MATTHEW 23:25-26: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also.” NKJV

OBSERVATION: What does God want to change in my life? How do I cooperate with this change in my life? My approach and my focus on these questions will determine my outcome.

The scribes and Pharisees were satisfied with changing the outward appearance of their lives. They focused their time and attention on what people would see and think while they ignored the secret and hidden matters of their hearts. Jesus rebuked them for this approach.

• “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence.”

Some will say that it does not matter what one looks and acts like as long as one’s heart is in the right place. Some promote this attitude with the teachings of hyper-grace. Since we are under grace, it does not matter what the outside of the cup looks like – grace covers it! They fail to understand that what is on the outside is a reflection of what is on the inside.

On the other hand, Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for paying attention to their outward lives while ignoring the inner condition of their hearts. Jesus did not dismiss the importance of one’s external behavior. Rather, Jesus exhorted them to focus on matters of the heart first – and then they would be in the position to deal with the external matters of their life.

• “Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also.”

Justification, the inner cup (the full forgiveness of our sins through Jesus Christ’s sacrifice and the regeneration of our heart through the work of the Holy Spirit) always precedes Sanctification, the outer cup (the tangible expression of a born-again heart through right actions in one’s life),

It was not an either-or proposition. It was a both-and proposition. It was a matter of focus. When one is truly changed in their heart – their actions and what people see will also change. Yet, it is possible to feign an outward change while remaining the same in our hearts. We can hide in our Sunday finest, go to church each Sunday, tithe, and volunteer in service – and still be as lost as the most vile sinner.

This was the leaven (error) of the scribes and the Pharisees.

Jesus made it very clear when He spoke with Nicodemus. We must be born again of water (sincere repentance) and the spirit (the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit). This work begins in our hearts as we believe in the completed work of Christ by grace through faith and then works its way to our external life as we show our true faith through our works. 

Jesus always cleans the inside of the cup before He cleans the outside! 

Yet, Jesus will always do both! 

This is the process of justification and our ongoing sanctification. You cannot have true sanctification without first having justification. You cannot have true justification and ignore the matters of sanctification. They go hand-in-hand. God transforms us from within and then our life is spent growing in the expression of this transformation in the way we think and live. 

Paul makes this very practical when he writes,

• “And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”(Rom 6:18-23 NKJV)

Paul was calling us to a life of cleansing the outside of the cup in the same way that Jesus cleansed the inside of the cup when He changed our hearts. It is very practical. We present the outside of our lives in service to do what is good in the same way that we used to present ourselves to do what was sinful. My eyes, my hands, my feet, my entire being is to be offered as a living sacrifice to God through the Spirit.

This is the essence of our worship to the Lord!

• “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” (Rom 12:1-2 NKJV)

The scribes and Pharisees were spiritually dead and they were acting as if they were spiritually alive. There are many today who are spiritually alive and are living lives as if they were spiritually dead. God calls us to live as those alive from the dead. God calls us to live from the inside out. What He is doing in our hearts is what we are to express through our lives – in the power of the Holy Spirit.

True justification should always produce growing sanctification!

Lord, search my heart and show me any area of my life that is not reflecting the gift of Your grace in my heart. Draw me to the cross (my justification) and fill me with the Spirit (my sanctification) so that the work that You have begun in my heart will grow stronger and stronger in every area of my life. Help me to be more like Jesus every single day!

• “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.” (Rom 8:29-30 NKJV)

In Jesus’ Name!