Jesus taught the Pharisees suffered from shallow teaching on the Law. (Matt. 23:23.) They taught the "less weighty matter" of tithing to the neglect of the "weightier matters of the Law." (Id.) The Pharisees replaced written commands from the Law given Moses with oral tradition "that makes of none effect" the written Law. (Matt. 15:6.)

However, that understanding has been vigorously fought by the proponents of cheap grace. It turns out that cheap grace must use all its resources -- incessant repetition in Sunday sermons and commentaries -- to affix the label upon the Pharisees as legalists. If the truth were known, the Pharisees were shallow followers of the Law. As John Milton, author of Paradise Lost, correctly said, the Pharisees had a "shallow understanding of scripture." (Prose Works (1845) at 144.)

However, if this truth were commonly understood, it would destroy cheap grace's explanation of Matthew 5:20. Jesus says you can not enter heaven "except your righteousness exceed that of the Pharisees." If Jesus meant for us to do better than a shallow-performing Pharisee, then personal responsibility is at stake in Matthew 5:20. Cheap grace would be falsified once more. Thus, cheap grace had to destroy an accurate perception of the Pharisees as shallow performers. It instead depicts them as superstars in terms of obedience to the Law. (For an example, see page 213.) It was a desperate ploy that exploited people's lack of familiarity with Jesus' true teachings about the Pharisees.

In other words, unless one fixes this misunderstanding about the Pharisees as legalists, Jesus' words in Matthew 5:20 fall on deaf ears. Jesus in this passage says:

For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. (Matt.5:20)

To explain this challenging verse, we are incessantly told Jesus is pulling our leg. He does not want us to correct for any shallowness in the Pharisees' doctrines. No, they were supposedly in full obedience to the Law, and more righteous than anyone. Thus, Jesus allegedly intends by Matthew 5:20 to force us on our knees to accept grace. We can never hope to exceed the supposedly high level of obedience of those who legalistically follow all the Law given Moses.

However, this view is based on a falsehood. It depends upon a misrepresentation of the Pharisees. It is intended to negate this verse and save cheap grace doctrine.

A Shallow Righteousness Or An Impossible Standard?

Jesus says whoever "relaxes in the least any of the commands in the Law (given Moses) and teaches others likewise shall be least in the kingdom, but whoever does them and teaches you to follow them shall be the greatest." (Matt. 5:19.)(The bracketed text is to correct a mistranslation in the KJV. The Greek verb means loosing or relaxing, not breaking. See, Joseph Rotherham, The Emphasized Bible: A New Translation Designed to Set Forth The Exact Meaning (1902) at 932. He provides the corrections that appear in the bracketed text. Cf. Vulg (411 A.D.) "dissolve." .) Then Jesus said: "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." (Matt. 5:20.)

Clarke says these two verses together prove it was the Lawless shallow doctrine of the Pharisees that imperilled them and their followers. This is what the expression "least in the kingdom" meant, proven by the outcome in Matthew 5:20. Clarke -- one who often agrees with cheap grace -- admits (contrary to his ordinary views) the following:

He who, by his mode of acting, speaking, or explaining the words of God, sets the holy precept aside, or explains away its force and meaning, shall be called least -- shall have no place in the kingdom of Christ here, nor in the kingdom of glory above. That this is the meaning of these words is evident enough from the following verse [i.e., 5:20]. (Adam Clarke, The Holy Bible (1825) Vol. V at 56.)

Jesus was equating the Pharisees with the priests whom the Prophet Hosea in Hosea 4:6 said were shallow in teaching the Law. The people were destroyed as a result:

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. (Hos 4:6 ASV.)

The "knowledge" the people lack is clearly identified by the end of this passage as knowledge of the Law. The priests had "forgotten the Law of God."

Hence, the priests who Hosea excoriates were no longer teaching the true Law of God. They had devised their own traditions. The people were, as a result, being spiritually destroyed. The people lacked the knowledge of the Law to follow. This would necessarily lead to disobedience to God due to the people being taught a shallow version of the Law.

Did The Pharisees Imperil The Salvation Of Their Pupils By A False Teaching?

One of the ways to know what Jesus preached about salvation is to see what Jesus said was a contrary message which condemned people to being lost. Thus, one of the clearest ways to understand the affirmative requirements of salvation is to study what Jesus negates as teachings which prevent salvation. As Arthur Pink, a Baptist thinker, says, "the simplest and most conclusive way of ascertaining of the nature of the righteousness Christ requires from all who shall have a part in His everlasting kingdom is to observe that it is placed in direct antithesis [to the teachings] from the...scribes and the Pharisees." ⁵

Jesus clearly said the Pharisees were zealous evangelists, even going on missionary journeys. However, they held a doctrine that once believed prevented their pupil's salvation. It also prevented the salvation of the Pharisees.

But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye shut the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye enter not in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering in to enter. (Mat 23:13) Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he is become so, ye make him twofold more a son of hell than yourselves. (Mat 23:15)(ASV)

Thus, we see the Pharisees were highly evangelistic. Jesus said do not mistake zealous evangelistic behavior as proof someone is from God. The Pharisees were blind guides. People wanted to enter the kingdom. The Pharisees were abroad evangelizing them. Yet, the Pharisees had a false teaching. It made their proselytes not enter the kingdom of God. Matthew Henry in his famous commentary sees this clearly: "The scribes and Pharisees were enemies to the...salvation of the souls of men."

What was this teaching that was a barrier to salvation for the Pharisees and their proselytes?

