I think of this in relation to the Pharisees and Sadducees, but primarily the Pharisees in relation to Christ. Matthew 5 makes it very clear that Christ had some respect for the Pharisees - that they were righteous. He did not say to what degree they were righteous, but He said to us that unless our righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, why, we are not going to be in the kingdom of heaven. So, they had a righteousness, but Jesus was more righteous still.
There was a fundamental difference in their approaches to righteousness. The Pharisees' approach to righteousness was to remain blameless by not sinning. Jesus' approach to righteousness, it is stated there in Acts the tenth chapter (Acts 10:38) I believe it is, where Luke, when he wrote that, said that Jesus went around doing good! He spent His time doing good.
One had a positive approach. The other had a negative approach. This does not mean that the Pharisees were always negative in everything they did. And it does not mean that Jesus was always positive - because He had to resist as well when it came to resisting sin.
But the fundamental difference was one was defending himself all the time and the other was laying down His life. And, so, the Pharisees were doing something that was fundamentally and essentially self-concerned. All they were interested in was protecting themselves. So they really did not have a great deal of time to do acts of love toward others.
That just fits right in with I John 4:18, does it not, where fear is placed as love's greatest challenge. They were fearful of sinning. In fact, the Jews in their writings claim that what they tried to do was to build a fence around the law so that nobody could break it! They did this by making all kinds of regulations. The ones we probably smile the most about, or are most knowledgeable of, are some of the regulations regarding keeping the Sabbath. And we can kind of give a tee hee about what looks to be a futile or strange way of trying to keep the Sabbath, but they were serious. They did not do that in a bad attitude. They were serious about what they were doing. Underneath that, they were trying to protect themselves. And that is fundamentally selfish.
Now, righteousness has to begin somewhere. It has to begin where the Pharisees were. We do have to begin by not sinning. But if we can turn our attention to more positive things, then we are not going to have to do much worrying about whether we are sinning - because we will be doing the right things. And sin will not come to mind nearly as much as it would otherwise.
Let us go to the book of Luke.
Do you see the progression there? From the time the Holy Spirit is poured out on Him and He is anointed for His commission, then the Bible begins to speak of Him as being full of the power of the Holy Spirit. And then He Himself announces it, that The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He has anointed Me.
He went about doing good. That is the meal offering. Anybody who meets the demands of the meal offering is going to go about doing good to men.
Now we are to understand that Jesus was bruised in service, but He never lacked power. That is what brought Him through it. By contrast, we are not bruised in service, we are not broken, but we are powerless. The truth is that the greatest zeal and knowledge are useless without God's Holy Spirit and the power that it brings to us.
Peter comments on that when preaching to the household of Cornelius. They had probably heard of Jesus because they had prayed to God, and He had sent Peter to preach to them, and to baptize them. Peter says,
See? He did not just know the Bible; He did not just know God's will; He went ahead and did it too!
In eating the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, it compelled Him to do, not just to be.
