Archive for the ‘Faith in Jesus’ Tag
When I was a young Christian, I attended a seminar on what we must do to “work the works of God”. I was told that we had to pray more, fast more, know our enemy and so on. I came away from the seminar confused. Then one day, I found the same question in the Bible. But the answer was very different!
In the Gospel of John, we find Jesus being asked the same question by the multitude who had been awed by His miracles—“What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?” The people had seen Jesus healing the sick, and feeding 5,000 men with only five loaves and two fish.
Notice how Jesus answered them: “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.” My friend, the greatest doing is believing—believing in Jesus the sent one, who has done it all for you at the cross!
If you are asking, “What must I do to receive my healing?” the answer is this: Believe in Jesus, who “Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses”. (Matthew 8:17) We have seen members of our church delivered from life-threatening conditions such as cancer and kidney failure. They had simply believed that Jesus bore their diseases on His own body. There was nothing for them to do, except to believe.
When the jailer asked Paul and Silas, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” (Acts 16:30–31) The greatest miracle in your life happens not by you working and trying to save yourself, but by you simply believing in Jesus who died to save you from eternal damnation and to give you eternal life. Why then, should the lesser miracles of healing or financial breakthroughs be any different?
Beloved, what is the miracle you need today? There is nothing left for you to do, but everything for you to believe, because Jesus has done it all for you!
What Pleases God – Article – Andrew Wommack Ministries
During a Sunday morning service in St. Joseph, Missouri, a few years back, I asked the congregation how many of them really want to please God more than anything else. Every hand went up. Then I asked them, "How many of you think God is really pleased with you?" Out of at least 400 people, one 11-year-old boy and one 10-year-old girl raised their hands. That was all.
Very few believers actually believe that they are pleasing to God. Most feel some degree of forgiveness and maybe acceptance, but to think that the Lord is actually pleased with us is another matter. A person can choose to love you because of his or her own goodness, but to be pleased with you, they actually have to like your performance. Right?
With God, no one could ever be pleasing to Him based on performance. His standard is perfection, and no goodness on our part can ever compensate for our sins. We may please man with our actions, but "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23). It takes the precious blood of Jesus to do that.
The way we receive the forgiveness that’s available through Jesus’ blood is by faith (Rom. 10:9-17). When we put our faith in Jesus as our Savior, we are pleasing God. Hebrews 11:6 says, "But without faith it is impossible to please him."
Faith comes from the heart (Rom. 10:10), and God looks on the heart — not the actions (1 Sam. 16:7). Of course, God sees our actions and will deal with us about them, but only because they are inseparably linked to our hearts (Prov. 23:7). It’s our hearts that really concern God, and faith in Him (trust, reliance) is what He is searching the heart for.
A person whose actions are not right but who trusts the Lord is more pleasing to God than an individual who is doing the right things but has no faith in God. It’s not a case of those who act the best will get accepted, and those who act the worst get rejected. That would put some of the followers of other religions ahead of many Christians, but that is not what the Bible teaches.
This is exactly the point Paul is making in Romans 11:6: "And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work." That’s old English for saying, "It’s one way or the other but not a combination of the two." We’re either saved by God’s grace through what Jesus did for us, or we’re saved by what we do without Jesus, but not a combination of the two. The choice should be the obvious.
Elijah is an example of a great man who lived a holy life and didn’t earn God’s pleasure with his actions. He made some serious mistakes. He ran in the face of persecution and became so depressed over it that he asked the Lord to kill him (1 Kin. 19). The Lord gave him three direct commands in an audible voice (1 Kin. 19:15-16), and Elijah never did two of them (refer to my teaching entitled "Elijah’s Downfall?"). Most people would think God couldn’t have been pleased with Elijah, yet Elijah was translated.
Even though our heart conditions influence our actions, we all fail in our performance to some degree. Elijah did. If God used performance as the basis of whether or not He was pleased with us, no one would ever pass the test. "If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?" (Ps. 130:3).