Josephus And Dead Sea Scrolls Identify The Pharasaical Teaching Jesus Was Attacking

The Dead Sea Scrolls (250-50 B.C.) speak comparably to what Jesus said about the flaws in the Pharisees' doctrine on the Law. The DSS say the Pharisees were "smooth interpreters" of the Law. Horsley says this means the Pharisees' rulings "were lax and liberal" on how to interpret the Law. He says this is ironic, because the DSS give "quite a different picture from the Christian traditional stereotype of [the Pharisees] as strict legalists." (Horsley: 153.)

This notion of the Pharisees as legalists is likewise completely destroyed by Josephus -- a Jewish scholar -- in his work Antiquities of the Jews (78 A.D.)

For Josephus in 78 A.D. will tell there were two primary parties in Judaism in Jesus' day. They were the Sadducees and Pharisees. He will explain the Sadducees taught strict obedience to the Law. The Sadducees rejected the Pharisees precisely for their opposite approach on the Law of Moses. They believed the Pharisees supplanted the Law of Moses with mere traditions of the Pharisees. The Pharisees were negating the Law of Moses by their traditions.

Jesus, we shall see, was siding with the Sadducees on this point. Here is Josephus, the First Century Jewish historian, identifying what divided these two parties:

What I would now explain is this, that the Pharisees have delivered to the people a great many observances by succession from their fathers, which are not written in the Law of Moses; and it is for this reason that the Sadducees reject them, and say we are to esteem those observances that are in the written word, but are not to observe what are derived from the tradition of our forefathers. (Josephus Flavius, Antiquities of the Jews 13.10.6 (13.297)(Whiston translation (1841) at 360.)

Thus, Jesus comes and faults the Pharisees primarily on the issue in dispute with the Sadducees. The Pharisees' oral teachings negated the Law and ignored the weightier matters of the Law. (Matt.15:6; 23:23.) Jesus never criticizes the Sadducees for their rigid position of strictly following the Law of Moses without embellishment. Instead, Jesus repeatedly confirms the validity of the Sadducees' position on the Law. Jesus' only express rejection of a Sadducee teaching was their doctrine that there was no resurrection to eternal life. ⁶ Jesus says this is a terribly mistaken idea.

Hence, in the quote above, Josephus, unintentionally helps identify the precise reason for Jesus' rejection of the Pharisees. The Sadducees taught adherence to the written Law of Moses. The Sadducees rejected the Pharisees' teachings precisely because the Pharisees added to the Law of Moses their oral principles, elevating them above the written commands. Jesus did not fault the Sadducees on their rejection of the anti-legalism position of the Pharisees at all. Jesus only faulted the terrible doctrine of the Sadducees that there is no such thing as eternal life in a resurrection to come.

Chaplain and Bishop Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667) said this variance in doctrine between the two sects is why Jesus in Matthew 5:20 says our righteousness must exceed that of the Pharisees rather than that of the Sadducees. In this verse, "Christ does not name the Sadducees, but the Scribes and the Pharisees." Jeremy traces this back to the shallow doctrine of the Pharisees, for they (not the Sadducees) would "add words of their own" to the Law, but the Sadducees "would admit of no suppletory traditions." ⁷ This is why Jesus exhorted us to exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees: it was shallow. The Sadducees alone were on the right track in terms of the Law.

Is this variance why the Pharisees were dangerous?

What Pharisee Teaching Clearly Imperiled Salvation?

What did Jesus say the Pharisees were falsely teaching which imperiled the salvation of their proselytes (Matt. 23:13)? Ten verses later Jesus said the Pharisees were only teaching tithing from the Law, but not the rest of the Law.

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye tithe mint and anise and cummin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the Law [--] justice, and mercy, and faith: but these ye ought to have done, and not to have left the other undone. (Matt. 23:23)(ASV)

Matthew Henry again sees clearly what Jesus is reproving. "They [i.e., the Pharisees] were very strict and precise in smaller matters of the law, but careless and loose in weightier matters [of the Law]." However, Henry never puts two-and-two together. He never realizes this anti-Law doctrine which Jesus reproved was the very doctrine keeping proselytes of the Pharisees from entering heaven.

What the Pharisees were doing was minimizing what portions of the Law were important to follow. They only were following the ones that could be seen outwardly. "But all their works [from the Law] they do for to be seen of men" (Matt. 23: 5). Tithing fit perfectly into that category. It could be seen by men.

Many Christian commentators get this right. The Daily Bible Study says:

The lesson from the Pharisees' example is...God's true people are to live according to all of God's Word, not just certain parts that are most convenient or to one's own liking. 8

Others like the famous Baptist pastor, Pink, agree the Pharisees' error which Jesus exposed was "their observance of the law was a partial one: they laid far more stress on its ceremonial aspects than upon its moral requirements." ⁹

Pharisaic Shallowness In Law Teaching Identifies Salvation-Critical Laws

Jesus in the same vein elsewhere warns about the salvation-threatening teachings of the Pharisees by their dilution of the Law of Moses. By way of introduction:

Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount says the Pharisees ignore God's law on hate and vengeance. Despite the Bible clearly prohibiting personal vengeance and hate, the Pharisees taught it was permissible to hate your enemies and exact vengeance. They rationalized this by out-of-context proof text quotes of the `eye for an eye passage' and reliance on non-inspired texts. Jesus bluntly corrected them, and paraphrased passages of the Law of Moses against hate and vengeance which the Pharisees glazed over in their analyses.

