Be Righteous

Matthew 5:17-20

Introduction

Celebrating Freedom and Independence - not a freedom to do whatever we want, but a freedom to establish our own form of government, representation, and the liberty to live without the fear of a tyrannical government.

For freedom Christ has set you free - but not to indulge in sinful behavior.

The Christian balance of law and gospel, of faith and obedience.

Fulfilling the Law and Prophets

Jesus did not come to abolish the law and prophets, but to fulfill it

Why would they think he came to abolish the law?

Jesus is the fulfillment of the prophets

All of Scripture points to Him.

Jesus is the fulfillment of the law.

The word here can mean “to make full,” or “perfect,” or “complete,” or even “give the true meaning to.”

He kept the law - he lived in sinless obedience to God.

He perfects the teaching of the law

As we’ll see in the following weeks, Jesus would go on to give a complete teaching on the law, “you have heard it said… but I say to you.” Jesus corrects our understanding of the law, shows that righteousness requires than the mere letter of the law, but a life lived completely for God’s glory.

He completed the requirement of justice - through his death upon the cross - he satisfied the wrath that was deserved for our sin.

Exceeding the Pharisees

The righteousness of the Pharisees

We dismiss them, but they were seen as the pinnacle of righteousness

The scribes were men who spent their time in teaching and expounding the law of God. They loved their Bibles, they knew them inside and out.

The Pharisees were people who set themselves apart through a code of the ceremonial acts connected with the law which was more rigid than the law of Moses itself.

Theirs was an insufficient righteousness

Loosening some laws, tightening others, Straining gnats while swallowing camels – they majored in the minors and minored in the majors – They tithed their mint and cumin, but when it came to supporting their parents, “Oh, I’ve already given that to God.”

By their traditions, they robbed the people of the Word of God; and by their hypocritical lives, they disobeyed the very Law that they claimed to protect. They were destroying the Law!

They’d keep themselves outwardly clean, but their hearts were full of self-importance…

Their righteousness was only an external show. Their religion was a dead ritual, not a living relationship.It made them proud, not humble; it led to bondage, not liberty. This is why Jesus called them “white-washed tombs.” They looked good on the outside, but their hearts and souls were dead.

You can regulate immorality with law, but you cannot legislate morality into being

Prayer - Valley of Vision - Of all hypocrites, grant that I may not be an evangelical hypocrite who sins more safely because grace abounds, who tells his lusts that Christ’s blood cleanses them, who reasons that God cannot cast him into hell for he is saved, who loves evangelical preaching, churches, Christians, but lives an unholy life.

The Righteousness of Christ

What we need is a righteousness that exceeds that of the pharisees and scribes - a genuine righteousness that comes from within; A Righteousness by Faith in Christ

For our righteousness to exceed that of the Pharisees, it must first be an inward righteousness. A transformation of inner man – heart and soul. This is the gift of the Holy Spirit. When we realize that true righteousness is always beyond our reach, that in our own strength we cannot achieve it, when we stop trusting in our own righteousness, and put our hope in the righteousness of Christ, we are declared righteous and just by God. This is the inward working of the Spirit, the transformation of the heart

The effect of this glorious, redeeming work is not only to give forgiveness to us miserable, law-breaking rebels against God, but to make us sons of God – those who delight in the law of God, those indeed who hunger and thirst after righteousness and who long to be holy, not in the sense of having a wonderful feeling or experience, but who long to live like Christ and to be like Him in every respect.

Imputed Righteousness

“God thinks of Christ’s righteousness as belonging to us”

It is not that we are righteous in an of ourselves, but that the perfect righteousness of Christ is credited to us. Gen 15:6. Abraham believed the Lord, and God counted it to him as righteousness. God could expect no more from us that what Christ has given.

The only way to be more righteous than the Pharisees is to be declared righteous by God in Jesus Christ (Rom 3:20–22). 

Inward transformation manifests itself in outward godliness

A new life - outward righteousness. The whole purpose of grace, in a sense, is just to enable us to keep the law. Holiness means being righteous, and being righteous means keeping the law. 

Grace is the marvelous gift of God which, having delivered a man from the curse of the law, enables him to keep it and to be righteous as Christ was righteous, for He kept the law perfectly. Grace is that which brings me to love God; and if I love God, I long to keep His commandments. “He that has my commandments, and keeps them,” Christ said, “he it is that loves me.”

Remember, the Pharisees took great pride in their works of righteousness. As the scribes and Pharisees were meticulous in their observance of the letter of the law, the statement that their standards must be exceeded means Christ expects believers to go beyond the letter of the law and observe the very spirit of God’s law, its underlying principles, thereby reflecting God’s nature.

Be Righteous

Our lord did not come to teach justification or salvation by works, or by our own righteousness, neither did he call us to abandon the law of God. Christ is teaching that the proof of our having received the grace of God in Jesus Christ is that we are living a righteous life.

To receive the grace of God in Jesus Christ means not only that my sins are forgiven because of His death for me on the cross, but also that I have been given a new life and new nature. 

It means that Christ is being formed in me, that I have become a partaker of the divine nature, that old things have passed away and all things have become new. 

It means that Christ is dwelling in me, and that the Spirit of God is in me. 

It means that I no longer try to obey God because of outward pressure to perform, but because of an inward life, the power of the Spirit of God living within me.

Teaching and Keeping the Law

The Christian is no longer under the law in the sense that the law is a covenant of works; his salvation does not depend on the his keeping of it. He has been delivered from the curse of the law; he is no longer under the law as a covenant relationship between himself and God. But that does not release him from it as a rule of life. Each commandment is repeated in the New Testament.

Exemplifying godliness - knowing the Word of God, living according to God’s word, deepening trust in Christ’s provision, growing love for God and for His people, a heartfelt desire to worship God, not in the trappings of worship, but to sincerely pour your heart out to him in praise and prayer, and to sit under his teaching; to shine as a light, a witness in this corrupt and darkened world.

This is the Goal of the Christian Life

The disciplines of prayer, Bible study, church fellowship, witnessing, these are not the goal of the Christian life, but are given that we would be righteous. We are stunted in our growth if we assume that the end of the Christian life is simply to get in the door. We must never, at any point in our lives, rest from our pursuit of righteousness.

Phil 3:13–14 “forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”Be Righteous