“Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:20)
The scribes and Pharisees were Israel’s religious elite. They obeyed all kinds of outward regulations – not just God’s laws, but many additional regulations as well. They were very proud not to be “like other men” (Luke 18:9-12). If anybody could ever meet God’s standards of righteousness, it had to be the Pharisees and scribes.
And yet, Jesus states plainly that their righteousness does not meet the requirements of entering the kingdom of heaven. If our righteousness doesn’t exceed theirs, we’ll never enter God’s kingdom.
That is a pretty discouraging statement – until we see what Jesus really means. The problem is not that we need more of the outward righteousness that the scribes were aiming at, but that we need inner change. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation … so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:17,21). The required righteousness can’t be earned by obeying regulations. It can only be received as a free gift of grace.
Have you already experienced this inner change? How did it change you?