Jesus also taught in the Sermon on the Mount that the Pharisees are teaching that the sin of adultery is not in the heart, but only in action. Just prior to this declaration, Jesus says that to enter heaven, the people must have a righteousness that exceeds that of the Pharisees. Jesus then explains what this means. He does not say the people need a faith which the Pharisees lack. Instead, the people need to follow principles from the Ten Commandments such as the command to not covet your neighbor's wife which the Pharisees negated. They taught that adulterous sins were not completed if they remained solely in the heart and not acted out.

Corroboration Of Jesus' Intent From Jesus' Excoriation Of The Pharisees

There is no mistaking what angers Jesus about the Pharisees' teaching which He says is a barrier to salvation. The Pharisees had a similar teaching about one of the Ten Commandments to honor your mother and father. In Jewish interpretation, including by Jesus, this meant taking care of your mother and father if they were poor. If you failed to do so, then you dishonored your mother and father. However, the Pharisees taught that if you paid a special Korban (gift) to the Temple, this "more sacred" payment excused obeying God's actual command to give support to your mother and father. [UPDATE: McDaniel in 2008 discussed this in a scholarly article, and affirms this is what Jesus reproved. See our discussion at this webpage. UPDATE #2: The word "honor" in Hebrew, hadar, "also carries the sense of providing financial support." (Bercot, Will The Theologians, etc., at 23.)]

In the quote below, Jesus refers to this special Korban obliquely in Matthew 15:5. Jesus was quoting what such a Korban payor was allowed to say to his parent: "That wherewith thou mightest have been profited by me is given to God." (This is in Mishnah Nedarim. See Edwards, 2002:211.) Jesus teaches this negated the commandment of God. Honoring/supporting your mother and father was your sacred duty. It was not to be abandoned by paying sufficient monies to satisfy the human demands of Temple authorities. See, Matt. 15:6 ("you have made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.") In Matthew 15:2-9, we read:

(2) Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread. (3) And he [Jesus] answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition? (4) For God said, Honor thy father and thy mother: and, He that speaketh evil of father or mother, let him die the death. (5) But ye say, whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, That wherewith thou mightest have been profited by me is given to God; (6) he shall not honor his father. And ye have made void the word of God because of your tradition. (7) Ye hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying, (8) This people honoreth me with their lips; But their heart is far from me. (9) But in vain do they worship me, Teaching as their doctrines the precepts of men. (ASV)

Thus, Jesus excoriates the Pharisees for replacing the commandments of God (i.e., the Law given Moses) with what is merely a tradition of men. As the English Reverend Jeremy Taylor explains, "they thought they did well enough [with the] corban, and let their father starve." (Taylor, Discourses, supra, III:13.) Jesus regarded this doctrine of the Pharisees as negating the Law of Moses by means of their own oral law. Jesus was attacking those who make an Oral Law of greater stature than the Written Law given Moses.

Clarke concurs, and comments on this passage, saying: "Pretenders to zeal often prefer superstitious usages...and human inventions to the positive duties of [God]."

Barnes likewise concurs that the Pharisees trained the people to trust them over the written Law: "[The commands in the oral law] are, however, regarded by the [Pharisaical] Jews as more important than either Moses or the prophets." (The bracketed text is added for the sake of accuracy.)

Robertson's Word Pictures concurs too: "The [Pharisaical] rabbis placed tradition (the oral law) above the law of God."

Thus, we see Jesus is upset with the Pharisees once more for negating the Law. The Pharisees were giving contrary Oral Law teachings. This was comparable to what we previously noted. For example:

• The Pharisees taught the less weighty matters of the Law (i.e., tithing) had to be followed, but they left untaught the weightier matters from the Law. (Matt. 23:23.) It was in this context that Jesus said they were preventing salvation of their proselytes. (Matt. 23:13, 15.)
• In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said the Pharisees taught it was wrong to commit adultery, but they negated the validity of the Tenth Commandment that it was wrong in itself to covet a married woman. (Matt. 5:27-29.) Jesus told the people to "enter into the kingdom of God" they had to follow a righteousness higher than this shallow righteousness of the Pharisees. (Matt. 5:20.)
• Lastly, in Matthew 15:2-9, we see the Pharisees' teaching about the special Korban (or Corban) was viewed by Jesus as negating obedience to one of the Ten Commandments. Their human oral teaching had the effect of causing obedience to the Law to wither. Their teaching was a Law-less teaching. It served to negate the Law.

The Pharisaical Error Pin-Pointed Again By Jesus

If the Pharisees' Lawless teaching is what prevents salvation, then we would expect to find Jesus explicitly giving us direction on this. Does Jesus ever explain that a false guide is one who relaxes in the least any command in the Law of Moses?

Yes, Jesus tells us clearly what He thinks about those who teach us not to obey some provision in the Law given Moses by God.

In Matthew 5:18-19, Jesus explains that anyone who "shall teach" others not to follow a command of the Law of Moses (in the least) will be least in the kingdom of heaven:

(18) For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass away from the Law [i.e., Nomos], till all things be accomplished. (19) Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least [relax one of these] commandments [in the least], and shall teach men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. (ASV) ²³

Jesus thus excoriates those (like the Pharisees) who taught commands from the Law given Moses did not necessarily have to be followed. Jesus says, by contrast, in His "Gospel of the Kingdom" that those who are "great in the kingdom of heaven" will be those who teach others to obey the Law given Moses. The antithesis Jesus uses here is borrowed from Proverbs 28:4: "To reject the Law is to praise the wicked; to obey the Law is to fight them." (NLT.)

