What Has it Cost You?
Thursday, November 27th, 2008
Often, and increasingly, I fear I am in danger of being a Pharisee. Many of my fears are not unwarranted: my hypocrisy knows no bounds. But I have also found myself erring on the other side: Thinking I or someone else has a Pharisitical attitude when in fact that’s not the case. So it’s important to keep in mind what Jesus’ criticisms of the Pharisees were.
In this clip, Ligon Duncan describes a common misconception we have of the Pharisees and how Jesus interacted with them.
The following is an edited transcript:
Dever: So what is the work that EP Sanders has done in the first century context useful for?
Duncan: I think if there is one thing that we could get out of this for evangelicals, it would be to reorient ourselves to the Pharisees. I think for a long time evangelicals have viewed Pharisees as people who care too much about the law; they’re nitpickers; they love minutiae; they’re harsh; they’re mean, etc. So I think if you could get anything out of these guys, one thing you’re going to get is a reorientation to the Pharisees.
Jesus never accuses these men of caring too much about God’s law. He always tells them, your problem is you act like you care about God’s law, and you trash it. So what he ends up doing is holding the law up in front of them and showing them the law is much greater than they ever thought it was, and that they have never ever done it service.
Even in stories like the rich young ruler. Remember the question, “What must I do?” And the answer is, “Keep the law.” That’s an interesting answer from a gospel preacher. . . . And then the retort, “I’ve done that since I was a child.” But Jesus’ response, “Okay, sell everything you have.” He holds up the first commandment before the man, thus showing that he has not kept the law. It’s a very interesting interaction — not accusing him of caring too much about the law, but of not appreciating the demands of the law.
We paint a picture of the Pharisee that would not look anything like us, when the fact of the matter is, we look a whole lot more like the Pharisees than we would like to admit. . . .
We don’t think of them as a dedicated, evangelizing, lay movement, which it was.
The full interview, “Justification & the New Perspective”, is available at 9marks.org.
Here’s some more great stuff from the guys at IllBeHonest.com. I wish I had just an ounce of their passion.
There are millions of different sin patterns that will land you in hell, but so many people don’t realize this very simple one: Just coast on and do nothing; don’t fight the sin.
This sermon has been making its way all over the blogosphere recently. It’s amazing how many times I’ve seen this 2 hour sermon posted on a blog. And there’s a very good reason.
Grab some popcorn. You will not regret watching this.
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If you want to download it, it’s available at www.tenindictments.com.
I don’t know if anyone who passed by was convicted by this, but I sure was when I saw it on YouTube.
Praise God for what he’s doing around the country. Things like this make me think all that talk about a modern-day Great Awakening may be true.
From: illbehonest.com
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