May 16, 2010. When Jesus said, "Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven", the scribes and Pharisees all said, "amen!", and all the ordinary people said, "oh, my!" To say to people living in Israel under the law of Moses that their righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and the Pharisees would be like telling Catholics they must be holier than the Pope. At first glance it seems as though Jesus is demanding something that is impossible. But what Jesus is really saying is that what is necessary is a superior kind of righteousness than that of the scribes and Pharisees. Righteousness could be defined as "meeting the standards of what is right and just". It is easy to understand that God himself, being perfect, holy, right and just in every way, is the perfect standard of righteousness. To say that any human being is "righteous" means that he is in perfect compliance with that perfect standard. The scribes and Pharisees attempted to be righteous by their observance of the law of Moses, and they were more successful than anyone else. This is the reason Jesus holds them up as the best example of human righteousness. However, there is a righteousness which exceeds the human righteousness acquired by the scribes and Pharisees by their own human efforts. Paul describes this "better righteousness" in Romans 10. "Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of the righteousness which comes from God, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." Paul says that by trying to establish their own righteousness, the Pharisees failed to submit to a better righteousness, which comes through faith in Christ. Paul knew what he was talking about because he was once a Pharisee himself. He describes his life as a Pharisee in Philippians 3: He says that concerning "righteousness which is in the law," he was "blameless." However, Paul discovered that there was a better righteousness than that which he could achieve for himself by his own human effort. This better righteousness comes through simple faith in Christ. As a Christian, Paul says his only desire is to be "found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith." When Paul says "not having mine own righteousness" he is saying that we can either have our own righteousness (through work) or the righteousness of Christ (through faith), but not both. Either we are made right with God by what we do, or by what Christ has done, but not both. Paul discovered the righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees; a righteousness that comes, not through human effort, but through simple faith in Christ.
Loading...
9:42
A Better Righteousness 2/5by GraceFaith0840 views
Link to this comment:
All Comments (0)