Matthew 23:26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.
Once, a man wanted to sell his car; he placed a for-sale sign on the auto and parked it in his front yard. Several people stopped to look at the vehicle but did not want to buy it because of its high mileage; it had 250,000 miles. Finally, a friend suggested he turn back the odometer to make it look like it had fewer miles. The following day the friend noticed the car was gone and asked the man how much he sold the car for. He said, “Why should I sell the car now? It only has 70,000 miles on it.”Just like this man with the old car, so many people in the world try to fool those around them and senselessly believe they are fooling God but are only fooling themselves by changing their visible outward appearance. But unfortunately, an internal change can only alter our outside behavior. So, the only real solution to this significant problem is a radical heart transplant.
The car in our story still has all the problems associated with
a high mileage automobile, weak compression, slipping transmission, and stress issues
with the frame. Making the car appear to have less mileage had not changed any
of those issues. People make the same error by trying to please God through
good works without trusting Christ Jesus. The Pharisees lived a life that
showed them to be outwardly clean; they had the rest of the world fooled.
Unfortunately, they did not fool Jesus, who called them “Blind Pharisees” and
let them know that the only way to clean the cup outside was to clean it on the
inside (Matthew 23:25-26). All the good works we want to
do will not please God this occurs only when we surrender our lives, hearts,
bodies, and souls to Jesus. Only Jesus can give us the heart transplant we so
desperately need. He can replace a hard stony heart with a soft, gentle one
dedicated to God’s plans and agenda, not ours (Ephesians 2:8-9).
God does not need our abilities; He is only seeking our availability.
Inward purity should be our primary goal instead of outward
spotlessness; God purifies our hearts, souls, and lives through faith in the
spotless, innocent blood of Christ Jesus. We should strive for the principle of
God’s grace and holiness in our hearts through the indwelling of the Holy
Spirit. Understanding that attempting to clean up our outward being is futile
and that cleaning the inside is the only way to ensure the outside is clean.
Any external reformation we might struggle to show the world, without the
internal grace of Christ Jesus, will be of no avail in God’s sight. Jesus
went to the Cross, died, and shed His perfect, sinless blood so that we could
claim victory over sin and Satan. By allowing Christ Jesus total freedom in our
hearts and souls, He will clean the inside of our cups, and we will not have to
be concerned about the worldly perception of the outside of our cups.
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