Does the Bible Really Teach?
). It is
death
—
eternal oblivion, a nothingness, a
total blotting
out of existence from which we could
never
escape were it not for God’s promise
of the
resurrection.
Paul continues in Romans 6:23, “...
But
the gift of God is eternal life in
Christ Jesus
our Lord.” Since we all sin, the law
can only
demand our death. It has no provision
for
giving us eternal life. So how could
anyone
hope for life beyond the grave?
Jesus also fulfilled the law in the
sense
that He met the law’s requirement by
paying
the penalty each of us incurred for
disobedience, which is death. Jesus, who never
sinned, never brought on Himself the
death
penalty that was required by the law.
But
as Creator of humankind and our
perfect
sacrifice for sin, He was able to
satisfy the
law’s demands that required our
death. Thus
He “put away sin by the sacrifice of
Himself”
(Hebrews 9:26). Having “washed us
from
our sins in His own blood”
(Revelation 1:5),
Jesus makes it possible for us to
receive
God’s gift of eternal life.
The “Law” section of the Bible, the
five
books of Moses, contains several
kinds of
laws. In addition to what we might
call the
moral laws that govern human behavior
(such
as the Ten Commandments), this
section
also contained various sacrificial
laws requiring sacrifices for sin. Of themselves these
laws and sacrifices could never remove
the
death penalty for sin.
While the scribes were
the experts, the Pharisees professed the purest
practice of
righteousness. So when Jesus stated that one’s righteousness must
exceed that of the
scribes and Pharisees, this was a startling
declaration!
The Pharisees were looked
up to as those who had attained the very
pinnacle of personal
righteousness, and the common people supposed
that such heights of
spirituality were far beyond their reach. But Jesus
asserted that the
righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees
wasn’t
enough
to entitle them to enter
the Kingdom of which He spoke! What
hope, then, did others
have?
Jesus condemns religious hypocrisy
In actual fact, there was
a real problem with the righteousness of the
scribes and Pharisees.
The heart of the matter was that their righteousness was defective in that it
was
external only.
They appeared to obey
the law to those who
observed them, but broke God’s law inwardly,
where it couldn’t be seen
by others.
Notice Jesus’ scathing
denunciation of their hypocrisy in making a
show of religion: “Woe to
you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For
you cleanse the outside
of the cup and dish, but inside they are full
of extortion and
self-indulgence For you
...
indeed appear beautiful
outwardly, but inside are
full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness
...
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