Thus, we see Jesus taught the Law given Moses had to be followed. The weighty and the less weighty. The moral commands from the Law (e.g., thou shalt not covet) as well as the externally-testable commands (e.g., thou shalt not commit adultery). Jesus taught us the Pharisees failed to teach both. Jesus said their teachings were causing those coming to them for salvation to not enter the kingdom of heaven. Jesus said for us to enter the kingdom of heaven, our righteousness must exceed this half-hearted shallow effort to keep the Law. The Pharisees were lukewarm about the Law. They were not on fire to obey it: Jesus said they picked and chose what to obey.

We necessarily must understand therefore that Jesus is telling us that anyone who says obeying the Law is not important for salvation is bringing a false gospel.

Cheap Grace Gospel Claims Fulfilling The Law Abolished The Law

However, as we all know, the Modern Gospel of Cheap Grace says the Law given Moses is no longer applicable. It is nailed to a tree. Abolished. Taken away. It is a shadow of things to come. Yet, nothing from Matthew 5:17-20 says this.

To make Jesus fit the Cheap Grace Gospel, what proponents of this other gospel do is lift one word out of context from this passage: fulfill. The cheap grace proponents claim Jesus fulfilled all the Law for us so we no longer must obey the Law. Thus they make this word fulfilled swallow all the principles Jesus just laid down. However, the full context of Jesus' statements speaks at odds with this view:

(17) Think not that I came to destroy the law or the prophets: I came not to destroy, but to fulfil. (18) For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass away from the law, till all things be accomplished. (Mat 5:17-18.)

Now, the defenders of cheap grace concede Jesus means here primarily that He came to fulfill the prophecies in the Law about a Messiah, e.g., Numbers 24 (the Star Prophecy); Gen. 3:15 (a man will crush the head of the snake); Gen. 49:10-12 (the Shiloh Prophecy of Messiah), etc.

However, what they fail to realize is that, as they also admit, the prophecy in Genesis 3:15 has not yet been fulfilled. This says a man will come who will crush the head of the serpent after having his own heal bruised. Satan bruised Christ's heal at the cross. But Satan is alive and well. In fact, Satan must be loosed at the end of the millennium. Then and only then will he be destroyed. (Rev. 20:10.) Thus, the death blow to the head of Satan mentioned in Genesis 3:15 has not yet happened. Upon its occurrence, a new heaven and earth will replace the current ones. Thus, literally, the prophecies of the Law will not be fulfilled until coincidentally the old heaven and earth pass away. At that point, Satan is finally destroyed in the Lake of Fire.

Consequently, when Jesus says the Law continues until the heavens and earth pass away, this completely fits the duration for the fulfillment of the Genesis 3:15 prophecy. The Book of Genesis is part of the `Law given Moses,' and the Law, including this prophecy of Genesis 3:15, continues until Satan is destroyed. This happens to coincide with a date still off in the future -- the passing of the old heaven and the earth. And thus the Law does not pass away until all things are fulfilled, which happens when heaven and earth pass away. That has not even remotely yet happened! Hence, the Law is still valid because it is not yet entirely fulfilled!

Accordingly, what Jesus said was literally true: not one jot or tittle of the Law given Moses would pass away until the Heaven and Earth pass away. This point coincides with precisely when the Law's prophecies are fulfilled in their entirety.

Thus, Jesus' meaning that He came to fulfill the Law did not mean that His obedience replaces any need for individuals to follow the Law prior to the passing of the heavens and earth.

Unfortunately, it is a fact that the Christian dogma of the last four centuries has taught the Law was done away with in 33 A.D. This interpretation does not follow from anything Jesus said about fulfilling the Law. Jesus' saying He came to fulfill a prophecy is not the same as saying He came to replace your duty to obey the Law with His perfect obedience. Such a teaching undermines everything Jesus did teach about obedience to the Law. Such a cheap grace teaching reflects a Pharasaical disrespect for the Law in contravention to the respect for the Law Jesus said was crucial for salvation. (Matt. 5:20-21.)

The Pharisees Are The Opposite Of Legalists

As we must realize by now, modern Christians are trained to incorrectly understand the Pharisees' error. We are misinformed the Pharisees caused their followers not to be saved because the Pharisees allegedly insisted upon all the Law being followed rigorously. Allegedly Jesus was condemning any doctrine that insisted we obey all the Law of Moses. For example, Halley's Bible Dictionary says:

Pharisees were the most numerous and influential of the religious sects of Jesus' day. They were strict legalists. They stood for the rigid observance of the letter and forms of the Law, and also for the Traditions.

However, this is wrong in saying the Pharisees stood for the rigid observance of "the Law." The Pharisees' error was that they did not teach the entire Law, but only a very small and less weighty part -- tithing. They also replaced commandments of the Law with traditions of men. As Tyndale's Bible Dictionary (2001) correctly says, Jesus means the "Pharisees...are devoted to their own traditions, which they offer not as supplements but as rivals to God's Word [i.e., the Law]." (Id., at 870.) Thus, the Halley Bible Dictionary blurs this. It implies a different error which is exactly the opposite of what Jesus identified as the Pharisee error. The Pharisees were not legalists. Instead, they were the opposite: they worked the negation of the Law given Moses.

As Robert Thiel correctly points out:

Some claim that believing in following the laws of God makes one a legalist. However, if legalism is defined as adhering to the ten commandments, then the Pharisees could not have been `legalists' -- the Pharisees repeatedly violated the ten commandments and justified these violations by traditions of men (Mark 7:13). ²⁵

If a legalist is anyone who thinks the Law of Moses is valid, and therefore should be followed by a follower of Christ, then Jesus is a legalist. The doctrines we condemn as legalism today, as reflected in the Halley Bible Dictionary, make Jesus a heretic. For Jesus applauded the Pharisees' tithing efforts, and then said that the Pharisees did not go far enough in their obedience to the Law. They were really good about the less weighty matters of the Law, but they left the weightier matters of the Law undone. (Matt. 23:23.)

