Evangelical Pharisees

Jesus warned us about becoming like the Pharisees, and Michael Reeves reminds us in this winsome and penetrating book that we need to heed that warning today. We all are prone to trusting in ourselves and longing for the praise of people instead of resting and delighting in the gospel of God’s grace. We never move beyond the gospel or the need to repent of our self-dependence, and thus this book is a spiritual tonic for our souls.

In Evangelical Pharisees, Michael Reeves addresses a subtle but fatal threat facing the church today. Christ’s diagnosis of the heart of the Pharisee was that ‘they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God (John 12:43).’ If we want to preserve the purity of our faith, we must do more than hold fast to our confessions and creeds. We must humbly examine ourselves and ask whether the celebrity culture of our day and the tribalism that is on the rise within our ranks are fueled by something more akin to the motivations that drove the Pharisees of Christ’s time than we would like to admit. Evangelical Pharisees is a great place to begin that inquiry.