Romans 7:14-25: The Christian's Remaining Sin and Hope for Future Deliverance (part 4)

by Danny Pelichowski

Biblical Pressupositions: The Unregenerate Man (continued)

Jesus' view of the so called "Pious Jew"

In case the above description of Paul’s testimony of his pre-Christian life as a Pharisee is not compelling enough to weed out any false ideas of the pious Jew fallacy, we will observe a few words from our Lord and Savior on the topic. Jesus views the unregenerate Jewish Pharisees in an alarmingly different light than what we see in Romans 7:14-25. Jesus says that “they preach, but do not practice.”[10] Jesus also points out their sinful self-righteousness and hypocrisy by stating that “they do all their deeds to be seen by others.”[11] When describing the Pharisees Jesus does not portray an inner delight in the law of God or hatred of sinfulness. The Pharisee is simply not concerned with their own sinfulness, indeed they cannot even recognize that they are sinners in need of a savior because they are self deceived in their superior standing before God. The next quotation from Matthew 23 will obliterate the meek and mild view of Jesus that pictures him as a sensitive politically correct people pleaser. Jesus exclaims “woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte (convert), and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.”[12] Once more, Jesus does not view the Pharisee as loving righteousness and hating evil. As a matter of fact, Jesus has nothing positive to say about these “pious Jews.”

This passage does not get any better for the Pharisee, for Jesus displays their hypocrisy and proclaims that though these men appear religious, they are nothing but unregenerate sinners on their way to hell. Jesus says to them “you serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?”[13] Again Jesus is relentless in making himself obviously clear how he views the unbelieving Jewish Pharisee as a wicked sinner who does not understand nor truly delights in the law of God. The “pious” Jews’ observance of the Law is nothing more than a show for others to see on the corner in the marketplace. Their religious practices are for their own confidence in the flesh as well as to parade their “good” works for others to see. Jesus solemnly proclaims “woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”[14] Paul’s statement in Philippians that he counts it all loss for the sake of Christ is made abundantly clear after hearing the revealing woes of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. Hopefully it is clear after examining Paul’s teaching as well as Jesus,’ that the unregenerate so-called “pious Jew” is not the topic in Romans 7:14-25. Let us now move to an evaluation of the Biblical view of the Christian life.
___________________________
10. Matt 23:3b
11. Matt 23:5
12. Matt 23:15 the word "convert" was added by me for clarity and not in the ESV
13. Matt 23:33
14. Matt 23:27-28