Satan used to accuse me and say, "What makes you think God will use you?" The truth is that none of us are perfect, we don’t deserve the blessings of God. Now I put my faith in Jesus. It’s hard for some people to accept this. It has been ingrained in us that if we aren’t holy, God won’t bless us. When God looks at you, He doesn’t see your goodness — He sees Jesus.
If you’re walking in faith, you use faith as the rate of exchange between you and God. God is pleased with you even though your actions don’t measure up. Your life may be a wreck, but God is still pleased with you. Our religion says that is hypocrisy. On the contrary, the worst sin is self-righteousness — the attitude that God owes it to you because you’ve been good.
The difficult thing is that there are no role models for grace. Your employer hires you based on performance. The parent-child relationship is based on performance, even though it shouldn’t be. When it comes to God, your performance can’t earn you anything. If you sin, you need a savior. It is your faith in Jesus that will grant you access to God.
Most people accept this level of grace when it pertains to salvation. However, some of you may think that after you’re born again, God expects you to pray and study; and if you don’t do these things, God won’t bless you. After you are born again, it doesn’t change! Colossians 2:6 says, "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him." When we are born again, we come to Jesus just as we are. In fact, if a person has a lot of sin, it’s even more reason to come to Jesus. When it comes to being healed, it’s a different story with most Christians. They think if you haven’t read your Bible today or you had a fight on the way to church, it will keep you from being healed. That’s a double standard. That’s saying that the way you approach God after you’re born again is different. Your actions may not please God today, but you can be healed or delivered in spite of it.
Some of you may think I’m advocating sin. I’m not — your actions are important to you. Your holiness is important because it changes your heart toward God and not God’s heart toward you. Unholiness will hurt you. Even though God will love you just as much, you won’t love God as much. It will harden your heart toward God. It’s like eating. You must eat to stay alive, but eating is not life. If you miss one meal, will you die? If you constantly live in sin and never feed yourself spiritually, it will kill you. I am not saying you should ignore your actions. You will never do everything perfectly, but don’t let it keep you from receiving the blessings of God.
Luke 22 shows us an example of someone who had faith and pleased God. In verses 31 and 32 Jesus is talking to Peter before the crucifixion. "And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren." Peter did blow it tremendously. He denied the Lord three times. He cursed and blasphemed God, and yet Jesus prayed that his faith wouldn’t fail. Jesus’ prayers were always answered. Peter’s actions failed, but not his faith. If Peter hadn’t repented it would have killed him. He was restored to God and went on to become a pillar of the church.
Some of you may be thinking, This is great — I can live like the devil and still get what I want from God." If you think that, I’d say you aren’t born again, because a Christian wants to please God. This word is for Christians who have a desire to serve God but who still sin. When that happens, you go on and catch up and stand there with confidence in your Savior. Your faith in Jesus pleases God. None of us get saved and head straight on the path to God. We bounce around, but we’re still heading in the general direction.
"To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved" (Eph. 1:6). You do please God through your faith in Jesus as your Savior, and you must perceive that you please Him.
What does it mean to look unto Jesus? Well, we can think of it like this: If you are drowning and somebody walks past you, you do not look at him. You look unto him. When you look unto him, you are turning to him and expecting him to rescue you.
In the same manner, you look unto Jesus expecting Him to save, heal and protect you because you know His mighty power and sacrificial love for you. God’s Word says that we are to keep “looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith”. That is how God wants us to live.
So if you have a recurring migraine, keep looking unto Jesus. See Him taking that migraine upon His body on the cross and say, “Lord, I thank You that by Your stripes I am healed.” (Isaiah 53:5) As you keep looking unto Jesus, your healer, that migraine will have to bow to His finished work!
If you have a financial lack in your life, just keep looking unto Jesus with confident expectation that He will provide for you and deliver you from your lack.
“But Pastor Prince, is it really so simple? All I have to do is look unto Jesus and He will bless me financially?”
Yes, it is that simple. The problem with us is that we tend to look unto ourselves. But we cannot save or deliver ourselves. Even the apostle Paul struggled when he depended on his self-effort. That is why he said, “For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.” (Romans 7:19) It was only when Paul looked away from himself and unto Jesus that he received his deliverance. (Romans 7:24–25)
My friend, if you have been looking unto yourself, it is time to start looking unto Jesus. Look unto Him, the author and finisher of your faith. And soon, you will be looking at your healing and provision!
