Are You Alive in Christ?

Jesus stood before the scribes and Pharisees, some of the most religious men in Israel. They fasted, prayed, paid tithes, studied the law, and were known publicly for their religious devotion. To those watching them, they appeared righteous.

But Jesus saw what was in their hearts.

These men had witnessed His works. They had seen the sick healed and heard Him teach with authority. Yet many of them rejected Him. Some accused Him of blasphemy, and some claimed that His miracles were done by the power of devils.

They claimed to serve God, but when the Son of God stood before them, they refused to receive Him.

Jesus identified the problem clearly:

“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity” (Matthew 23:27–28).

A whited sepulchre was a tomb made white on the outside. It could appear clean while containing death and uncleanness within. Jesus used this image to teach that outward religious behavior does not make a person righteous when the heart remains corrupt.

The problem was not that the Pharisees prayed, fasted, paid tithes, or followed religious practices. The problem was that their outward behavior did not match what was happening within them. They practiced religion publicly while allowing pride, hypocrisy, hatred, and iniquity to remain in their hearts.

That warning applies to us as well.

We can attend church, read scripture, pray, speak about Christ, and perform religious duties while still allowing things into our hearts that separate us from Him. Religious activity does not excuse inward corruption. God is concerned with both what we do and what we are becoming.

The important question is whether we are actually becoming more like Jesus Christ or whether we have only learned how to appear religious.

Paul explained what it means to be spiritually alive in Christ:

“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me” (Galatians 2:20).

Paul was teaching that following Christ requires a real change within us. The sinful and selfish parts of our nature must be put away so that His teachings can govern our lives.

As Christ changes us, pride is replaced by humility, bitterness by forgiveness, and rebellion by obedience. When we are wrong, we become willing to repent instead of defending ourselves. His teachings begin to govern how we think, how we treat people, how we respond to correction, and how we make decisions.

Alma taught the same principle when he asked:

“Have ye received his image in your countenances? Have ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts?” (Alma 5:14).

Alma directed the question toward the heart because genuine conversion changes the person. Knowing doctrine and performing religious duties are important, but their purpose is to bring us to Christ and help us become like Him.

This requires honest self-examination.

Is there pride, hatred, bitterness, jealousy, selfishness, rebellion, or some other sin that you have allowed to remain in your heart?

Have you justified something because you do not want to repent of it?

Do you become angry when someone corrects you because the correction exposes something you do not want to acknowledge?

Have you become more interested in finding faults in others than in correcting the faults within yourself?

These questions matter because hypocrisy is often easier to recognize in someone else than in ourselves. We can speak about humility while remaining proud, teach forgiveness while refusing to forgive, and condemn another person’s sins while refusing to repent of our own.

Jesus warned against this kind of religion because outward behavior cannot substitute for inward conversion.

Another danger appears when we use the failures of other people to justify our own spiritual condition. Someone else may actually be wrong. They may sin, act pridefully, make poor decisions, or misunderstand the Lord. Their behavior may need correction, but their wrongdoing does not excuse ours.

The sins and failures of other people never justify bitterness, hatred, or disobedience in us. We remain responsible for the condition of our own hearts before God.

When the Lord shows us that something is wrong within us, the correct response is repentance.

Repentance means acknowledging what is wrong, turning away from it, and returning to Jesus Christ. Instead of defending our sin, explaining it away, or blaming someone else for it, we bring it before the Lord and ask Him to change us.

If pride, hatred, bitterness, rebellion, or any other sin has taken root in your heart, acknowledge it honestly and repent. Do not excuse it because you were hurt, disguise it as something righteous, or use another person’s failures to avoid dealing with your own sin.

Jesus showed what repentance looks like in the parable of the prodigal son.

The son left his father, went into a far country, and wasted what had been given to him. Eventually, he lost everything and found himself in a condition he had never expected.

Then Jesus said that the son “came to himself” (Luke 15:17).

He recognized his condition and decided to return home. He did not remain where he was. He changed direction and went back to his father.

That is what repentance requires. It is not only feeling sorrow for what has happened. It is turning away from what is wrong and returning to God.

Jesus then said:

“But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him” (Luke 15:20).

The father received the son who returned.

Then he said:

“Bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found” (Luke 15:23–24).

The Pharisees show the danger of maintaining an outward appearance of righteousness while allowing corruption to remain within. The prodigal son shows what to do when we recognize that we have moved away from God: we must see our condition honestly, repent, and return to Him.

This is the solution to the problem Jesus exposed.

Christ does not call us to improve the appearance of our religion while leaving the heart unchanged. He calls us to repent so that He can forgive us, cleanse us, and change us from within.

Examine your own heart before judging the righteousness of someone else. Your spiritual condition should be measured by whether you are becoming like Christ and living faithfully before God, not by how righteous you appear to other people.

If there is something within you that should not be there, repent of it. If you have moved away from the Lord, return to Him.

A person who comes to Christ, repents, and allows Him to govern his life can be changed. That is what it means to be spiritually alive in Christ.

In the sacred name of our Master, even Jesus Christ, amen.