“For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you’ll never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
– Matthew 5:20
What a verse. This is Jesus in the sermon on the mountain. He’s talking about the people who did everything they possibly knew to try to be righteous.
Matthew 5:20 Reminds Us that God’s Demands of Righteousness Exceeds Our Capabilities
The scribes and the Pharisees, they studied God’s law, and they tried to obey it to a T. They even went so far as to interpret God’s law. Okay, if God’s word says this about the Sabbath, then we don’t do this, this, this, and this and this. We make sure we live in this way, and all these details and ways that went beyond even God’s law. But these scribes and Pharisees, for good reason, get a bad rap as we read through the New Testament. We see Jesus’ denunciation of them. But we can easily lose sight of the fact that these were the respected religious leaders of the day.
And Jesus just said, as he starts a section of the sermon on the mount, that unless your righteousness exceeds theirs, you’ll never enter the kingdom of heaven. Meaning they’re not going to enter the kingdom of heaven. They need a righteousness that exceeds even all that they do. And in this way, the sermon on the mount is setting up the reality that we know in the gospel, none of us is righteous.
What Paul will later say in Romans 3 is, he’s quoting from the Old Testament, “There is no one righteous, not even one, no one who understands, no one who seeks God.” We are all sinful people who have unrighteousness in us. And this leads us to the glorious reality of the gospel. We need the righteousness of Jesus credited to us. And Second Corinthians, chapter five tells us this is exactly what happens through faith in Jesus. “God has made him who had no sin to be sin for us in order that we might become the righteousness of God.”
Matthew 5:20 Leads Us to Put Our Hope in Jesus’ Righteousness
Jesus took all of your unrighteousness, all of my unrighteousness, upon himself, so that we could be forgiven of all of our sin, and we put our trust in him as Savior and Lord of our lives, God would take our sinfulness and cast it away, and he would clothe us in the very righteousness of Jesus. So live in this today. Do not live today burdened by past sin in your life. Do not live today listening to the accusations of the devil, telling you all the things that you have done wrong. Live today in the blood bought righteousness of Jesus. Obviously for those who have trusted in Jesus, and if you’ve not done that, let this be the day where you give up trying to be righteous on your own, and trust in the righteousness of Jesus who has paid the price for all your unrighteousness.
Oh, Lord Jesus, we praise you, that your righteousness exceeds, the scribes and the Pharisees, that your righteousness is perfect, that you are sinless. And we praise you, Lord Jesus, for going to the cross and for taking our unrighteousness upon yourself, for paying the price for our sin, so that when we place our trust in you, we would be forgiven of all our sin, and clothed in your righteousness. The fact that all those who have trusted in Jesus right now are clothed in the righteousness of Jesus. All glory be to your name, oh God, for this grace. And we pray, help us to live in this today. Help us to live in righteousness. Transform our thoughts, our desires, our words, our every action, to reflect the righteousness of Jesus that has been bought for us.
Praying for the Hani People of Vietnam
And God, we pray for the spread of this righteousness to the nations. For the Hani people of Vietnam, the small people group worshiping all kinds of different spirits and God’s ancestors. God, we pray that the good news of Jesus, would spread to the Hani people of Vietnam. That they might trust in you, Jesus, that they might be clothed in your righteousness. God, we pray for your righteousness to spread among the nations through the proclamation of the gospel, even as we praise you for your righteousness in our lives today. In Jesus, name we pray, according to Matthew chapter five, verse 20. Amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder of Radical, an organization that makes Jesus known among the nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Don’t Hold Back, and How to Read the Bible.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
