As we’re going through the book of Matthew, Jesus seems to repeatedly give the Pharisees, Sadducees, and other self-righteous religious folk a theological punch in the nose.  After calling the religious people hypocrites, Jesus tells his disciples to be on guard against the yeast of the Pharisees.   Although the thick-headed disciples start arguing with each other about bread (yes, they argued about stupid stuff just like us), they soon realize that Jesus was referring to the danger of the Pharisees' teaching that, like a little bit of yeast, works it ways through an entire large hunk of dough.

So, why is the teaching of the Pharisees so dangerous?  It’s the same mess we hear today from religion.  Namely, that we either entirely or in part contribute to our salvation, that we do good stuff and earn God’s favor.  The secular realm even claims this, “Well, I’m not really sure about the God stuff, but I’m a good person, so I think I’m okay.”  This all-to-common statement, other than being self-righteous, is not true.  Then religious folk (like the two guys who came to my door on Saturday morning) say that the way we have eternal life is, “Oh yeh, Jesus died on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins…AND we live in obedience to him.”  Listen, either Jesus’ ransom was enough or it wasn’t.  His death didn’t cover 90% leaving the remaining 10% up to my moral achievement.

Rather than discuss a bunch of Bible passages, let’s do it this way:  Let’s just watch Jesus throughout the Gospels.  Watch him offering eternal life to the notoriously sinful woman at the well.  Watch him call a bunch of rag-tag, red neck, argumentative, fisherman to follow him and represent him, watch him offer forgiveness to thieves and prostitutes with absolutely no moral résumé to offer, watch him look at the thief on the cross – who had no moral acumen, no “good person” façade to put forth – watch him look at this dirty thief and promise to see him in paradise.   Watch Jesus do these things and I dare anyone who claims to follow Jesus to even hint that we have an ounce to contribute to our eternal salvation.  The ransom has been paid.  The cross suffices.  Jesus did it, not us.  A changed life is a result of being saved, its not what gets us saved.

Let’s stop trying to prove how good we are and just receive his love.