I don’t mean to suggest that there is any way we could actually be righteous on our own. We are only accepted on the basis of Christ’s obedience and death.

But we are called to an actual righteousness. After establishing in Romans 5 that our righteousness comes from Christ alone, Paul continues in Romans 6 to tell us to “yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God” (Romans 6:13) and calls us to “obedience unto righteousness” (Romans 6:16).

I believe “righteous” is a good choice of words, but if it causes confusion, substitute “obedience” instead. The Pharisees were obedient in external, small things, and disobedient in the large things. I like to think that I am obedient in the big things, and just disobedient in the little stuff. But Jesus said in Luke 16:10 that if you can’t even get the little stuff right, there’s no way you will get the big stuff right. After all, it’s much easier to, say, tithe, than it is to sincerely love my neighbor. If I won’t even tithe, how can I honestly think that I will do the harder job of loving my neighbor?

Your comments sound a lot like antinomianism.

Second, I don’t see what Sproul’s status has to do with it. I agree, he’s a good and smart guy. Even good and smart guys get it wrong sometimes. We’re talking about this particular explanation of a text — whether it’s Sproul’s explanation or your possibly inaccurate summary of it — not about anyone’s character.

Finally, I don’t see how it “sounds like antinomianism” to suggest that Christians are held to a standard of righteousness that emphasizes inner transformation above showy, external observance. In fact, that’s exactly what Jesus is saying in this passage, and in many others in which he criticizes the Pharisees. If that’s antinomianism (it isn’t), than Jesus was antinomian (he wasn’t). Inner transformation leads to proper external observance. What you’re saying, in contrast, sounds like legalism: keep some rules and call it righteousness. That isn’t New Testament thinking.

“Antinomianism” is the belief that grace frees the recipients of grace from the obligation to obey the moral law. (See a good definition at http://mb-soft.com/believe/txn/antinomi.htm). Where have I suggested that?

The point is that external observance isn’t “keeping the moral law” if that observance doesn’t spring from inner transformation. I haven’t suggested that anyone is excused from the moral law. I have suggested, as I think Jesus clearly teaches here, that external observance of moral rules is meaningless if that observance does not proceed from sanctified attitudes.

Clearly not all antinomians are licentious hedonists. Antinomianism is a theological position that the law has no value per se. One can be a very moral antinomian.

From the link you gave:
righteous persons might well hold such a doctrine and behave in an exemplary way, not from compulsion but from a devotion higher than the law.

Your comment sounds antinomian because you seem to make righteousness entirely a matter of one’s attitude. You even go so far to dismiss the positive examples of the Pharisees’ meticulous attention to the law as meaningless little things that have nothing to do with real righteousness.

The Pharisees began as an admirable movement. They were men who worked hard to take God’s law seriously. Jesus did not criticize them for this. He criticized them for mere external obedience, not meticulous external obedience. He criticized their self-righteousness (attempting to justify themselves), not their obedience.

You set up a false dichotomy when you write:
inner transformation above showy, external observance

We observe the law of God because it is the law, and because it is of God, who is both our Lord and our Savior. That is not “showy, external observance”, nor is it opposed to or necessarily distinct from “inner transformation”.

1 John 5:3 says “this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments”.

Sproul’s point, which I agree with, is that we – who claim to be truly righteous because we have been transformed, and are being transformed, by the grace of God – are far less obedient in anything than the hypocritical, inwardly corrupt, whitewashed tombs that the Pharisees were. In context, the things Sproul mentioned were not little, meaningless things. They were things like evangelism, prayer, fasting, and tithing. That should be troubling to us.

When Christ warned that our righteousness must exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees He was, in part, being ironic since the Pharisees were condemned and many committed the unpardonable sin. He was also speaking of the true standard of heaven (a reference, by the way, to JUSTIFICATION, and not SANCTIFICATION, which you assumed.)

To get into heaven, our righteousness must be perfect, and that righteousness must be given to us. No amount of evangelizing, no amount of outward cleanliness, no amountof tithing gets us in the gates of heaven. Christ does that. He is the Way, the Truth, the Light, and He gives Himself to us, His people. There’s not a snowball’s chance in Hell that our good works will impress God. Go read Galatians and see what you find there: no hope in the flesh, but the resurrected life by faith in Christ.

There is no point system at all for the Christian. We gain no ground by comparing our works to the works of others. For the life that we live by faith is the power of Christ living through us.

Please don’t try to whip yourself into “good work frenzy” by comparing yourself to the Pharisees and trying to work harder. The testimony of the centuries is that you’ll fail. But fix on Christ, come to know Him and comprehend the vast riches of what His salvation brings you, the power of His Resurrection, and good works will spring out of you.

Furthermore, no exercise of the flesh can please God. Without faith it is impossible to please God. And our faith is placed in Christ, who IS our sanctification.

I think you’ve missed the point of it all young man. Totally. Time to open that Bible, take down the scoreboard of ARE YOU GOOD ENOUGH TODAY? and start to learn Christ.

I understand justification by grace. My obedience is not an attempt to earn my justification. My obedience is unworthy and must be viewed in the context of my redemption by God’s grace and Christ’s death. Whatever rewards God may give me at the judgment will be grace as well, for I have earned and can earn nothing.

But Christ calls us to obedience. He calls us to discipline ourselves. Obedience is work. We are to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Sanctification is both positional and practical.

My intent is not to commend the Pharisees for their outward obedience and self righteousness, but to condemn professing Christians for our lack of outward or inward obedience, and our utter lack of righteousness. Not to commend legalism, but to condemn laziness and licentiousness.

Go listen to Sproul’s sermon. May you find it convincing and convicting. I did.