What Righteousness Means
Why Righteous Living? • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 5 viewsWhat does it mean to be righteous? And, what is righteous living? Why is it so important? How can we reflect Jesus’ righteousness in every aspect of life?
Notes
Transcript
Today’s Reading from God’s Word
Today’s Reading from God’s Word
20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never get into the kingdom of heaven.
Introduction
Introduction
The first 4 chapters of the gospel of Matthew establish Jesus as King.
Matthew uses genealogy, prophecy, divine signs, and more to present him as the rightful ruler of Israel and the world.
Matthew 1 - Matthew begins by establishing Jesus’ royal lineage.
Jesus is connected to David, coming from his royal line, and thus having legal right to the throne.
Jesus is also connected to Abraham, fulfilling God’s promise that Abraham’s offspring would bless all nations.
We also read of Jesus’ virgin birth which fulfills Isaiah’s prophecy (Isaiah 7:14) — setting Jesus apart as the God-appointed King.
Matthew 2 - The Wise Men come and refer to him as “the king of the Jews.” The men of the east were widely regarded as the king makers of the ancient world.
The gifts they bring were fit for a king:
Gold (royalty)
Frankincense (divinity)
Myrrh (his future sacrificial death)
And this chapter also covers the response of Herod — his reaction to Jesus’ birth reveals how he saw our Lord as a threat — fulfilling the OT prophecies of a coming ruler (Micah 5:2).
Matthew 3 - Jesus’ royal anointing at his baptism (Matthew 3:13-17).
16 When Jesus was baptized, he went up immediately from the water. The heavens suddenly opened for him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming down on him.
This parallels the anointing of kings in the OT — showing Jesus as God’s chosen and approved king (Psalm 2:7).
Matthew 4 - Jesus’ authority over Satan and People
Jesus overcame Satan’s temptations — proving his authority over him.
We also read of Jesus’ healing and preaching as his miracles and message confirm his divine authority as king over physical and spiritual.
So by the time you get to the end of Matthew 4 — the conclusion is inescapable — Jesus is the true king — the long awaited messiah who fulfills OT prophecies and inaugurates God’s kingdom on earth.
And now, beginning in chapter 5, Jesus will speak of how his subjects are expected to live in His kingdom under His authority.
He begins with the beatitudes.
He speaks of being salt and light.
And he speaks of the preeminence, permanence, and pertinence of the law. The word of God would be fulfilled — not set aside — and He would be the one to fulfill it.
Now, let’s look at Matthew 5:20:
20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never get into the kingdom of heaven.
What is the purpose of the law? Why all the standards?
And really, as you read the verse here, the answer is not stated explicitly, but it is definitely implied:
Your have to have more righteousness than what you can come up with on your own.
Let’s connect Galatians 3:24:
24 The law, then, was our guardian until Christ, so that we could be justified by faith.
God’s law is the perfect standard which shows our sin to us. That is its purpose.
The law shows us we can’t do it on our own.
And Jesus points out in Matthew 5:20 …
20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never get into the kingdom of heaven.
that even the best — the scribes and pharisees — with all their ceremony, ritual, and education — could not gain the righteousness required to enter the kingdom.
And so the law was given — not to show us how good we are — but rather how much we fall short.
And that is the point of the story of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector in Luke 18:
The Pharisee:
11 The Pharisee was standing and praying like this about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I’m not like other people—greedy, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.
12 I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of everything I get.’
The Tax Collector:
13 “But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even raise his eyes to heaven but kept striking his chest and saying, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner!’
Which one was approved?
14 I tell you, this one went down to his house justified rather than the other, because everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
The tax collector got it… He responded to what God’s law intended to show him … that he was a sinner.
The other man … who thought he was righteous … completely missed the meaning of God’s law and he never responded to it in the way God intended.
And so, here we are at the beginning of a new month — and new quarter — and a change in focus.
This year’s text we’re concentrating on in the Vision Plan is Matthew 6:33:
33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you.
What does it mean to be righteous?
And, what is righteous living? And, why do we need to live righteously?
