, especially those who claim to follow Christ but are not on the path to God’s grace. To reach them, we must love and pursue peace with them, while never compromising with the deadly evil of self-righteousness.

© 2023 Rick Joyner. All Rights Reserved.