Request your free, three-month trial to Tabletalk magazine. You’ll receive the print issue monthly and gain immediate digital access to decades of archives. This trial is risk-free. No credit card required.
Try Tabletalk NowAlready receive Tabletalk magazine every month?
Verify your email address to gain unlimited access.
Matthew 5:17–20
“For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:20).
We saw in yesterday’s study that the goal of the Christian life is pleasing God by lifelong obedience to Him. Another way to put it is to say that the chief goal of the Christian life is righteousness. This is what God wants from us more than anything else. Jesus made this clear when He told His followers to “ ‘seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness’ ” (Matt. 6:33). The Greek word protos, here translated “first,” connotes first in order of sequence and foremost in terms of importance. Jesus is saying that righteousness is the most important thing for the Christian.
Christ also said that our righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees of His time if we are to see the kingdom of God. Some believe He was referring to the perfect righteousness we need for justification, the righteousness of Christ that we have by faith in Him through divine imputation. Clearly His righteousness exceeded that of the scribes and Pharisees. But there is another kind of righteousness in the Christian life—the actual righteousness that is created in us as the Holy Spirit helps us become obedient to Christ. Martin Luther said the Christians are simul justus et peccator, “at the same time just and sinful.” But once they are born again, the Holy Spirit goes to work to sanctify them, rooting out sinfulness and engendering righteousness. One who is truly justified will begin to manifest the fruit of righteousness. Thus, Jesus may well have been saying that unless we ourselves manifest a righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, the faith we profess may not be genuine.
How righteous were the scribes and Pharisees? Jesus was harshly critical of them, but He paid them compliments, too. He said they were zealous evangelists (Matt. 23:15), stringent tithers (Matt. 23:23), diligent students of Scripture (John 5:39), and regular practitioners of prayer and fasting (Matt. 6:5, 16). Evangelical Christians have serious failings when it comes to many of these activities. The scribes and Pharisees drew Jesus’ wrath, however, because their righteousness was all external, designed to impress other men. We must manifest the outward obedience they practiced to an even greater degree, but it must flow from a heart that truly loves God. Obedience from the heart is the righteousness that pleases God.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
Do you obey God for the wrong reasons? Do you do the things He has commanded to be seen and admired by other people? If so, repent of your hypocrisy today. Then begin to pray that God will help you do the things He has called you to do for the sole reason of pleasing Him. Pray that you will manifest the fruit of righteousness for His honor.
for further study
- Proverbs 16:7
- Galatians 1:10
- Colossians 1:10
- 1 Thessalonians 2:4
- 1 John 3:22