Introduction

Let me direct your attention this morning to Matthew 5.20, "For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." There is quite a bite to this passage. The scribes and Pharisees are not complemented to say the least yet they are religious scholars and leaders. They fall short with regard to righteousness. They stand outside the kingdom of heaven. In order to enter into the kingdom, one must have a righteousness that exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees.

Our topic today then is righteousness that exceeds. To introduce this topic we need to find the point of contact between verses 20 and 19. So let us back up and review. Verse 19 states that greatness in the kingdom of heaven is measured by the practice and teaching of God’s entire Law. Specifically, this means that greatness comes from obedience to the Law in its fulfillment form as that Law affects the details of life and it comes from inculcating obedience to the Law in others.

Can we find any connection between this emphasis in verse 19 and Phariseeism? Yes, definitely, it is in the very point of detail. The Pharisees were scrupulous in their attendance to the details of OT Law! Verse 20 therefore gives a very exact and pointed contrast to verse 19. There is a strong contrast between the Christian and the legalist in the matter of meticulous adherence to religious detail.

Since the obedience He asks of Christians demands attention to detail, Jesus carefully distinguishes Christian righteousness from the righteousness of the religious leaders, which was also detail oriented. Remarkably, the righteousness of new covenant saints far exceeds Pharisaical righteousness. This leads to some questions: what sets this righteousness apart? And just how literally are we to take the demand of this righteousness for entry into heaven? This gives us our two points for this message: "The Nature of righteousness that exceeds" and "The Necessity of righteousness that exceeds."

1A. The Nature of this righteousness that exceeds

We get a look at the righteousness of the scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites, false prophets, and the rabbinic tradition they followed by references to them in the Sermon on the Mount (5.20; 5.21; 6.1-2; 7:15). By contrast, we can understand the nature of the righteousness that exceeds. Some things become evident when we reflect on verse 20 in light of the whole Sermon (and in light parallel passages elsewhere in the NT).

1B. First, true righteousness is concerned with the spirit and intent of the Law

Scribes and Pharisees were concerned with the letter of the Law only. Thus, they did two things that are contrary to Christian conduct (they took slices of letters omitting others; some letters were then stretched and deformed; hence, the notion of an empty letter void of proper substance).

1) On one hand, they limited the Law

They had various ways and techniques of restricting the laws application to their every day lives. They reduced the range of the Law’s applicability in order to make it more accessible, more convenient, and manageable. Let me state some examples that we will expand on later. The commandments regarding murder and adultery were limited to overt actions. "Do not swear" was limited to certain oaths and neighborly love was limited to certain people. For the Pharisees, loving the neighbor did not involve the restraint of hatred. You can legitimately hate some people; you love some people (the neighbor) and you hate others (the non-neighbor).

According to Jesus, true righteousness is opposed to such limiting and reducing of the range of the Law’s application. True righteousness takes in matters of the heart such as anger (underlying murder) and lust (underlying adultery); these are included in the range of the Law’s applicability. By contrast, the standing tradition buried these matters of the heart and lost them in a form of godliness that was in reality an empty shell.

2) On the other hand, they stretched the Law

They took biblical permissions and stretched them beyond what was permissible. For example, Jesus stated that God permitted divorce because of the hardness of the hearts of His people. Divorce is not a requirement and it goes against the grain of the commandment of marriage. It was something permitted when the sin of adultery intruded into the sacredness of marriage. What did the Pharisee do? He not only exercised the permission to divorce because of adultery but he also permitted divorce according to any whim of a husband seeking to end the marriage (their "rule" became a servant to lust rather than its antidote).

The civil law of an eye for an eye limited retribution to an exact equivalent of the crime. What did the Pharisee do? He stretched the eye for an eye principle far beyond the courtroom and into the arena of personal revenge (instead of a guide to civil obedience the Law became an excuse for personal disobedience).

What then is the nature of true righteousness that is concerned with details and that therefore looks like pharisaical righteousness? True righteousness of the Law lays hold of the Law in its true spirit and intent. A genuinely righteousness person aims at the center to take hold of the Law without trying to make it fit his life. Instead, he seeks to make his life fit the spirit of the Law. This he does in pursuit of details, tenaciously and meticulously.

The righteousness that exceeds does not limit the application of the Law to merely outward actions nor does it use lawful permissions as doorways that justify excessive permissions that practically justify everything that can be possibly associated with these doorways. (God gives an inch and the scribe takes a mile; from a phrase of permission, the scribe writes a book of license). These religious leaders had rooms full of excesses justified in a way that circumvented the sense and spirit of the Law. They not only went too far limiting the Law to the left but they also stretched the Law too far to the right. Contrariwise, the new covenant saint aims at the golden middle to avoid adding license to permission on one side and subtracting duty from commandment on the other side.

Righteousness that exceeds has another feature that surfaces by contrast with Phariseeism, which brings us to a second point.

2B. Second, true righteousness is concerned with the Law in all its fullness

An exceeding righteousness is one that faces squarely all that God requires. Both the lesser as well as the weightier matters of the Law are sought after with due diligence. The tradition cut the Law into slices limiting some slices and going beyond other slices. It left many matters of the Law undone. Therefore, righteousness that exceeds is not on a par with this tradition in the area of meticulous concern for detail because true righteousness is meticulous about a greater number of details (without "loop-hole-ism"). True righteousness even looks at the abuse of the permissions to find what is good (per this very example of Jesus teaching by contrast with sinful error). New covenant righteousness far exceeds in detail as well as in matters of the heart about detail.

