Matthew 23:15 (ESV)
Seven Woes of the Scribes and Pharisees (Woe #2)
15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.
Jesus commending and condemning in this passage. The scribes and Pharisees are going to great lengths to reach out to the people in mission work, but the word they
are preaching is not leading them to salvation. The message is going to be more law based and self-righteousness, but we are saved by faith. This is missing from their message. We can never live up to the law, so it becomes a death trap that
leads to hell.
I pray: O Lord, I give thanks that my salvation is not based on my righteousness, but Jesus’s righteousness. He fulfilled the
law completely for us. Amen.