As Thiel points out, if Jesus' words really had any weight with us, then the sign of the modern Pharisee is someone who "does not actually keep the ten commandments."

Hence, something is fundamentally amiss in the way we understand the error of the Pharisees. It's obvious why: we have adopted the Pharisee error as normative Christianity. We did away with the Law given Moses. Gone is the Sabbath. It is ignored even though it is one of the Ten Commandments. Most Christians would say they do keep Sabbath on Sunday. However, this is not God's day. We have felt free to move it to a day of our own choosing, just like Jeroboam moved the Feast of Tabernacles by one month. This was a day "of his own invention." (1 Kings 12:33.) The Prophet Daniel pejoratively warns of the one who one day will put down three rulers, and "shall think to change the times and the Law...." (Dan. 7:25.) Jesus likewise abhorred such Lawless teachings. Thus, to prevent us from seeing this, we have to be repetitiously indoctrinated to think the Pharisee error was exactly the opposite of what Jesus said it was.

How Cheap Grace Differs From Jesus

The dominant dogma of modern Christianity has become identical to what Jesus condemned. To prove this to yourself, simply listen to a clear presentation of the Modern Gospel of Cheap Grace at almost any supposedly evangelical church on Sunday. Here is a perfect example of what you might hear. This is from the Lectionary Series wherein it identifies what it thinks is wrong when someone teaches us to obey the Law of God:

Legalism, the heresy known as sanctification by obedience, can easily undermine our initial `yes' for Jesus. We begin to believe that our continued standing before God, his approval and love, and our progress in the Christian life, is gained by obedience to Christ. This way of thinking undermines "repentance and faith."

So, the initial `yes' for the journey of faith, can be undermined if the believer gets into the business of law-obedience. For us today, let us beware that we haven't unknowingly said `yes,' but have then forgotten the Father's will.

The church today is infested with legalism. The adoption of the heresy of sanctification by obedience is widespread and so many church attenders have forgotten their `yes' and now seek a law-righteousness rather than a righteousness which is apart from the law of God. If we are to do what the Father wants, then we must live by grace through faith and not by works of the law. 26

What is truly amazing is how anyone can think this way if one believes Jesus was God-in-the-flesh. To believe this supposed gospel in the quote above, you must not take Jesus very seriously. For Jesus said you can go to heaven maimed or hell whole. (Matt. 5:30; Mark 9:42 et seq.) Yet, what did the Lectionary Series just say? The opposite:

[It is heretical to believe] our continued standing before God, his approval and love, and our progress in the Christian life, is gained by obedience to Christ.

Yet, what the Lectionary condemns as heretical doctrine is exactly the doctrine which Jesus taught. The Lectionary insists justification by obedience to the Law of God is a heresy. Anyone who teaches that it is necessary to obey God's moral commandments and thus avoid sin to go to heaven is supposedly a heretic. What are we to think? Are we to feel sorry for `poor Jesus' who in Mark 9:42-47 did not have the benefit of this insight of modern evangelism? Are we to think Jesus made a mistake when He said in John 15:14 that "you are my friends if you obey my commandments"? For the Lectionary insists it knows better that "God's... approval and love... is [not] gained by obedience to Christ." If we only knew who was Lord, then this would not be a difficult issue.

The same kind of error about salvation occupied the Pharisees' attention. They taught salvation was by election. They were Abraham's seed. They were saved. Jesus said this misses the key necessity of repentance from sin. (Matt. 5:29-30.) Jesus required a repentance that was an active life-changing correction to obedience to the Law which they broke.

If one had their Master's words first and foremost in their mind, it is amazing what Christians can come to believe is a Christian teaching. Yet, here we have progressed to the point that mainstream Christianity teaches what the Teacher vigorously taught against.

When this conflict is exposed between Church doctrine and Jesus, cheap grace defenders will declare you are a heretic if you insist Jesus' words are still valid. You supposedly do not realize that Jesus' words belonged to a prior and different dispensation than the Christian dispensation. (See Jesus' Words Only (2007) at 367 ff.) Jesus' words are allegedly defunct, but the Church doctrine of today which is contrary to Jesus is supposedly valid.

Derisive Rebuttals: Awls In Ears, Fringes On Garments & Head Coverings

One of the rebuttals I have received tries to deride me personally as a hypocrite and then deride the good sense behind the Law itself, as if God is not indirectly being attacked. Those who do this also think they are following a pattern that replicates Jesus' approach. It does not.

For example, I am confronted with the argument that I do not supposedly keep the Law. Therefore, I must be a hypocrite. Then I ask them: `what Law don't I keep?' Then they respond by making derisive attacks on `why don't you put awls in ears of servants?' and why `do you shave your beard?'`Why are there no fringes on your garments?'

However, these are not commands in the Law I am disobeying, but my verbal pugilist does not know this due to his ignorance of the Law itself.

The implicit assumption behind this argument is that Jesus was so upset with hypocrisy of not keeping these supposed commandments that He abolished the entire Law. Jesus' alleged solution to the Pharisees' hypocrisy was simply to abrogate the Law. Yet, if so, the Pharisees would no longer be sinners for the many transgressions Jesus had hitherto been hurling at the Pharisees. They would now have an easy road. The entire thrust of this argument of my verbal pugilist is obvious nonsense.