ABRAHAM’S CHILDREN – Andrew Wommack Ministries
John 8:37 "I know that ye are Abraham’s seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you."
JOHN 8:33-38
The Jewish people were direct descendants of Abraham. However, as with so many biblical truths, there was much more to the Abrahamic covenant than what a casual glimpse would reveal. In truth, these Jews were not actually a part of the spiritual children of Abraham.
The Holy Spirit revealed through the Apostle Paul in Galatians 3:16 and 29 that God’s covenant was to Abraham and his singular "seed" or descendant, which was Christ. No one ever became an heir of God’s promises through his natural birth. Before Jesus gave Himself as an offering for our sin, the Old Testament saints were justified by faith in God’s promises concerning the Messiah who was yet to come. After Jesus’ death and resurrection, New Testament saints are justified by faith in what Jesus has already accomplished. No one has ever been saved because of who his parents are.
Those who have been born again through faith in Jesus have been circumcised in their heart (Col. 2:11-12) and are the true Jews. They aren’t Jews in nationality or religion, but they are the true people of God. Gentiles who are united with Christ in the new birth are now God’s people. Anyone who is saved through faith in Jesus is now Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise (Gal. 3:16, 22, 26-29). This leaves no doubt that the Church is now God’s chosen people on earth. This does not mean that God has forsaken the Jews. There are still prophesies which apply to the physical nation of Israel which will be fulfilled. However, the New Testament Church, composed of Jews and Gentiles, is now God’s kingdom on earth. We are all His.
WORD POWER – Andrew Wommack Ministries
Matthew 14:29, "And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus."
This one word "come" was spoken by the one who made all things (Jn. 1:3) and it had just as much power in it as the words that were spoken at creation. This is where the power came from for Peter to walk on the water. Likewise, any word spoken to us by God carries in itself the anointing and power it takes to fulfill that word, if we will release it by believing it and acting on it.
We need to not only know God’s power, but the greatness of God’s power, and then the exceeding greatness of God’s power. This exceeding greatness of God’s power is towards us. That means that it is for us and our benefit. Some people get glimpses of God’s power, but very few have the revelation that it is for us and at our disposal. It doesn’t do us any good to believe that God has power if we don’t believe that it will work for us. This great power of God is effectual only for those who believe. We must believe to receive, or if we doubt, we do without.
Despite all the criticism that might be leveled at Peter in this instance, he did walk on the water. There were eleven other disciples in the boat and although they clearly saw Jesus and Peter walking on the water, they still did not participate. One of the important steps in receiving a miracle from God is to leave the security of your natural resources (get out of your boat) and put yourself in the position where there has to be a miracle from God to hold you up. God is no respecter of persons (Rom. 2:11). Any of the disciples could have walked on the water, if they would have asked and gotten out of the boat.
You’ve Already Got It! – Andrew Wommack
May 2014 Newsletter
What do you need the Lord to do for you? Do you need the Lord to heal you? How about prosperity? Could you use more money? The truth is, you don’t need the Lord to do anything for you. He’s already done His part. You’ve already got it, whatever "it" is.
This may sound crazy to some of you. You might be thinking, But I’ve got a doctor’s report to prove I don’t have healing or You haven’t seen my bank account. But regardless of what the natural facts are, the truth is that God has already given you whatever you need.
Second Peter 1:3 says, According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue. The only thing we are lacking is knowledge.
Most Christians believe that God can do anything, but many of them don’t believe He has done very much. They live in a constant state of trying to get God to do something. They are begging God to move through revival, healing, prosperity, etc. They run from meeting to meeting, trying to get something from God. But they’ve already got it.
The Bible says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ – Ephesians 1:3.
