The Pharisees. Just the name itself carries such negative connotations for Bible-reading Christians.

A religious group that often was criticized by Jesus throughout the Gospels, the Pharisees are all but synonymous with an approach to God marked by legalism, judgmentalism, and hypocrisy. And yet my guest today wants us to each

ask ourselves a simple but counterintuitive question, have I unknowingly become an evangelical

Pharisee? In my conversation today, I'm talking with Mike Reeves about the Phariseeism that

all too often takes root in our churches, our homes, and ultimately our hearts.

Whether it's in how we approach the Bible, the way we relate to other Christians, or how we think about our redemption in Christ,

Reeves wants us to see how the sins of pride and hypocrisy are an ever-present threat to us as God's people,

but also how God can save us from

ourselves as we turn to him. Mike serves as president and professor of theology at Union School

of Theology in Bridge End and Oxford in the UK. He's also the author of numerous books,

including Evangelical Pharisees, the Gospel as Cure for the Church's

Hypocracy from Crossway. Let's get started.

Well, Mike, thank you so much for joining me again on the Crossway podcast today.

Great to be with you, Matt.

Yeah, so we talked a number of months ago about your previous book with Crossway podcast today. Great to be with you, Matt. Yeah, so we talked a number of months ago

about your previous book with Crossway Gospel People. And this new book is sort of an interesting

partner to that first one. Obviously, the title itself is so provocative, evangelical Pharisees.

And the book itself is also provocative.

But I think that leads to maybe the first assumption people could make about the book

from the title, that it is just another one of these screeds against evangelicals.

It's another book complaining about hypocrisy and failures in the church, something that we all

have seen on display in so many ways over the last number of years.

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