Lucas Leibforth

Legalism is a cheap substitute for real holiness. It looks good on the outside, but it can’t change the heart. And Jesus? He’s not interested in behavior modification—He’s after heart transformation. That’s exactly what He addresses in Mark 7.

The Pharisees’ Obsession with the Surface

The chapter opens with the Pharisees coming after Jesus because His disciples weren’t following their hand-washing traditions. Not a biblical command—just a human-made rule they elevated to divine status. To them, following the tradition was a sign of righteousness. But Jesus fires back with Isaiah 29:13:

“These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.”

Jesus exposes the core issue: External rituals mean nothing when the heart is distant from God. You can do all the right religious things—show up to church, read your Bible, avoid the “big sins”—and still have a heart far from Him. Obedience matters, but when it becomes a hollow performance instead of a response to love, it’s worthless.

Tim Keller put it this way:

“Religion says, ‘I obey; therefore, I’m accepted.’ The gospel says, ‘I’m accepted; therefore, I obey.’”

Legalism flips the order. It tries to earn what God freely gives. It builds fences where Jesus built a door.

The Real Source of Defilement

Then Jesus drops the bombshell in Mark 7:15:

“Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.”

Translation? Sin isn’t just about avoiding external contaminants. It’s not about washing your hands, eating the right foods, or checking off religious boxes. The real problem isn’t what’s out there—it’s what’s in here.

We like to think sin is something outside of us—bad influences, temptations, corrupt culture. But Jesus flips that thinking upside down. The real source of sin isn’t what happens to us, but what comes out of us.

We’re not sinners because we sin—we sin because we’re sinners. The heart is the issue. Always has been.

This is why white-knuckling morality doesn’t work. You can clean the outside all you want, but if the inside is rotten, it won’t last. Spurgeon once said,

“If you’re merely moral and not changed in heart, all your goodness will be like a beautiful apple with a worm at its core.”

The Pharisees looked clean, but their hearts were full of pride, hypocrisy, and self-righteousness. They were obsessed with sin management while ignoring their need for heart transformation. Jesus wasn’t impressed.

Jesus Came to Change Hearts, Not Just Habits

Christianity isn’t about behavior management. Jesus didn’t come to make bad people act better—He came to make dead people alive.

Too often, we treat holiness like a checklist—attend church, avoid bad words, don’t watch R-rated movies. But Jesus is after something deeper. He doesn’t just want right actions; He wants right affections. Because when the heart truly belongs to Him, obedience follows naturally.

The Pharisees prided themselves on their religious rule-keeping, but they missed the heart of the law—love for God and love for people. They wanted control, not surrender.

But Jesus calls us to something better. He calls us to let go of self-righteousness and lean into grace. To stop treating faith like a performance and start treating it like a relationship.

John Piper said it best:

“The pursuit of righteousness must be a pursuit of God. If it is not, it becomes a hollow, Pharisaical, self-exalting morality.”

So, Where’s Your Heart?

Jesus makes it clear: What’s inside of us will always come out. If the heart is full of pride, self-righteousness, and sin, it will show. But if the heart is surrendered to Christ, it will bear fruit—real, lasting fruit.

Ask yourself:

• Do I truly abide in Christ, or am I just checking religious boxes?
• Am I more concerned with appearances than actual transformation?
• Is my faith a performance or a relationship?

Because in the end, the heart of the matter is the matter of the heart.