Our Deeds; Our Motives

Except your righteousness shall exceed the 
righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees,
you shall in no case enter the kingdom of
heaven.  Matthew 5:20

The characteristic of a disciple is not that he does good 
things, but that he is good in motive because he has been 
made good by the supernatural grace of God. The only 
thing that exceeds right-doing is right-being. Jesus Christ 
came to put into any man who would let Him a new here-
dity which would exceed the righteousness of the scribes 
and Pharisees. Jesus says--If you are my disciple you 
must be right not only in your living, but your motives, 
in your dreams, in the recesses of your mind. You must 
be so pure in your motives that God Almighty can see 
nothing to censure. Who can stand in the Eternal Light of 
God and have nothing for God to censure? Only the Son 
of God, and Jesus Christ claims that by His Redemption 
He can put into any man His own disposition, and make 
him as unsullied and as simple as a child. The purity 
which God demands is impossible unless I can be remade 
within, and that is what Jesus has undertaken to do by His 
Redemption.

No man can make himself pure by obeying laws. Jesus 
Christ does not give us rules and regulations; His teachings 
are truths that can only be interpreted by the disposition 
He puts in. The great marvel of Jesus Christ's salvation is 
that He alters heredity. He does not alter human nature; 
He alters its mainspring. Oswald Chambers

Reader, if you can grasp this message, it will set you free!