Pharisees Among Us
It has often been said by those who wish to align the Lord’s church with denominations that those who preach, teach, and demand book, chapter, and verse are being legalistic and are nothing more than modern-day Pharisees. In their minds, a legalist or a Pharisee is one who proclaims that all should follow God’s law as He intended us to follow it, and when one fails to do so, he should repent and strive not to repeat the same mistake. If this is the way these terms are defined, then I must confess to being a legalist. I not only seek to live this way, but I expect all who claim to be followers of the Lord to do the same. Is this why Jesus chided the Pharisees on so many occasions? Were they condemned because they taught a strict adherence to the law of God? No, no, and a thousand times no!
Why were the Pharisees so often condemned by our Lord? It was because in their attempts to adhere to the word of God, they established certain traditions they thought would be helpful in maintaining complete compliance to the law. Eventually, they elevated their man-made traditions to the status of God’s revealed will. They even went so far as to consider their traditions superior to the law of God. The Pharisees exacted punishment upon those who transgressed the traditions of the elders, while neglecting their own relationship with God and His word. Their constant focus on their own traditions caused them to follow after God in outward appearance only. While they were extremely zealous to follow after their own laws, their worship and service to God became empty ritual, wholly void of proper attitude.
One area in which we are accused of being legalistic is our teaching and practice of baptism for the remission of sins. Our insistence that a person is not saved before baptism, nor is one saved if he is baptized for a motive other than to have his sins washed away is a purely Biblical teaching (Mk 16:16; Acts 2:38; Acts 22:16). In order to accommodate our denominational friends, many in our brotherhood are crying out for us to quit being so legalistic regarding the practice of baptism. They teach, and attempt to persuade us to do likewise, that as long as a person is baptized, then one’s motive or understanding should not matter. Any motive or understanding regarding baptism should be accepted so long as one is baptized to “obey God.”
Are we being legalistic for insisting that a person is lost in sin until his faith in Jesus as the Son of God brings him to repent, confess his faith in the Savior, and be immersed in water for the remission of sins? Not at all. Actually, the shoe is on the other foot. Those who say a person who is baptized for any reason has obeyed God make baptism nothing more than an empty ritual. So what if a person thinks they are saved first? As long as he is immersed, they have obeyed God. So what if a person does not understand that baptism is for the remission of sins? So long as they are baptized, it does not matter. So the arguments go from those who would denominationalize the Lord’s church. So, who are the Pharisees?
-Patrick Morrison
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