” For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Mathew 5 : 20
What does the Bible verse Mathew 5 : 20 mean ?
Pharisees were religious teachers at the time. They taught Moses’ laws to the people of Israel. They were pretty much as nowadays rabbis
The problem with them was that they were often hypocrites. I think that probably not everyone of them was such, but most of them where. But the biggest problem was that they were teaching that you shall earn your righteousness by deeds, by fulfilling the law and by following rules, given by Moses. The problem was that nobody could fulfill the law unless he didn’t do any sins his entire life. Not a single sin.
It says, ” For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.”
James 2:10
And when Jesus came, He brought the good news to the people. He has told them that there’s no need to strive in fulfillment of the law, because He has come to do that. He has come so our fate won’t be decided upon our deeds, but upon God’s grace.
How to surpass their righteousness ?
It’s through Jesus.
It’s through grace that Lord has given us in Jesus Christ, when He died for our sins. And if wasn’t those in Jerusalem who killed Him. It was me, you and every other human that ever existed. We killed Him with our sins. But He said:
” Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
Luke 23:34
We can gain righteousness only through Jesus’ sacrifice. We must accept what He has given us in order to become righteous.
” Lord made Him who had no no sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness only by lord’s grace through Jesus Christ. How to do that ? We have to understand that we were a sinner. Jesus came because of sinners, not because of the righteous ones.
” This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of Lord, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ.”
Romans 3:22-24.
Then we have to accept what Jesus has given us, His sacrifice. Give your life to Jesus, let Him be your Lord, your Guide, your teacher, and the most important, your Messiah.
Prayer
" Jesus, we know we are sinner. We know we have done wrong in our lives. And we know that we can't be saved by our own works. Come into our lives and change it. We want to be a new person/creation. We give you our lives, do something with it. Amen."
Sol. Dr. Mohan Parmar