3B. Third, this better righteousness is the outgrowth of repentance

As we have seen, it is greater because it is deeper penetrating to the thoughts and intentions of the heart. This is the righteousness promised in the age of fulfillment, which is the age of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit writes the Law on the heart (Jer. 31:31-33). As Jesus said, "you must be born again" in order to see, accept, understand, and enter the kingdom of God (Jn. 3.3f.). Ultimately, the impact of the new birth on true righteousness means that the pursuit of the Law in its true spirit and depth arises from faith and repentance. Thus, the door to the kingdom opens to a faith-repentance-righteousness. Greater righteousness is from the heart, from a repentant heart.

2A. The Necessity of this righteousness that exceeds

"For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." These are strong words. A righteousness that surpasses that of the religious leaders is required if one is going to enter the kingdom. This is a great divide, a divorce of eternal consequence. Some people will enter the kingdom of heaven and others will not enter. Furthermore, it sounds like those who will enter must fulfill a high standard indeed; thus, we need some clarification.

Given what we have already seen in the Beatitudes, we know that Jesus has in view both the now and the not yet of the kingdom. In other words, a person is not a member of the new covenant community now and he will not become a member in the not yet if he lacks a righteousness that far exceeds limiting the law, stretching the law, neglecting the Law’s fullness, and coming to the Law without a heart for God that manifests faith and repentance. True righteousness is a badge of entry into heaven. No one will enter into the glory of heaven without this righteousness that is very down to earth, practical, and relevant to all of life to the end of time.

Two comments keep this from distortion.

1) There is no merit here

Law keeping is on the table but it does not earn the dinner. It does not earn a single thing before God. The righteousness that exceeds does not ground or cause acceptance with God. Still, it pleases Him and is acceptable to Him. We know that our sins are such that no matter what we do we can never earn the favor of God. He grants His favor by grace. We take up this righteousness because we have acceptance with God (not to gain acceptance) and this taking up of righteousness is how we obtain the badge of entry into glory. This is a fine point that merits careful reflection. An exceeding righteousness is necessary but it is not meritorious.

2) Thus, this righteousness is evidence of God’s work in the heart

The heart is sensitive to all of God’s truth. Christian conduct "worth its salt" presses ever forward to obey the Lord in concrete details of everyday life while always recognizing failure. It is meticulous, scrupulous, comprehensive, deep, wide, and full. The recognition of failure itself is due to the gracious working of the Lord. Augustine captured how this work in the heart begins and continues in the Christian life:

Thou, O Lord…didst turn me round towards myself, taking me from behind my back, where I had placed me, unwilling to observe myself…setting me before my face, that I might see how foul I was, how crooked and defiled, bespotted and ulcerous… and if I sought to turn mine eye from off myself…Thou again didst set me over against myself, and thrustedst me before my eyes, that I might find out my iniquity, and hate it (Confessions, VIII, 16).

We have considered these sentiments from Augustine before, but especially the last line bears repeating because he states so well our tendency to turn away from the proper view of ourselves. At that point, he says that the Lord again sets me over against myself thrusting me before my eye so that I may "find out my iniquity, and hate it." Ironically and gloriously, this heartfelt acknowledgment of sinfulness is the heart of the one who possesses an exceedingly great righteousness! This is the hallmark of a sinner-saint. Just such a sinner has a badge of entry into the glory of heaven.

Conclusion: Some of the things of this text are sharp and pointed but for the new covenant saint there is encouragement.

1) We have encouragement because inside the warning is a promise

Opposite "never entering" is the promise of safe entry. If your righteousness does exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees then you have the promise of entering into the kingdom of heaven. The road of righteous living leads to the gates of heaven. The challenging journey leads to a glorious destiny; that encourages taking up the challenges.

2) We have encouragement because we have hope regarding righteousness

With all our sins and failures, we can become discouraged but the great end to which the pursuit of righteousness is taking us is perfection realized in glory. Jesus is our model and we shall be like Him because one day we shall see Him as He is (1 Jn. 3.2).

3) We have encouragement because we have acceptance on the way to the future

The Christian pursuit is real, earnest, and comprehensive. It is at the same time frail, imperfect, and sinful. Nevertheless, on the way it is acceptable in the Beloved Savior, Jesus Christ in whom we have acceptance with God for He is our righteousness (1 Cor. 1.30) and He is our gentle high priest (Mat. 11.28-30).

This reminds me of some things that took place in our home when our boys were growing up. There were numerous occasions in which one of our sons would wash the dishes (with no dishwasher; they were the dishwashers) with a willing and glad heart. In the end, we would find egg yoke on a fork here and the remains of a broken cup over there. Did we rail down on them? Of course, we did not come down on them like a ton of bricks because though their obedience was imperfect it arose from willingness and good intention. On one occasion, my youngest son and a neighbor boy over heard mom and dad discussing the idea of cultivating the yard. Therefore, out they went on their own reconnaissance to dig out weeds and wilted plants. They included the bulbs of next year’s flowers in their digging. Did we rail down on them as stupid and mischievous? No, we accepted their work because of its good heartedness that included the fact that they admitted they were wrong when we pointed it out to them.

Similarly, and with far richer implications, the Lord accepts our righteousness as exceedingly great on two counts: because of Christ’s person and work on our behalf, and because this righteousness seeks the true spirit of the Law, in its fullness, from the heart, and in faith and repentance.

The righteousness that exceeds reaches beyond pharisaical goodness. It has depth, heart depth. It has fullness and comprehensiveness taking in both the big and the small details. It aims at God’s law in humble awareness of failure and imperfection. Nevertheless, it is an acceptable righteousness because it is acceptable in Christ. This is the encouragement of the Scriptures and the encouragement of the gospel. There is righteousness that exceeds and it is ours through Jesus Christ our risen Lord. To Him be all glory now and forever, Amen.