Pharisee's Laws

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Permalink Reply by Colby on October 8, 2013 at 2:13pm

Interesting topic.  I look forward to reading the examples that are put forth.

 

We know that Jesus, being both God and man, lived a life of sinless perfection.  He perfectly obeyed all of his (God's) commandments.

 

The Pharisees constantly attacked Jesus, nitpicking his observance of "God's laws," subjecting his activities to close scrutiny, and going so far as to try to trap him.  They even called him out for not observing the Sabbath! (Luk14:3)

 

The Pharisees wrongly believed that they could find salvation through their strict observance of the rituals, customs, practices and traditions, which they superimposed on God's commandments.  They believed in salvation by their works, failing to see God as he really is (a God of love and grace who looks  our hearts (1Sam16:7), knowing him only as a divine rule-maker and score-keeper.

 

Jesus, God-incarnate, called out the Pharisees for their self-righteous hypocrisy and slavish legalism.  He likened them to whitewashed tombs.

• “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.  You blind Pharisee!  First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.
• Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness.  So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness" (Mat23:25-28, ESV).

 

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Permalink Reply by Colby on October 9, 2013 at 4:23pm

1.  It appears that over time, the Pharisees, in response to changing situations and circumstances, added their own interpretations and traditions to the Mosaic Laws.  Their intent seems to have been to cover every possible contingency, as new and different situations were brought to their attention, so that people could scrupulously avoid even the slightest or an accidental violation of God's laws.  In other words, they were addressing the application of God's general laws to specific situations with widely different circumstances.  

2.  By far the bigger problem, though, is that the Pharisee's had a fatally flawed understanding of the purpose and application of God's Laws.  They were far concerned with the letter of the law than the spirit of the law.  God looks at the heart.  They were so far off-course that they rejected and failed to see in Jesus, the God-man, that he was the exemplar of sinlessness and of perfect obedience to God's (his) laws.

3.  There's a more detailed answer, supporting these two points, which you can find at Historic Jesus and "The Pharisaic Approach to Purity" in Mark Shea's blog.

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