“For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will be no means enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5.20)
The righteousness Jesus speaks of in this verse, as he will soon reveal in the rest of his sermon on the mount, is not a righteousness of achievement that comes some time in the future of a persons life. That was the kind of righteousness he condemned, the type exemplified by the scribes and Pharisees.
The righteousness of God is always and forever a “present” righteousness. It is a righteousness of the heart in those who receive the living Word of Christ into their hearts. The superficial righteousness that is practiced to gain acceptance or to be seen by others is foreign to the kingdom of God. Those who are deluded by this type will not enter God’s kingdom.
The reason we require a “present” righteousness, one in the here and now, is because the kingdom of God we long to enter is “present”. Jesus came preaching, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand”. All that needs to concern us is our present righteousness with God. Yesterday is gone and tomorrow is not ours. All we have is the present moment of our life and it is in this very moment that righteousness is required in the kingdom of God.
What is this righteousness? It is strict, single-minded obedience to the revealed will of God. It is loving my enemy instead of hating him, it is suffering the humiliation of being struck on the cheek then turning the other, it is having pure thoughts instead of lusting after someone else’s mate. It is not judging others by our own sinful standards of superficial righteousness, but a willingness to examine our own hearts instead. It is trusting God rather than indulge doubts about his loving care for us. It is seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness as we patiently wait for these “other things” to be given us.
At the end of his sermon Jesus said this kind of righteousness is expected by him in the present, when we hear this word of his we are asked to do it, to take it into our hearts as the foundation of all we will build on in the coming moments, hours, and days of our life.
What if I do not have this righteousness in my heart? Jesus began the sermon on the mount by saying, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”. When we confess our spiritual poverty, our complete lack of righteousness in the heart, Jesus promises to give us the riches of his own, the very kingdom of heaven. For that is what the kingdom of heaven is, the righteousness of God. He goes on to promise comfort to those who mourn their loss. Then for those who in meekness renounce their striving after power over others and rest alone in his strength, he promises the very earth itself. And of course, those who “hunger and thirst after righteousness” are satisfied. Satisfied with what? With the righteousness of God.
Righteousness in the heart is a real, living righteousness given us by the real, living Christ, the “Word of God made flesh”. Those who confess their moral and spiritual poverty have met the necessary condition for receiving this righteousness of God in Christ.
Take a few minutes in the “present” to ask yourself about the state of your heart. Are you righteous? Do you have the righteousness of God that comes freely, the one that cannot be bought by anything less than the blood of Christ given for the forgiveness of our sins?
The righteousness that “exceeds” the superficial righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees is nothing less than the righteousness of Christ and this he will give to all who hunger and thirst for the kingdom of heaven, which is the righteousness of God, even Christ himself.