Surpassing Righteousness- Matthew 5:20

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"For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven."

Matthew 5:20

I have to admit....I was pretty tied up yesterday and wasn't able to get to writing the VOW. However, part of the reason for that is that I was a little taken back when I read verse 17-20 and had to do a little digging. I made peace with verses 17-19 yesterday, but was still having trouble with verse 20 until just now. Take a minute to read the context of verse 20 and then I'll explain why I needed a little more time with it.

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. ¹⁸ For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. ¹⁹ Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. ²⁰ For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven."

 Up until this passage, Jesus has really been just setting the stage...giving the introduction. He flipped everything about religion on its head with the Beatitudes and then called those who would heed his words to view themselves as salt and light. And then before he gets into the practical aspects of living that are the rest of the sermon, He makes it absolutely clear to the Jewish audience He was preaching to that He was in no way going to teach that the Law of Moses was anything but the inspired word of God and direction for life. It was to be held and followed by those who would follow God. Now before you run to the nearest sheep farm for a live sacrifice because Jesus did not in fact set the law aside, remember that while he said he didn't come to "abolish the law," He did say that he had come to "fulfill the law." Read Colossians 2:9-15.

⁹ For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, ¹⁰ and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. ¹¹ In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, ¹² having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.
¹³ When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, ¹⁴ having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. ¹⁵ And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

Well, in my mind, that is the answer to verses 17-19. Jesus didn't cancel the law, He finished (fulfilled) it! His fulfillment of the law meant that the law wasn't "cancelled" for us, but the "charge of legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us" was cancelled and nailed to the cross!

I hope you are screaming "AMEN" at the computer screen right now, because that statement in itself is enough to celebrate! If the impact of it hasn't hit you yet...go back and read through the books of the Law and behold the love and the severity of God and then come back and shout "AMEN" for joy!

But what about verse 20? Jesus' message throughout His ministry and the message throughout the NT was that we can't trust in ourselves and our righteousness. Take a look at Isaiah 64:6 which says that "all our righteous acts are like a filthy rag." Translating it as a "filthy rag" is a pretty polite way of putting it. The Orthodox Jewish Bible puts it "garments of menstruation." He wanted us to be very clear in our understanding that we can NEVER earn our way into God's favor with our righteous living, because when we compare it to God's, it doesn't look anywhere near what righteousness actually is.

Then why did Jesus say that "unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven"?

I think I've always had the reverse "pharisee and the publican" attitude when I've read that. "God, I thank you that I'm not like the self-righteous pharisee!" I understood Jesus' instruction to be saying that they were really just hypocrites and weren't really righteous at all. Well...that was true for a lot of them. But what about the sincere ones...the ones who did believe and put their faith in Jesus? Besides, even without them, there is still the problem of having to "surpass" anyone's righteousness as a means of getting into heaven! And we've already established that no amount of our righteousness can do that!

And then it finally hit me while I was just staring at the verse. He had already answered the question back in verse 17 when he said, "I have come...TO FULFILL THE LAW."

Jesus' whole point with the question in verse 20 was to reiterate that we can't do it ourselves! The Pharisees and the teachers of the law worked harder than anyone to be righteous and they failed miserably! But if they had to stand on their own righteousness in front of the almighty, righteous God, He would have cast them aside just like we would trash a "filthy garment!" (read the note above for the specific imagery if you've forgotten...it's not pretty!)

So how do we "surpass the righteousness" of them and enter the kingdom?

WE DON'T. JESUS DID. 

AND BECAUSE HE DID AND HE BECAME SIN ON OUR BEHALF, WE CAN NOW BECOME THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD! (see 2 Cor. 5:21)

And so, not by our might or by our power, we surpass the righteousness of the pharisees and the teachers of the law.

Does that not give you reason to rejoice today!?

Next week, as we start looking at the practical instruction on day-to-day living in the sermon on the mount, I think it is absolutely necessary that we establish and keep in our minds exactly where "surpassing righteousness" does and does not come from. I am so thankful that it depends on God instead of me!