Matthew 5:20 “For I say to you that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.”
In the preceding verses Jesus has declared that He has come not to destroy the Law and the Prophets but to fulfill them, that the Law will not pass away until it is completely fulfilled and that those who break the Law and lead others into breaking it will be the least in the kingdom of heaven while those who keep the Law and lead others to keep it will be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. As we discussed last week, grace is the fulfillment of the Law—it forgives us, frees us, empowers us, strengthens and protects us, but those are the things that it does not the embodiment of what it is. Grace is the reality that Jesus did not sweep the Law away and did not excuse our transgressions but that He fulfilled every letter of the Law and paid for our transgressions. We did not escape sin’s grips and God’s wrath we were rescued from them by Jesus through grace. That grace provides and calls for righteousness, Paul told the Corinthians that Jesus became sin for us so that He could make us into His righteousness. This righteousness is not something that is achieved by our effort or for our glory, it is received by full surrender to Jesus and it brings constant glory to God. In Matthew 5:20 we see that before Jesus begins defining this righteousness of grace He has to reveal the extreme error of the perceived righteousness of the religious. The scribes and the Pharisees presented themselves as righteous and as an example of righteousness for the people around them; they were both revered and despised at the exact same time. They represented something that could not be achieved but was desired. These men were assumed to have been what God wanted from every man so that created awe and shame; awe because these were men that had achieved what God desired and shame because the presented a way of pleasing God that was nearly impossible. In these few words we will study today and large parts of the Sermon that come after, Jesus reveals that righteousness is not about what men see us do and not do but what God sees in our hearts. He shows that righteousness is not about our impressive restraint but our humble repentance and that righteousness does not shine a light on us but instead it reveals the beauty of the One who has made us righteous. This morning I pray that we will study Jesus’ words and discover for ourselves the freedom to be righteous, the strength of being loved and the longing to bring God glory.