Proper Righteousness

Matthew 5:20

It would be difficult to find a verse in the Bible that can so easily cause two completely different emotions in a person:

* To the ignorant person, it invokes great fear. When I first came to Christ it did so with me. There is the tendency of the spiritually immature person to live in an unhealthy fear of God due to a lack of spiritual maturity (1 John 5:17-18). As a new believer I did not understand fully what it meant to be made righteous by God. I was striving to make myself righteous.

*To the spiritually mature person, this verse invokes great joy. It is a reminder that our righteousness comes from above, not from ourselves. It enables us to live in the security of our salvation and to spend our time loving God rather than dreading Him.

Jesus words as they related to the religious leaders

The scribes and the Pharisees were the leading conservatives of Jesus day. Scribes studied, recorded, interpreted and taught the Law of God. The Pharisees were the respected teachers of Jesus day. They were known for their strict devotion to the law and their righteous living. The religious leaders would have responded in two ways to Jesus.

*Some would have been angered. Everything Jesus has said do far in the Sermon on the Mount would have been in direct contrast to the religious leaders. Take the beatitudes for example. The religious leaders of Jesus day were not poor in spirit, they were not mourning over sin, not meek, merciful, etc. Jesus was telling these religious people that they were not righteous enough for the kingdom of God. No doubt, this would have angered some of them.

*Some would have been intrigued. Jesus words would have pricked the conscience of others. One example is Nicodemus in John chapter 3. Jesus teaching prompted him to seek a way to start over and be born again.

The response is the same today. Some people are angered when they hear that human righteousness is not enough to get them into heaven. Others are intrigued and come to Christ to be made righteous.

It is important for us to recognize two things as they relate to the context of Jesus day.

First, the religious leaders believed they were saved. In fact, they believed that God was obligated to save them. They based this on the fact that they were devoted to the law and that they were living more righteously than the average Jew. This truth gives us two important facts.

*Devotion to religion does not ensure salvation. There are many religious people who are not righteous people. Some are not righteous because they are devoted to the wrong God. Devoted Muslims, Buddhists, Jehovah Witnesses, Christian Science, etc. are not on their way to heaven. The reason is simple. The god they are devoted to is not real and therefore cannot make them righteous.

*Devotion to doctrine does not ensure salvation. This was the problem with the religious leaders of Jesus day. They were devoted to the teachings of the Law but their heart was far from God. It is possible to love the doctrine but hate the Deity. As a result of their hearts not being anchored in the God of the Bible, they began to change the teachings of the Bible to suit their own lusts. There are many people today who love doctrine. They study it, teach it and to some degree live it. Yet their hearts are far away from God.

The second important things we need to understand is that for the most part the community believed that the religious leaders were saved. We can cite two reasons fro this.

*First, they saw the religious leaders’ piety. These men were strict in the way they carried themselves. They dressed a certain way, fasted, prayed, tithed, preached, etc. They did all of this in plain view for the people to see them (See Matthew 23).

*Second, they were taught that this was the right way to live. The Pharisees were busy making converts of the people (Matthew 23:15). From an early age they were taught that this was the way to please God. The culture of the people reinforced the false teaching of the Pharisees.

So it is in our day. We see the actions of people and assume they are saved because they are sincere, devoted, and good. Our culture reinforces this with its teaching that good, sincere people go to heaven despite what they believe.

Jesus words as they relate to righteousness

Jesus says that our righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees if we are to enter heaven. The word “exceed” describes a river that is overflowing its banks. It implies that we must have far more righteousness than the normal. In other words, we don’t need to be a little more righteous than the religious leaders; we need to be a lot more. There are two errors that we may make as we meditate on this verse.

1) We may seek to gain more righteousness in the same way that the Pharisees did. Understand that Jesus is not saying, “Try harder than them”. The Pharisees were sincerely trying to be righteous, they were just going about it the wrong way. To try harder will simply lead us to be frustrated and deceived.

2) We may decide to just give up. We might think that there is no way to be made righteous. If the most dedicated religious people in the world fall short, why should we try? I mean, if Muhammad, Buddha, Ghandi, and a whole host of others didn’t achieve righteousness, what makes us think we can?

What Jesus is pointing out to us is that the religious leaders in His day were setting out to achieve righteousness in the wrong way. He wants us to understand that it is impossible for human righteousness to get us into the kingdom of heaven. There is nothing wrong with human righteousness. It is good to be good! We simply must understand that our own goodness will not be good enough for God. In fact, when we are confronted with the holiness of God, we will recognize that our own goodness is worth nothing (Is. 6).

Let’s consider some truths about human righteousness

* Human righteousness can be deceitful. It is possible for a person to discipline themselves into a “good person”. With the right discipline a drunk can quit drinking and an adulterer can quit cheating. This could enable a person to believe that as a result of their hard work they are now righteous. The problem is that discipline cannot change the heart. It can change the action but not the attitude. Discipline cannot make us love God or love others. Only a changed heart can do that.

*Human righteousness glorifies man. If goodness comes from man then man gets the credit for his own goodness. Therefore, man does not need God to get into heaven.

*Human righteousness rationalizes. In other words, we will determine what is sinful and what is not. In doing this we are changing the commandments of God. For instance, we may boast that we tithe. Then we get a huge inheritance and rationalize that we don’t need to tithe off of this because we didn’t work to earn it.

Jesus is compelling us to seek a righteousness that is completely different than the righteousness that the Pharisees possessed. They need a greater righteousness and a greater amount of righteousness than the Pharisees had.

The righteousness that gets us into heaven

It is possible to have the greater righteousness than the Pharisees possessed. The great thing about Christianity is that the One who demands the righteousness is also the One who delivers it. God Himself offers us a righteousness that will enable us to enter heaven.

Where does this righteousness come from?

This righteousness comes from God Himself (Romans 1:17, 5:19 2 Cor. 5:21). The righteousness God offers us is His own righteousness. It exceeds any human righteousness in both quality and quantity.

How is that righteousness applied to us? It does not come through human effort or devotion to doctrine. It comes through faith (Rom. 3:22, Eph. 2:8-9). God imputes His own righteousness to us by His grace through faith.

How is that righteousness evidenced? In other words, how do we know it has been applied to us?

First, there is the inward witness.

*There is a new battle with in us. The righteousness imputed to us battles the fleshly nature (Romans 7:23).

*There is a new appreciation for Christ. The believer is aware that Christ has made Him righteous and is overwhelmed with a new love for Him that holds him in high regard (1 Peter 2:7a).

Second, there is the outward witness. When we are given the righteousness of God our actions will reveal it. We are a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). It is not only an inward change, it is also evidenced by an outward change (See Psalm 45:13).