The offer of mercy from Christ to hypocritical and self-righteous people is to join a position of grace in His life and ministry. As written in Luke 15:29-31, the righteousness of a person who views himself as a deserving servant does not share the same grace and favor of a freely loved person. A son or daughter who represents a person as reconciled to the LORD.
Powers of Merit, Status & Accomplishment
The mercy, grace, and salvation freely available to those who accept the LORD’s invitation to reconcile are those who also lay down their judgemental self-righteousness and desire His mercy. The person who does not want mercy, but the LORD’s acceptance for their merit, accomplishments, and self-induced performance remain estranged and worse yet condemned. It is His power of grace and mercy that brings about salvation. We are to delight in that.
Powers of Money & Praise
Hearts that are not near to God are hearts that often instead treasure money and accolades from people. A condition where Jesus declares among self-righteous and religious merit-based people, the presence of relationships that usually involves physical adultery or illicit sex. To also include spiritual adultery which, amounts to idolatry. The root problem is, people can live a lifestyle of hypocritical religiosity while their hearts are far from God.
It is not necessarily obvious, but the love of self-glory, status, and money make authentic and productive faith in Christ impossible. A person who earnestly wants the glory of God made full in his or her life does not place much weight upon the powers of money or the accolades of people in near comparison. From Scripture, one could surmise that the greater the distance between God and a person’s desire for Him and His glory, the greater a person’s attraction and motivation for money and status there tends to be.
Powers of Greed, Hypocrisy, and Self-Indulgence
Jesus’ words recorded in Matthew 23:25 informs us of what hypocrisy looks like. The kind that Jesus hates and condemns. That a person, people group, or social context holds out as an external morality self-originated righteousness made evident to others. While still, on the inside, there is corruption to include self-indulgence, greed, lawlessness, and hypocrisy (Matt 23:27-28).