But what is most disturbing is that this argument is laden with a derision of the Law given by God. And this is pernicious because it attacks the character of God Himself who authorized these supposedly strange commands. So what about the principles these verbal pugilists denigrate which supposedly come from the Law? They were:

• Awls in ears of a servant.
• No shaving of beards.
• Fringes on garments; and
• Head coverings.

They are actually trying to take these principles, which they assume are in the Law even though they often are not present or are optional, and then use it to make fun of the Law of God! They treat God's word as foolishness! God only help them!

The verbal pugilist cites these presumed principles from the Law to mock it and denigrate it. What an odd esteem they have for the words of I AM to Moses. I hate to inform them of this but they are mocking Jesus, for Jesus said He was the "I AM." Jesus said, "Before Abraham was, I AM." (John 8:58.) Thus, when I find these hurled insults at my adherence to God's Law, it is incongruous that these people can claim they love Jesus -- the very same I AM who gave these commands they find so strange and distasteful.

Actually, the alleged silly commands they mock are either:

• Not in the Law at all but are a simple tradition (e.g., head coverings); ²⁷ or
• Are voluntarily imposed (e.g., awls in ears of servants who volunteer to be a servant for life); ²⁸ or
• Are exaggerated interpretations by means of tradition meant to put a hedge around the Law. For example, the notion of not shaving a beard is a modern tradition. The Biblical command is merely a prohibition on -- in effect -- a Fu Manchu beard. You cannot simultaneously cut below the sideburns and cut off the chin-edge of the beard which if done is a Fu Manchu; ²⁹ or
• Limited to Israelites only and not Sojourners (Gentiles), e.g., fringes on garments. Also, the fringes command is not that hard to comply with if you happen to be wearing a four corner long garment. It is even decorative. ³⁰

How Far Does The Law Apply To Gentiles

James taught us that if the Law given Moses says the command applies to a "child of Israel," it is literal. It does not apply to Sojourners (Gentiles) who are part of the community.

James in Acts chapter 15 read the command on circumcision in Leviticus 12:3 to mention only an imposition on the children of Israel. James thus said as a matter of literal interpretation, it does not apply to non-Jews.

James' view is clear again later in Acts 21:18-26, when James confronts Paul. James reminds Paul that the decision about circumcision being unnecessary was only true for Gentile Christians. Jewish Christians must still follow the circumcision command.

If you apply the Israel-Sojourner distinction which James employed, then only a very limited portion of the Law of Moses applies to non-Jews.

Gentiles would have to obey primarily the Ten Commandments and Leviticus chapters 19 & 20 & 24:13-24 and part of 17 which Jesus alludes to many times. These are moral commands that do not introduce themselves as commands to only Israel.

In fact, in Chapter 20 of Leviticus, it in particular says it applies not only to Israelites but also to "foreigners" in the land. Chapter 20 had to do with sexual practices.

The fact the Law is sometimes broadened explicitly to include foreigners supports James' method of interpretation. If it always applies to the foreigner, then Leviticus 20:2 and 24:16, 21-22 did not need to say the highlighted portion below:

Moreover, thou shalt say to the children of Israel, Whosoever he be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel, that giveth of his seed unto Molech; he shall surely be put to death: the people of the land shall stone him with stones. Lev 20:2 ASV

Any Israelite or any foreigner living in Israel who curses the LORD shall be stoned to death by the whole community. (Lev 24:16 GNB)

Whoever kills an animal shall replace it, but whoever kills a human being shall be put to death. This law applies to all of you, to Israelites and to foreigners living among you, because I am the LORD your God. (Lev 24:21-22 GNB.)

Thus, James is being a literalist. The Law's distinction between Israelite and foreigner/sojourner should apply even in the Christian age. The burdens vary.

However, if you believe there is no more distinction between Jew or Gentile, such a false teaching can lead to a heightened burden on the Gentiles beyond what the Law itself required. That distinction is what James was battling with Paul to preserve and maintain.

In other words, if you say a Gentile is under the same Law that only applies to Israelites, these extra burdens on them are in excess of what the Law itself requires.

Thus, if we erased the Jew-Gentile distinction in reading the Law, we would make it harder for Gentiles to be followers of Jesus. Such a doctrine would lead to unnecessary burdens on Gentiles. Instead, we should obey the Law in how it defines its scope on Jews versus on foreigners/sojourners.

In fact, the only commands in the Law specifically addressed to both Jews and foreigners/sojourners were in Leviticus 17 (viz. 17:8 et seq.), all of Leviticus 19 and 20 as well as Leviticus 24:15-22. There are other commands that are universal, such as the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20) and the general command against adding to/subtracting from Scripture (Deut. 4:2, 13:5). Yet, none of these commands are too hard to follow. Most of the rest of Torah is merely history, e.g., all of Genesis, most of Exodus, most of Numbers.

However, despite this narrowness of application, the leading Christian authorities tell Gentiles that Torah-keeping is a pointless burdensome task.

This is mostly done by sneering at the Law as antiquated or as an impossible standard. These theologians make this argument relying upon false interpretations of the Law or assuming burdensome traditions are part of the Torah-Law of God. Ironically, this manner of interpreting the Law is precisely what disturbed Jesus and He fought against. Jesus was concerned people would confuse these burdensome man-made rules with Torah, and thus hesitate following the Law given Moses by God.