This says He "hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings," meaning it’s already done. You already have all spiritual blessings. So, asking God or waiting on Him to bless you is counterproductive. And yet the average Christian starts from that position. If they’re sick in their bodies, instead of starting from "by His stripes, I was healed" (1 Pet. 2:24) or "I have the same power that raised Jesus from the dead living in me" (Eph. 1:19-20), they’ll take the doctor’s report or the pain in their bodies and say, "I’m sick. God, will You heal me?" They start moving toward victory instead of coming from victory!
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath [past tense] blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ" (brackets mine). Now, it says those spiritual blessings are in heavenly places in Christ, but they are in you because you are in Christ, which is what the next verse says:
According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world – Ephesians 1:4a.
Philemon 6 is another verse that explains this truth. Paul was praying "that the communication of thy faith may become effectual"-that means that your faith would begin to work-"by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus." You see, every good thing is in you in Christ! You’ve already got it! And He said He would never leave you nor forsake you (Heb. 13:5). So, instead of praying "Lord, just be with me this week, if it be Your will, for Jesus’ sake" or "O God, where are You? God,could You just love me? I don’t feel the love of God," pray, "Thank You, Father, that You’ll never leave me, that You’re always here. Thank You for Your goodness." You just start acknowledging the good things that the Word says are in you, and then your faith begins to be effective. You’ll start seeing these things manifest in your life. That is so much easier than begging God or pleading with Him to come!
God has already done His part. When Jesus died on the cross, He said, "It is finished" (John 19:30). And the Scripture reveals in Ephesians 1:20 that He is now seated at the Father’s right hand. He’s not working anymore. He’s already done it. It is finished!
Do you need to be healed today? It’s already been done. Jesus bore your stripes in His body 2,000 years ago. Do you need to be saved? It says in 1 John 2:2 that "he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." He’s already forgiven the sins of the entire world. It’s not a matter of if God will forgive you; He’s already forgiven sins. Will you receive His forgiveness? Will you put faith in what Jesus has done? That’s the issue.
God has already forgiven you. He’s already healed you. He’s already commanded His blessing upon you and your finances. He’s already given you love, joy, and peace. You don’t need God to respond to you; you need to learn to respond to God! It’s easier to defend something you already have than to go get something you don’t have.
That is so powerful, but this is where so many Christians are missing it. They know that God can do all of these things, but they don’t think He’s done anything yet. They start from a position of unbelief. They are crossways with the Word of God. In regards to healing, the proper way to do it is to take Proverbs 18:21-"Death and life are in the power of the tongue"-and begin to release this power over sickness and disease: "I speak death to this sickness. I curse it and command it to leave. God, I speak the life that You’ve already put on the inside of me. I release it to flow through my body." This is how you start cooperating with God.
We need to begin to believe that things have happened that we can’t see, taste, hear, smell, or feel. We can believe that there are television and radio signals in the atmosphere, even though we can’t see them. We know that all we have to do is take a television set, turn it on, tune it in, and we’ll see that those signals were there the whole time. But we need to begin to apply this to spiritual things. We can’t limit this concept to just our physical realm.
There is more going on than just what you can perceive with your five senses. There is more than just your soulish, emotional realm. There is a spirit on the inside of you, and there is a spiritual realm, where God has already done His part. If you don’t relate to it properly, you’re going to be hit and miss in the Christian life, which has led to so much weirdness in the body of Christ. You need to live from the standpoint that God has already done it. He’s provided everything you need.
One time, I was praying for healing for my son, who was very little at the time. I wasn’t seeing him healed, so asked God, "What’s wrong?" The Lord spoke to me, "You’re fighting to get your son healed instead of fighting because he is healed." You might say, "I don’t see the difference." There’s a huge difference! The Lord told me that instead of defending my son’s healing and just releasing what Jesus already provided, I was trying to get Him to do something.
If you didn’t understand this, then I can guarantee you, this is one of the main reasons you aren’t receiving from God. You need to get a revelation of this. Jesus has already provided everything you will ever need. You’re blessed with all spiritual blessings-all of them!
The key for me understanding these things was the revelation the Lord gave me that I’ve entitled Spirit, Soul & Body. God is a Spirit (John 4:24), and He moves in the spiritual realm. Whether or not we see a physical manifestation of what He has done in the spiritual realm is dependent upon what we believe and how we act, not on what He has done. It’s not up to the Lord to heal us; He’s already healed us (1 Pet. 2:24). But He gave His miraculous power to us to release.
