Jesus and The Religious Elite

Recently I confessed publicly that I was guilty of being a pharisee. Of all the things. Me of all people, guilty of one of the worst sins imaginable.

That’s right, I said it. Being a pharisee is one of the absolute worst sins imaginable. Don’t believe me? Then believe Jesus. Because as I read the gospels, Jesus had nothing nice to say about the pharisees. He preached love and mercy to tax collectors, samaritans and prostitutes, but He had nothing good to say to the pharisees. He frequently condemned them and their actions. The sharpest words coming from His lips were reserved for pharisees, the religious hypocrites. And that’s what I was. Coming to realize this has been the most humbling experience of my life.

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about how I went so terribly wrong. In a way it’s confusing, I did all the right things. I believed all the right things. I was checking all the right boxes. But I never had any experience with God, I never experienced any power from the Spirit. I ended up cynical, burned out, and a complete legalist.

Tearing Down vs. Building Up

I was the guy who was more interested in tearing down people I’d never met, instead of building up.

I would watch/read/hear about people who experienced God’s power, whether through visions or healings and I would give out multiple reasons how that ‘just couldn’t be’. Didn’t those ignorant fools not realize that miracles have ceased?

I could throw around all sorts of impressive terms like ‘propitiation’ or ‘substitutionary atonement’ and yet couldn’t talk for very long about love, grace or mercy. Such simple terms were ‘beneath me’.

I claimed to follow Jesus, completely ignoring the fact that Jesus set an example to be a servant. I had no interest in service.

I never truly prayed, I just talked at God. I’m pretty sure that had to get old for Him. I would only read the Bible here and there, usually when I was guilted into it. The Word never came alive in any way to my life. I knew all the rules I was supposed to follow, but I never experienced the Spirit at work in my life.

Modern Day Legalism

I really need you to pay attention here. Seriously. The pharisees were not some religious cult that came and went. Legalism, formalism, they all exist very much in todays Western culture. I would actually say it is the most pervasive disease overtaking Christianity in our time. I should know.

The past two weeks have been the most powerful in my entire life. For the first time in my life, I truly feel connected to God. I can say in absolute confidence that I am seeing the Spirit at work in my life. I haven’t had visions or anything. But I am being transformed in ways that I never could have imagined. In ways that could only be attributed to the work of God. I am astounded that for the first time in my life, I truly feel that God is leading me.

For years now I have been an outrageously conceited and selfish individual. Always haranguing people about all the great things I was going to do. Always seeking to exalt my own self. God is transforming my desires. He is transforming my heart into that of a servant. I’m telling you flat out that is and only can be the work of God. Whatever I do in the future, I am only interested in what serves God and the Church.

Abandon Religion, Embrace Jesus

Don’t just skim over this. Please. I am still praying over what God would have me do with my life. For now, I can share my testimony. All over Western Christianity, we are surrounded by apathy and complacency. So many people go to church and yet never experience the power of God and the work of the Spirit. I get it, I was there. It’s discouraging, I know. I woke up so many days wondering if this was really all there was to my life. I can’t tell you how many times this happened.

We weren’t meant to live this way.

In my case, my problem was that I was just following a dead religion. I went not days, not weeks, not months, I went years without once thinking or talking about the grace of God. Same for the love of God. It wasn’t something I placed any emphasis on. I thought of that as ‘elementary’. I have now come to realize that the grace, mercy and love of God is the deepest of concepts. There is no doctrine or theology that is more paramount than the grace, mercy and love of God. For me to even begin to think of this as ‘elementary’ only underscores how pharisaical I really was.

There is much for me to learn, I understand that now more than ever. Jesus promised ‘abundant life’ to those who follow Him. He promised that His ‘yoke would be easy, and His burden light’. Something that I’ve been meditating on recently is how Jesus condemns those who will come to Him on Judgement Day, bragging of their great works. Casting out demons, prophesying and whatnot, it’s an impressive resume. But Jesus says ‘depart from Me, I never knew you’.

If you come away with nothing else, I want to help those stuck in a dead religion to come out. Come out and live the joyful, freeing life that Christ promises to all who follow Him. I did it. And I can honestly say that God is changing my life in ways that continue to amaze me.