When we are rebuked by the Son of God, we either allow him to correct us and we yield to his rebuke or we add to our guilt by further opposing him in our anger at what he has said. Who has the right to correct as he does? Who sees into our hearts as he does?
If we are going to rebuke the world, we had better be sure of our ground before we do so, for to bring false charges exposes us to shame. We had better be sure also that we are clean ourselves, for they are bound to come back at us. It is the instinctive response of an unrepentant wounded conscience to strike back in response. Of course Christ had a higher motive in being clean than just to avoid being vulnerable to the counter-attack. He obeyed his Father because he loved his Father and he delighted in his Father’s commandments, but it was also his protection to do so. This is also our protection when we admonish the world for its unrighteousness. We too love the commandments of God, but unlike the Saviour, we are not without sin. We must be so careful to avoid exposing ourselves to the charge of hypocrisy. We must endeavour to be like Daniel, of whom his enemies said, ‘We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of his God’ (Daniel 6:5).
Within human beings there is so much pride. As fallen men and women we are so concerned about how we appear, about whether we can put ourselves across as better than others. It shows itself in the form of exaggerations, pretence, envy, and a staggering amount of self-love. All this bursts out from within us, and is demonstrated by our words, our acts. When God justifies the sinner, he gives us a new nature. Now for the first time we genuinely hate our sin.