Why is it so important?
How can we reflect Jesus’ righteousness in every aspect of life?
During the month of March, this is our course of study.
We’ll examine the significance of living righteously.
We’ll discuss how righteousness begins on the inside and is revealed on the outside.
We’ll talk about how we embody this righteousness in our personal and public lives.
And talk about how to model our lives after Christ.
Today, however, we’ll be in Matthew 5 … talking about what it means to be righteous.
Jesus actually reoriented the definition of righteousness back to what it had been at the beginning.
And defined it clearly in the sermon on the mount.
And the New Testament spells out how we obtain that rightouesness.
Redefining Righteousness
Redefining Righteousness
20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never get into the kingdom of heaven.
This verse is one that should get our attention.
It is a very important moment in the Sermon on the Mount.
Everyone in Jesus’ audience that day had what they believed was a basic operating definition of what righteousness is.
And what Jesus does here is that He goes FAR beyond the traditional Jewish understanding held by the Pharisees and the Scribes.
Who Were the Scribes and Pharisees?
Who Were the Scribes and Pharisees?
The Scribes dealt with the letter of the law. They interpreted it. They recorded it. They wrote it down. They studied it. They were scholars.
During Jesus’ day they occupied an official office.
The religious scribes originally came from the tribe of Levi and gave their entire lives to studying the Old Testament.
The Pharisees were not an office, but a sect. At the root of their name comes the meaning “to separate.”
They were fundamental legalists.
They stayed away from all they deemed unclean and less than them so as not to be defiled.
They were known as the super-elite who alone knew what it really meant to walk with God.
They took the Word and developed a rigid, ceremonial, ritualistic system which was not so much based on the Law as it was their own traditions.
They convinced themselves there was no one better than them and that if anyone would be in heaven it would be them.
Jews had a saying: If only two people go to heaven, one will be a scribe, the other will be a Pharisee.”
So, the Jews in general held to the believe that it was impossible to get any better than them.
And so, you can imagine the shock after hearing what Jesus says in v. 20.
What was the nature of their righteousness?
What was the nature of their righteousness?
Who did these individuals depend on for salvation?
The external; the system of human achievement.
It was obtained by the outward observance of the law.
While they may not have been guilty of actual murder, adultery, theft, or idolatry, they certainly did deal with sinful thoughts, covetousness, hatred, and indifference toward God.
And this is why we see Jesus going through a several points to address the problem in v. 21, 27, 33, etc.
The whole point of these verses is to emphasize that God cares about what is on the inside.
These were people who were preoccupied with the external.
25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.
26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup, so that the outside of it may also become clean.
We really need to examine our hearts here. It is so easy to get wrapped up in superficial religion.
We can go through the motions:
prayer
reading the bible
attending church
going to bible study
And leave nothing going on on the inside.
And so what we see here — is a group of people trying to pull themselves up by the bootstraps. And yet, Scripture says this cannot be done.
16 …. a person is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we ourselves have believed in Christ Jesus. This was so that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no human being will be justified.
You cannot be justified by law keeping or your flesh.
It is impossible.
What is the Standard of Righteousness?
What is the Standard of Righteousness?
Let’s go back to Leviticus.
44 For I am the Lord your God, so you must consecrate yourselves and be holy because I am holy.
Peter echoes this in the New Testament:
15 But as the one who called you is holy, you also are to be holy in all your conduct;
That is the standard. Be like God. God is the standard of holiness.
Look at what Jesus says later in the sermon on the mount:
48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Now, that is the ultimate standard. God requires absolute holiness, absolute perfection, and internal and external righteousness.
13 The King’s daughter is all glorious within; Her clothing is interwoven with gold.
And it’s high. Higher than we can achieve on our own.
God wants us glorious on the inside and pure gold on the outside.
The standard that Christ sets is absolute righteousness.
The standard that Christ sets is absolute righteousness.
And this is why some are tempted to redefine righteousness … making it a system we can maintain.
We can, redefine holy living and accommodate it to our own unholiness — lowering the standard. It’s partial.
And we often track it by the externals.
