»Alas for you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you wash clean the outside of the cup or dish, while within they are full of greed and self-indulgence.«
For I assure you that unless your righteousness greatly surpasses that of the Scribes and the Pharisees, you will certainly not find entrance into the Kingdom of the Heavens.
And they, when they had heard his statement, gave the glory to God. Then they said, »You see, brother, how many tens of thousands of Jews there are among those who have accepted the faith, and they are all zealous upholders of the Law.
as the High Priest also and all the Elders can bear me witness. It was, too, from them that I received letters to the brethren in Damascus, and I was already on my way to Damascus, intending to bring those also who had fled there, in chains to Jerusalem, to be punished.
For they all know me of old –if they would but testify to the fact– how, being an adherent of the strictest sect of our religion, my life was that of a Pharisee.
so that you may always prove yourselves to be blameless and spotless–irreproachable children of God in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you are seen as heavenly lights in the world,
not having a righteousness of my own, derived from the Law, but that which arises from faith in Christ–the righteousness which comes from God through faith.
though I was previously a blasphemer and a persecutor and had been insolent in outrage. Yet mercy was shown me, because I had acted ignorantly, not having as yet believed;