However, look how the theologians of the Modern Cheap Grace Gospel reinvigorate these exaggerations of the Law so as to pour derision on the Law. They disregard how Jesus fought against oral traditions that burdened the people. These theologians instead exaggerate the commands, citing the oral law traditions, so as to denigrate the ongoing relevance of the Law.

How can people read Jesus' words and commit the very same types of distortions of the Law as He was condemning, thereby undermining Jesus' own points? It is astonishing what people who claim to be followers of Jesus can do so at odds with the teachings of Jesus.

Defenders Of The Modern Gospel Even Admit The Pharisees' Error Was Teachings Subversive Of The Law

There are some commentators today who hold to the Modern Gospel of Cheap Grace yet who recognize Jesus' words were not attacking legalism as the Modern Gospel typically defines it.

They realize Jesus was attacking those like the Pharisees who taught against keeping the whole law.

However, despite Jesus thereby contradicting the Cheap Grace Gospel's doctrine on the Law which should lead a Christian to repent of false doctrines about the Law, these same commentators insist things changed later.

They preach the Law was done away with after Jesus' resurrection. Thus, these same commentators say we are in the right if we now adopt the very outlook of the enemies of Jesus and His salvation doctrine during His ministry. These commentators' analysis is a most astounding mental giration to watch. Here below are some excellent examples of this amazing rationalization of a contradiction between Jesus and their understanding of the Modern Gospel of Cheap Grace.

You know a doctrine is bankrupt when its own proponents unwittingly offer self-contradictory explanations for what they are willing to believe.

The Salvation Message Of Matthew 5:20

Finally, we are ready to listen to Jesus in Matthew 5:20. Knowing the Pharisees were shallow in obedience to the Law (rather than faithful adherents), we no longer will misunderstand what Jesus meant about the Pharisees in this verse.

For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. (Matt. 5:20)

To help me explicate this passage, I will call upon an audio sermon that everyone should listen to. It was given by Steve Walker, the pastor of a Presbyterian church in northern California. The sermon is entitled God's Grace for the Impure Heart. It begins by talking about Matthew 5:6. ³⁸

To understand the "hunger for righteousness" in 5:6, Pastor Walker explicates Matthew 5:20. In 5:20, Jesus uses the word "righteousness" one more time. This time, however, Jesus says "to enter heaven" our "righteousness must exceed that of the Pharisees."

Could Jesus actually expect real righteousness or does Jesus want us to put on His imputed righteousness? This is key for it determines whether salvation is entirely by imputed righteousness or depends, in part, upon our actual righteousness. Pastor Walker does not subtract or suppress from Jesus' words. His sermon points were:

• If we are only sorrowful (mourn) about our sin, and are not "exhibiting" a change, we have not gone far enough.
• The truth of what God requires men "suppress" in their hearts or they "suppress the truth" in unrighteousness. Men do not like to hear the need to repent from sin.
• In Matthew 5:20, when Jesus says our "righteousness must exceed that of the Pharisees," it is "pretty clear" that Jesus intends us to understand this "has to do with righteousness in acts."
• Walker offers as proof that Jesus gave several illustrations thereafter designed to expose defects in the Pharisees' actual behaviors. We must actually do better than the Pharisees' shallow obedience. These passages were: (1) Verses 27-30 tell us the true importance not to lust unto adultery; (2) Verses 31-32 tell us the true nature of the commands not to divorce; (3) Verses 33-37 tell us to keep our promises whether in the form of an oath or otherwise; (4) Verse 38 tells us to not retaliate, but turn the other cheek; and (5) Verses 43-48 teach us to love our enemies.

What Pastor Walker is saying is hardly remarkable in light of the true nature of Jesus' criticism of the Pharisees. Yet, in this day and age, Pastor Walker is a brave soul for teaching this so bluntly.

What is the opposing argument? I could read you dozens of commentaries that unabashedly say Jesus is not serious. Jesus is supposedly setting the bar so high above even the most righteous people (i.e., the Pharisees), that Jesus could never possibly be suggesting we could enter heaven by obeying the principles He then outlined. You repeatedly hear this argument such as in Willard's The Great Omission. ³⁹

Yet, you see, this argument that Jesus was allegedly being facetious depends crucially on the misleading claims about the Pharisees being very righteous people. This is why we have spent over 50 pages disproving that claim. Otherwise, you cannot hear Jesus' words in the Sermon on the Mount. They are neutralized from being taken seriously.

Thus, the decontamination of our collective consciousness about the Pharisees is one of the most important repairs we need in our thinking. Why? Because the preservation of what Jesus meant in His most important sermon depends upon erasing the misinformation about the Pharisees. Unless you obliterate the false indoctrination you have received about the Pharisees' errors, you never can see the meaning and point of the Sermon on the Mount.

Conclusion

Jesus is clear. He teaches you to make sure you do not have a view of God's written law as shallow as that of the Pharisees. Otherwise, you can never exceed their righteousness and thereby "enter the kingdom of heaven." (Matt. 5:20.) That's it. It was always a verse with a blunt meaning.

The Pharisees were not superstars of teaching and obeying strictly the Law. Instead, the "Pharisees were... shallow... interpreters of the... Scriptures." (John Gorham Palfrey, The Relation Between Judaism and Christianity (Crosby, Nichols: 1854) at 108.) Jesus said the Pharisees taught the less weighty principles from the Law, leaving the weightier matters on mercy, justice and faith untaught and undone. (Matt. 23:23.) They nullified the Law by traditions. (Matt.15:6,9.)