Healing has already been provided. Financial prosperity has already been provided. Joy and peace and everything that you will ever need emotionally have already been provided. If you’re having a down day, if things aren’t going right, if you don’t feel good, you don’t need to embrace discouragement, despair, and hopelessness. And yet the average Christian just embraces this stuff, saying, "O God, I ask You to touch me. I ask You to give me joy." The Bible says you’ve already received all these things. The logical question to ask, then, is "Well, where is it?"
In Galatians 5:22-23, it says love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance are in you if you’re born again. It’s right there in your spirit! I’ve had many people come to me and say, "I just don’t feel the love of God. Would you please pray that He would release His love toward me?" Most people think that’s a great request. But it assumes that it’s God’s fault that they don’t feel His love.
The truth is, God has already poured out His love toward you. Look what it says here in Romans:
The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
Romans 5:5b
God loves you whether you feel it or not! His love has been poured in your heart-or in other words, in your spirit. And His love isn’t conditional upon your good actions, or holiness. You’ve got to start from this place that "God has already provided everything, and if I don’t feel His love, it’s not that God didn’t give; it’s that I don’t realize what I have." When you know that you have something, it takes the struggle out of it. It takes you out of condemnation. It takes you out of a legalistic mentality of trying to earn things from God. It removes doubt. How could you ever doubt that you’d get something that you already have? It’s really that simple.
In my meetings, sometimes I’ll walk over to someone and hand them my Bible. Then I ask them, "Now, what would I do if you asked me for my Bible? How do I respond?" I would probably just look at them and be totally quiet. Many Christians, when they pray for what they’ve already got, are getting total silence from the Lord. It’s because God has already given them everything they need.
If God could be confused, I think He would be confused, saying, "I told them in My Word that they were already blessed, healed, prospered and had total joy and peace in their spirits. Why are they asking Me for what they already have? Why do they ask Me to come into their services when I said I would always be in the midst of two or three of them? Why do they ask Me to go with them when I said I would never leave them or forsake them?"
It’s not a matter of trying to get God to move in your life; it’s a matter of you moving over into agreement with Him and receiving what He has already provided.
GET RID OF FEAR – Andrew Wommack Ministries
Luke 8:50, "But when Jesus heard it, he answered him saying, Fear not: believe only, and she shall be made whole."
MATTHEW 9:23-31; MARK 5:35-43; LUKE 8:49-56
Jesus told Jairus to "believe only," implying that faith and fear can operate in us at the same time. This is also the reason James tells us not to be double-minded, or to waiver (Jas. 1:5-8). Fear will negate faith. We can have both thoughts of faith and thoughts of unbelief at the same time.
Fear and faith are opposing forces. Fear is actually faith in reverse. Fear is believing something or someone other than God. Therefore, fear makes us subject to satan and his death just as faith makes us recipients of all that God has to offer. This is the reason Jesus told Jairus, "Fear not." Jairus’ fear would have sealed his daughter’s death.
Instead of trying to build huge amounts of faith to overcome our fears and unbelief, a simpler method is to remove our fears by cutting off their source. Then, our simple "child-like" faith that remains will do the job. It doesn’t take big faith – just pure faith.
Where does fear come from? Second Timothy 1:7 says, "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power and of love, and of a sound mind." It doesn’t come from God. The way that fear is able to come upon us is that we take our attention off of Jesus and put it on our situation.
Fear or doubt cannot "just overcome" us. We have to let it in. In the same way that faith comes by hearing the Word of God, fear comes by hearing or seeing something contrary to God’s Word. We would not be tempted with fear or doubt if we didn’t consider things that satan uses to minister that fear and doubt.
Satan tries to distract us with thinking about our problems. No problem is too big for God. We should cast our concern about the problem over on God and just keep our eyes on Jesus, the Word.
LOVE AND TRUST – Andrew Wommack Ministries
Matthew 9:18, "While he spake these things unto them, behold, there came a certain ruler, and worshipped him, saying, My daughter is even now dead: but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live."
