Devotion for January 18, 2015: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.” - Matthew 23:27 This is one of those verses that each person can read and skip right over it; yet, this is one of those verses that any one of us would dread to hear Jesus say to us. For Christ to look down on us and call us a hypocrite… He would have every right to do so and He would be perfectly correct in His assessment. For by ourselves, we are hypocrites in the greatest degree. We love to quote portions of Scripture that we adhere to (or so we think) and others do not. We love to use our church membership as the litmus test to see who is worthy to be our friend or who is worthy of heaven. We enjoy being the ‘best’ Christian, even though all we do is compare ourselves to others. We know the Ten Commandments and we feel that we are pretty good at conforming to them. I haven’t killed anyone today, so I’ve kept number five. Yet, neither have I helped and befriended those in every need. In fact, I’ve hurt people with my words and my actions. I’ve cursed people to hell for no apparent reason. I’ve decided that anyone who does not live up to my standard is worthless and, honestly, a little less human than me. I kept the day of rest holy. I went to church. Sure, I despised the pastor and what he said. Sure, I fell asleep during the sermon. Sure, I didn’t sing the hymns because they aren’t the ones that I prefer and like… but I went to church. I honored my father and my mother; I even called them to talk to them. But as for the President, what a loser he is. As for my governor, he is worthless and a waste of space. And my teachers… don’t even get me started on them. I’m ready to really tell them off if they ask me for my homework one more time. Yep… we do a great job at upholding those commandments, or so we think. We like to look at the letter of the Law and if we can ‘fulfill’ that we feel pretty good about ourselves. We look pretty good outwardly too. We are following the laws just as God said… but inwardly… We are just like whitewashed tombs. We look very good on the outside to those around us. We look perfect, sinless, holy…but on the inside, well that is a whole other story. On the inside is sin, sin, and more sin. On the inside is hate, jealousy, greed, envy; you name it and it is there. Yet, thanks be to God that Christ came into this world to cure us of out ‘whitewashedness’. Christ came into this world to destroy our perception that we are really good as He lived the perfect life. Christ came into this world to use the law and destroy our stony hearts, so that through the gospel message they would be replaced with flesh hearts. Yes, Christ came into this world to live, die, and rise again for you. He came to redeem you from all of your sins. He came to save you from all of your guilt. Christ came to be the Savior, the only Savior, who has earned heaven for us. And now through faith in Christ we have the forgiveness of our sins. Through faith in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection we know that heaven is ours. Yes, through faith in Jesus we know that we are no longer whitewashed…but rather we are white-clothed. For through faith in Christ, we are clothed in His ‘white robe of righteousness’ which He has given to us. Now we can be assured that, though we will sin, when we repent we are no longer that whitewashed tomb which Christ decries; rather, we are the white-robed righteous children of God who have heaven waiting because of all that Christ has done. Prayer: Lord, thank You for Your white robe of righteousness, which is the only clothing I ever need. Amen. Soli Deo Gloria!
Posted on: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 00:30:57 +0000
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