Man’s self-deception knows no bounds. We get a glimpse of it in the chief priests who gave false counsel to have Jesus executed. No greater act of evil has ever occurred. They lied to kill the Son of God, but notice what happens when Judas brings back the money they paid him to betray Jesus.
Judas hands them the money and says, “I have betrayed an innocent man.” The chief priests must then decide what to do with the money. They surmise they cannot put it in the temple’s treasury because it is blood money (Matt. 27:6).
Did you catch that? The hypocrisy of the chief priests is staggering. They had no hesitation in conspiring to kill an innocent man, yet when Judas returns the silver, their conscience suddenly awakens—but only in the most trivial way. They will not place blood money in the temple treasury, as if that would somehow keep them clean. The same men who orchestrated the murder of the Son of God are now pretending to uphold religious purity.
Their logic is absurd. It would be like a human trafficker feeling morally superior because he is concerned about properly paying taxes on his income. They strain out a gnat and swallow a camel (Matt. 23:24). They play the part of holy men while their hands are stained with the blood of the Messiah.
Why do we play these morality games? I say “we” on purpose because this tendency is universal. We do it as a coping mechanism against the knowledge of our guilt. It is a way to suppress the truth in unrighteousness. It is the same self-deception that makes gang members who rob, maim, and kill think it is a good thing that “only God can judge them.”
These gang members believe God will see them violating his laws and look favorably on them because they love their mama. They have so deluded themselves that they believe, contrary to God’s word, that he will declare them righteous, but it will never work. They might be faithful in the small things, but they neglect the weightier matters of the law.
These are extreme examples, but at one point, when we look to our own righteousness to save us, all of us do the same. There are even some of us as Christians who continually play with sin and dismiss them because we attend church and read our bibles regularly. Since we keep our pet sins and religious practices separate, we convince ourselves that God overlooks our rebellion because we refuse to put the blood money into the temple treasury.
We are playing the same game as the chief priest. We hope it will get us through on judgment day, but it will get us killed. There is only one way for the guilty to stand righteous before a holy God. We must reject our righteousness as filthy rags. We must admit we are sinners, and the phrase, “Only God can judge me,” should terrify us.
After we admit our spiritual poverty, since we do not possess the righteousness we need, we must hunger and thirst for righteousness that is not our own. There is only one place we can find it. Jesus lived the perfect life we could not and then died to pay the debt of those who trust in him. Through faith, Christ’s perfect righteousness can be counted as ours. Do not trust in the morality of murderers on the day of judgment. Trust solely in the righteousness of Christ. Then, through the power of the Holy Spirit, work to put to death the sin that remains in you.
-D. Eaton
The Fight of Faith 