religion’s damning influence

So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

Matthew 23:28

The twenty-third chapter of the gospel of Matthew is a scathing sermon by Jesus on the evil of human devised religion. In every section Jesus denounces the way the organized legalistic ritual-keeping of the scribes and Pharisees damns them before God. Their outward “righteousness” was not motivated by the inward work of God in their hearts. It is entirely possible to be sinfully motivated into religious pursuits. It is actually all too common. And the result takes the soul far from God, not near to heaven, but actually into the fires of hell.

Here is the truth from Jesus: All the “rule making and rule keeping” piety in the world will not save your soul. Dressing up in outward devotion, ritual, customs, and the notice of others people around you will not clean up our decaying dead souls. God wants to change the inside, not whitewash the outside. The corruption from within us is what needs the real spiritual attention. It matters not how we look when it is who we are that must be changed!

Lest we think Christianity is immune from the need to apply Jesus’ sermon here, let’s remember how easy it is to rest on legalistic self-efforts. We can easily do it. Faking righteousness is very easy. Just go to church. Just show up. Just make minimal effort to let people know you are “in”. Then sin all you want. Being truly changed so that we fight sin and root it out, trusting the Word of God and the Spirit of God, dealing with our basest sinful motivations…. That is a work we MUST surrender to Jesus to help us do! There are too many times my own life drifts to being a “white-washed tomb full of dead man’s bones”. I’m a Pharisee in recovery! It is easy to let fake piety keep up appearances. It is necessary though to humbly admit the simple prayer of the publican: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.”

Lord,

It seems the more Christian activity I busy myself with, the easier it is to whitewash things. Forgive my praise and self-exalting arrogance. I don’t want to be damned by religion. I want to be dazzled in relationship with my Lord, delighting in You, transformed by Your renewing grace… always reaching further to be more like Jesus! And so I humbly repent of pride about what I know about You and I commit to being truly changed, honestly and humbly admitting my failures, so that You can lead me and truly love me!

Amen