“For I say unto you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
Matthew 5:20
In order for anyone to go to heaven they must be as righteous as God! In the text, Jesus is speaking about the most religious group alive at that time. Outwardly the Pharisees were unsurpassed in their efforts to be righteous. Yet, their righteousness was not good enough to secure their place in God’s heaven. In Matthew 23:28, Jesus describes the Pharisees, “Even you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”
What is righteousness? What righteousness is God looking for? Righteousness is holy and upright living, in accordance to God’s standard! Read what is recorded in the Bible concerning the righteousness God is looking for. “And the Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that He might preserve us alive as it is this day. Then it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to observe all these commandments before the Lord our God, as He has commanded us”, Deuteronomy 6:24-25; “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord and His statutes which I command you today for your good?” Deuteronomy 10:12-13. Notice the key words ‘all’, ‘then’, and ‘if’. These passages define God’s standard of righteousness.
The question now is, how are you doing? Take this simple test to see how you measure up to God’s standard of righteousness. Have you ever told a lie, whether it was big or small? Have you ever stolen anything, even taking a paper clip from you work place? Have you ever looked at someone and sexually lusted after them? If your answer was yes to any of these questions, you have broken God’s law. These are only three of many laws of God. The Scriptures inform us, “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all”, James 2:10. One act of disobedience, one sin, regardless of how small we consider it to be, condemns us guilty before Holy God. According to the Bible our righteousness is not good enough, “But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags”, Isaiah 64:6. In Romans 3:10 and 6:23 we read our righteousness falls short of God’s standard, “There is none righteous, no, not one” . . . “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
If this was all the Bible said about righteousness and the possibility of anyone becoming righteous enough to enter into heaven, then we would all be left without any hope and headed to an eternity in hell. Thankfully, there is hope in the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ! “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greeks. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, the just shall live by faith”, Romans 1:16-17.
Lord, we are in desperate need of Your righteousness. Help us to understand this.
Learning to serve,
Robert Finley
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