MATTHEW 9:18-19
Jesus could have healed this girl by His spoken word, but He did as He was requested to do. This illustrates how the Lord ministers to us according to our faith. Jesus ministered to him at the level where his faith was and didn’t rebuke his little faith (Jas. 1:5).
There is a human faith which is limited to believing only what we can perceive through our five senses. But the supernatural, God kind of faith goes beyond what we can see, taste, hear, smell, and feel. God’s kind of faith calls those things which be not as though they already were.
We exercise faith almost daily in such things as sitting on a chair and driving a car. But our faith is no better than the object in which it is placed. If I were to sit in a chair made of cardboard, I would go crashing to the ground. Regardless of how much faith I had, my faith would fall flat because the object of my faith was faulty. Hebrews 12:2, tells us that we are to be "looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith." We must transfer our faith from human self reliance and independence, to reliance upon, adherence to, and trust upon Jesus Christ in all areas of our lives. Faith, in its simplest definition, is to trust, to rely, and to depend upon the resource of another. God’s Word declares that the object of our faith, Jesus Christ, can never fail or disappoint us.
Love produces faith, or is what makes faith work. We naturally trust those who we know truly love us. A revelation of God’s unconditional love for us will make faith just naturally abound in us. Are you struggling with faith? You have a deficiency in understanding how much God loves you. Let Him reveal His love to you today.
JESUS, TEACHER AND SAVIOR – From Andrew Wommack Ministries
Mark 4:2, "And he taught them many things by parables, and said unto them in his doctrine,"
MARK 4:1-12
The Greek word used here for "doctrine" means "teaching" and occurs a total of 30 times in the New Testament. The four gospels refer to Jesus teaching 43 times and preaching 19 times, and six verses refer to Him preaching and teaching in the same verse. This would indicate that Jesus spent twice as much time teaching as He did preaching. Jesus’ teaching is the basic building block of making disciples and a stumbling block to the religious.
Why is it that a person who is seeking so hard to please God can be rejected, while a person who has not sought God at all can come into a righteous relationship with Him? This is an important question and its answer is one of the most profound doctrines in scripture. The answer is faith and its object.
The Jews were zealous for the things of God, but their faith was in themselves. They were trusting that they could earn God’s favor by their acts of righteousness. On the other hand, the Gentiles had no holiness to trust in. So, when they heard the Gospel message that Jesus paid our debt for us, they readily accepted His "gift" of salvation, while the religious Jews could not abandon their trust in themselves for salvation.
The same problem exists today. Millions of church people are trying to live holy lives, but they do not have a true faith in Jesus as their Savior. If they were to stand before God and He was to ask them what they had done to deserve salvation, they would immediately start recounting all their acts of holiness such as church attendance, giving receipts, etc. Regardless of how good our actions are compared to others, they always come short of the perfect standard of God. The only response to this kind of question that would grant us entrance to heaven is to say, "my only claim to salvation is faith in Jesus as my Savior." Let Him be the object of your faith today. He is all you need.
THE BEST SINNER – From Andrew Wommack Ministries
Matthew 5:20, "For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed [the righteousness] of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven."
MATTHEW 5:17-22
What did Jesus mean? Since the Pharisees fasted twice each week, does this mean we have to fast three times each week? Since they paid tithes on everything including spices, does this mean that anyone who fails to tithe is doomed to hell?
No! Definitely not. The Pharisees’ righteousness was based on their actions. Jesus is advocating a righteousness that is based on faith in what He did for us.
Trusting in our own actions will never grant us access to God. We may be better than others, but who wants to be the best sinner that ever went to hell? We have all sinned and come short of perfection which is what God requires (Rom. 3:23).
The only one who was ever good enough to earn right standing with God is Jesus. And His righteousness is offered as a gift to anyone who will put their faith in Him as their Savior.
Jesus offers us a righteousness by faith that is so far superior to the self righteousness that the Pharisees had that there is no comparison. This is the righteousness that we need and which is available to us only through faith in Christ.
Free From Burdens 