Our Light Comes From God

by Edward Fudge

Can we realize how shocking Jesus’ words sounded to his original audience when he said, “Except your righteousness exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees you will not enter the kingdom” (Matthew 5:20)? These were the two most “righteous” groups among the Jews—the scribes, who taught and interpreted the Scriptures, and the Pharisees, who devoted themselves to living out the most precise teaching of the scribes. Yet Jesus warns his disciples that their righteousness must exceed that of both of these groups if they hope to enter God’s kingdom. How can this be?

Jesus is not saying that we must outdo the scribes and Pharisees at their own game. He is saying that we must have a kind of “righteousness” which exceeds or surpasses in quality the types these groups worked so hard to obtain. So, in Matthew 5, Jesus goes head to head with the scribes, showing that scribal “righteousness” was built on a faulty foundation. He does the same with the Pharisees in Chapter 6.

The scribes practiced a “righteousness” by rationalization. Although they added layers of rules on top of God’s commands, in the end they missed the real point of God’s commandments and were not righteous at all. Jesus illustrates this six ways in Matthew 5:21-48. “You have heard it said by the ancients,” he says, referring to the scribal interpretations of the Law. “But I say to you, . . .” he continues, showing that God’s laws are far more profound in the radical claims they make on our hearts and souls. The scribes actually cheapened God’s laws by their rationalizations. Our righteousness must exceed that of the scribes.

The Pharisees boasted a righteousness of outward demonstration, strutting their way (they thought) right into God’s kingdom. But they failed to recognize that God looks for genuine commitment of the inner heart and not merely some external performance. Jesus shows this in Matthew 6 by examining three examples of piety involving self (fasting), God (prayer), and others (alms). The Pharisees cheapened the meaning of obedience by their outward show. Our righteousness must exceed that of the Pharisees.

Jesus shows us the way to true righteousness in the first four “Beatitudes.” We cannot be set right with God by our own logic or by our own performance. We cannot impress or coerce God into calling us “righteous” based on our clever arguments or our external pieties.

No, we must face the truth about ourselves and our sinfulness, about our spiritual bankruptcy and our impotence. We must lay all claims aside and approach God as beggars in spirit, as those who mourn, as gentle in spirit, and as hungering and thirsting for righteousness, an appetite only God can satisfy.

Those who come to God that way, Jesus promises, will find a righteousness that far surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees. God will comfort their mourning and satisfy their craving to be right with God himself. God will give them his kingdom and, one day, they will inherit the earth.