Your understanding is spot on! BTW it was by reading the Sermon on the Mount and Jesus’ exposition of the true meaning of the commandments, that I was gripped by the conviction of my need for the Saviour!
I am not trying to paint the Pharisees in a good light, contrary to popuar opinion, am only trying to get us to see that they weren’t that alien to our own tendencies.
Praise be to God!
It was this very same concept that God used to open my eyes when I was dying in a religion based on works. For the first time in my life I felt clean, free, and had a desire to know and walk with Him. Upon explaining what had happened to me, that I experienced the "new birth", to the "minister" of the church I was attending, he opened his book and read the words of the church that officially excommunicated and anathematized me. I guess that was better than them stoning me for my "heresy".