We define ourselves by what we don’t do. Can limit it to the blackest sins.
And yet … there are many things we continually fall short in.
And here is a problem when we approach righteousness this way…
We become self-centered and self-satisfied.
We can look at all the outward things we’re doing — thinking our righteousness is obtained that way — and take credit for doing it on our own.
And that leads to satisfaction.
That is the opposite of what God wants.
True holiness always comes out of dissatisfaction.
True holiness always comes out of dissatisfaction.
When you are dissatisfied where you are — mourn over your sin — realize your utter dependence on God for salvation — you begin to hunger and thirst for a righteousness you know you can’t earn.
That is what true righteousness is.
But yet so many miss that.
We can get to feel where we’ve worked out our own righteousness and actually boast about it.
Because it is external, partial, redefined, and self-centered.
This kind of righteousness will never be enough — and that is the point of Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 5:20.
How is Righteousness Obtained?
How is Righteousness Obtained?
We are justified by faith.
We are justified by faith.
Let’s go back to Galatians.
16 This was so that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no human being will be justified.
We are made righteous through Jesus.
We are made righteous through Jesus.
3 For what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness.
How righteous did Abraham have to be? Answer: Just as righteous, just as holy as God.
How did Abraham do that — he was a sinful man.
Again … look at the verse.
He believed God.
Look at Romans 5:17:
17 If by the one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive the overflow of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.
Do you see it?
Righteousness is a gift.
and it comes to you only one way:
18 So then, as through one trespass there is condemnation for everyone, so also through one righteous act there is justification leading to life for everyone.
You have been made righteous through the death of Christ.
He paid the penalty and that was credited to our account.
Righteousness is the blood of Christ. Holiness is not cause of justification.
If you’re trying to gain your own righteousness — you’ll be lost forever.
If you want to reach out and take the gift through faith in Jesus Christ — righteousness is offered to you.
21 so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace will reign through righteousness, resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The only way you can ever be righteous enough to get into heaven is by Jesus Christ making you righteous by His death.
3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,
4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
But on the other hand — many have chosen to ignore God’s righteousness and try to establish their own — not submitting themselves to the righteousness of God.
3 Since they are ignorant of the righteousness of God and attempted to establish their own righteousness, they have not submitted to God’s righteousness.
4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes,
And that is basically what Romans 1-10 is all about.
How to gain a righteousness that is unattainable by receiving it as a gift through believing in Christ.
Dear Christian friend:
When God looks at you, he see you just as perfect as He is.
Why? Because of Jesus.
Because of His death — you stand as pure as Christ. As undefiled as Christ.
That is your standing before God.
As We Close…
As We Close…
What about those who do not obtain this righteousness?
Without Christ, without His sacrifice, without His resurrection — there is no obtainable righteousness for anyone.
20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never get into the kingdom of heaven.
It doesn’t matter how religious you are.
How good you are
If you don’t come to Christ — you will be excluded from God’s kingdom. You will never enter it apart from Christ.
Once there was a person who tried the system of the Pharisees. Here’s what he wrote:
4 although I have reasons for confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he has grounds for confidence in the flesh, I have more:
5 circumcised the eighth day; of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; regarding the law, a Pharisee;
6 regarding zeal, persecuting the church; regarding the righteousness that is in the law, blameless.
If there was anyone who should have gotten in by personal righteousness it was Paul.
Talk about credentials.
Now, look at what He says:
7 But everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ.
8 More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them as dung, so that I may gain Christ
9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ—the righteousness from God based on faith.
Paul says, “I am a living testimony of someone who tried to do it all on my own.”
“And I count it all as manure for the purpose of gaining Christ and having a righteousness from God that is by faith.”
This is what salvation is all about.
What is your status?
Have you believed upon the Lord?
Or, are you among those spending your life trying to acquire the right to enter heaven?
Rock of Ages:
“Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to the Cross I cling.
Naked, come to Thee for dress, helpless, look to Thee for grace.
Foul I to the fountain I fly; wash me, Savior, or I die.
Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in Thee.”
Will you come?
