Righteousness Indeed

“For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Mat. 5:20). So what was Jesus talking about here, and what exactly do we need to do for our righteousness to “exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees?” Well, let’s look just a little closer at “the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees” to find out: “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also OUTWARDLY APPEAR righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity” (Mat. 23:27,28). James tells us the only way that we can do better than just appearing outwardly to be righteous: “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world” (Jas. 1:22-27). The parable Jesus told about the ‘Good Samaritan’ is a perfect example of both kinds of ‘righteousness’ that we’re talking about here (Lk. 10:30-37).

Jesus nailed down for us the real simplicity of this way of holiness and truth as clearly as it can be said: “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets. Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” (Mat. 7:12-14). To be certain friend, the “strait gate” and the “narrow way” that Jesus referred to here, is exactly what he said just before that; which is to do unto others as we would have done unto ourselves. Actually that sometimes takes some understanding to do, but if we get “the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the holy Ghost” just right, that same Spirit can both impart the divine love needed, and teach us the right way to distribute it in holiness and in truth (Rom. 5:5; Jn. 14:26; I Jn. 2:27). That is to say the same thing that Jesus told us to do: “This is my commandment, That ye love one another, AS I have loved you” (Jn. 15:12). So if we have his Spirit and we follow hard after it, then and only then can we fulfill this commandment of Jesus (Rom. 8:14). Only then will our righteousness exceed the external righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, because the reality is that it is not our righteousness at all, but rather “the righteousness of God [in us] which is by faith of Jesus Christ” (Rom. 3:22; Rom. 8:4). “For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink [external things]; but righteousness [divine love], and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost” (Rom. 14:17). Amen.