The cheap grace gospel skillfully deflected this truth about the Pharisees. They indoctrinated us into thinking the Pharisees were 100% obedient to the Law. By deluding us the Pharisees were perfect morally, we were misled to think Jesus' could never demand truly that our righteousness exceed that of the Pharisees to be saved (Matt. 5:20). This teaching by Jesus supposedly was therefore intended to drive us to realize fulfilling such a high moral duty is beyond our grasp; thus faith is the sole means of 110% righteousness.

The truth is much different. Our modern teachers are the ones who misled us about the Pharisees being supposedly great legalists. Rather, the Pharisees were shallow anti-legalists, as Jesus repeatedly exposed and denounced them for.

Once we correct that, Jesus' message is self-evident. The Pharisees cannot be justified because they follow a shallow version of the Law. Jesus said they were only good about tithing, but about nothing else in the Law. (Matt. 23:23.)

Before Luther realized this, he taught us in 1525:

Moses is dead. His rule ended when Christ came. He is of no further service....[E]ven the Ten Commandments do not pertain to us.

The sectarian spirits want to saddle us with Moses and all the commandments. We will just skip that....

I dismiss the commandments given to the people of Israel. They neither urge nor compel me. They are dead and gone, except insofar as I gladly and willingly accept something from Moses... 40

Yet, the mature Luther woke up and reversed his own earlier doctrine. He denounced such antinomianism (i.e., anti-Law doctrine) in the Antinomian Theses (1537). ⁴¹ The mature Luther wrote in that work: "To abolish the Law is therefore to abolish the truth of God." (Id. at 33-34.) Luther also said anyone who would "discard the Law would effectively put an end to our obedience to God." (Id., at 32.)

The dominant Protestantism of today, however, is going along in reliance on the words of the young Luther. It has still not grown up as its early leader did, to realize that it was wrong to deride legalism. For this word has been used as an arrow of derision at a teaching which is identical to what our Lord Jesus Himself taught. Luther finally saw this. Will we? Much is at stake. It changes how you hear things. What do you hear when Jesus says a few verses later: "Be ye perfect even as your father in heaven is perfect"? (Matt. 5:48.) Do you think Jesus is merely driving you to have faith to be perfect in God's eyes? Or did Jesus literally mean you must strive to act perfectly just as God is perfect? It turns out if you are not listening to Matt. 5:20, you also cannot hear 5:48. "So take care how you listen; for whoever has, to him more shall be given; and whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has shall be taken away from him." (Lk. 8:18.)

Post-Script: Greatest Irony of the Centuries

In what I call the Greatest Irony of the Centuries, the Modern Gospel of Christianity teaches precisely what Jesus condemned 2,000 years ago.

A large percentage of Protestant churches today teach there is only one command from the Law of Moses which needs be followed: the Law of Tithing. However, all the other commands from the Law of Moses need not be followed. They are mere shadows, and have passed away.

Allegedly we now have a Christian morality that only avoids what is "obvious" as wrong. This obviousness is measured by expediency: "All things are lawful but not all things are necessarily expedient." Thus, even though the Sabbath command is one of the Ten Commandments, you will hear instead "let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind" whether to follow it at all or on a day of our choosing.

However, these same teachers in the modern Protestant church will tell us we are not free from every part of the Law. There is one provision we need still to follow: tithing. This is explained by the highly popular pastor Randy Alcorn, in his mainstream Christian book Money, Possessions & Eternity (Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale, 2003) at 174-75, 181. ³⁴

Larry Burkett, another mainstream Christian author on financial issues, shares this view, ³⁵ and expressly finds that the command on tithing from the `Old Testament' clearly remains valid for Christians. ³⁶

However, both Alcorn and Burkett are embarrassed to admit they insist this one principle from the Law still applies. They do not want to be accused of being legalistic. Yet, they both concur there is one command from the Law given Moses to follow: tithing. Other than that, Alcorn says the Old Testament is passé. No other command than tithing from the Law given Moses supposedly need concern us in the modern Christian church.

Moreover, any of us who regularly attend church in America also know when it comes to offering time, the sermonette is often straight from the Law with little or no hedging on its applicability.

Yet, tithing can never be argued to be a principle that is obvious. There is nothing obviously immoral for not paying a tithe. It is simply a principle from the Law given Moses. Hence, this is why the tithing principle must be quoted from the Mosaic Law to get people to even think about it.

Thus, mainstream Christian teaching today is identical to the Pharisaical teaching that Jesus condemned. Jesus specifically said this lukewarm teaching about the Law was keeping people from salvation. Jesus specifically condemned stressing only tithing from the Law. (Matt. 23:23.) This Pharisaical teaching was causing the prevention of salvation both for the Pharisees as well as their proselytes.

How could we possibly have fallen into the very same error that Jesus condemned? I have to repeat over and over that it is as if some Pharisee's words have been incorporated into Scripture, and we swallowed him hook, line and sinker. It is as if a Pharisee who preaches against keeping the Law has crept into the New Testament. ³⁷

In light of our doctrines being so identical to what Jesus condemned, don't you think on Judgment Day that Jesus as Judge is going to ask some tough questions. Won't He ask us if we were listening even ever so barely to Him? He will ask you point blank why you followed anyone who came with precisely the teaching that Jesus condemned! Judgment Day is going to be a disappointing day for many.

In fact, Jesus says this tithe-only doctrine is certainly a perilous teaching for the one who teaches the Law is otherwise not to be followed. Jesus warns the Pharisees in very stern terms only ten verses later about the consequence of a doctrine that stressed only tithing:

Ye serpents, ye offspring of vipers, how shall ye escape the judgment of hell? (Mat 23:33)(ASV)