Scripture Passage
“But I warn you—unless your righteousness is better than the righteousness of the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven!” (Matthew 5:20 NLT)
Observation
It doesn’t take Jesus long to upset the apple cart, does it? Over the last couple of days worth of reading, we’re just not that far into the launch of His earthly ministry, and he’s already so unsettled the crowd at his hometown synagogue that they tried to throw him off a cliff. He’s ticked off the Pharisees and teachers of religious law by claiming authority to forgive sins. And now he’s pronounced to a crowd of attentive listeners that the righteousness of the most righteous people they could possibly imagine was not righteous enough to get anybody into the Kingdom of Heaven!
Understand that these “teachers of religious law and the Pharisees” (5:20) were not generally subject to criticism because of their religious zeal (as we sometimes criticize them today). Rather, these men were particularly dedicated to studying and obeying the law of God—and highly esteemed because of it!
I suspect that’s a bit difficult for us to understand given the generally low regard for religious leaders in our culture. You’ve probably read (like I have) the results of some of those “who do you trust” surveys that put clergy somewhere around the level of used car salesmen and lawyers! (And, hey, if you’re a used car salesman or a lawyer—God forbid you should do both *and* preach a little on the side—no offense intended…we’re in this boat together!) I’m just saying, religious leaders are not especially highly regarded in our day, but they were in Jesus’ day. Still, Jesus says that the righteousness of these most highly regarded people was inadequate for Kingdom qualification.
(As another little minor aside, please note that this isn’t specifically about getting into that “place” we call “heaven,” but rather about “entering the Kingdom of Heaven”—coming under God's reign even in this present age.)
What’s the solution? Jesus says it’s a righteousness “better than the righteousness of the teachers of the law and the Pharisees!” Wow! What’s that look like? Well, in short, Jesus says that kind of righteousness functions from the inside out, not the outside in. That kind of righteousness has everything to do with the heart of a person before it has anything to do with the behavior of a person. But our hearts are scarred by sin—by humanity’s brokenness and our own complicit choices to ignore God’s voice and do our own thing—and we’re simply no longer capable of that kind of righteousness.
Outside of divine intervention—the saving act of God in Jesus Christ—we have no hope! What do we do with that kind of dilemma? We turn to God, who alone has the answer! "Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!" (2 Corinthians 9:15 NIV) What a gracious God we serve, who has lovingly provided for us what we could never provide for ourselves through Jesus Christ! He alone has the power (see Ezekiel 36:26) to remove our hearts of stone and give us hearts of flesh…to put a new heart and a new spirit in every one of us!
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