For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 5:20

In Jesus day, there were people who would copy the law of God each and every day and preserve the copies, the Scribes. There were also the teachers of the law, the Pharisees. The Scribes knew the law, they knew the text, the letters, the punctuation, because they copied each and every day. The Pharisees taught the law, and explained it, and broke it down into smaller rules, that made it “easier” or honestly more technical.

Jesus is speaking to his disciples here and he is using the scribes and the pharisees as an example. If you were looking for righteous people, these two groups of occupations would be “The most righteous” because of their daily interaction with God’s law. So, how then will our righteousness exceed the righteousness of these very righteous people?

The way of works

They could keep God’s law perfectly, They could follow each commandment, and understand it perfectly. They could understand God’s true intent for the law, and keep it… from birth! If they broke it once, this would not apply. Here is the problem, we can’t keep God’s Law!

⁴ Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.
⁵ Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
⁶ Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.

Psalm 51:4-6

Though the scribes and pharisees knew the law, and tried to keep the law, they couldn’t keep it perfectly. They were born into sin, and they kept sins hidden, they showed a fancy form of “show righteousness” or we might even call it “self righteousness” though it’s not our place to judge their hearts.

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

Romans 3:23

If they were honest, they would realize, they couldn’t keep the law, and they have come far short of God’s glory.

The Way of Grace

This passage should really bother us, because what Jesus is telling his disciples is impossible, if they did it themselves. But there is a way to have righteousness that exceeds Jesus. There is a way to be more righteous than the scribes and pharisees. Jesus knew this as he instructed his disciples, later the apostle Paul writes:

8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:8

While I was a sinner, Jesus Died for me, what does this mean? Jesus, God in Human form, God incarnate, lived a perfect life, and was accused falsely, and judged unjustly, for a crime He didn’t commit. He was like a lamb to the slaughter, he was the perfect sacrifice, the perfect substitutionary atonement. The great exchange took place when Jesus died on the cross for us. He took upon Himself the burden of our sin, and for that God the Father lavished his perfect Judgement on Jesus. Jesus taking upon himself God’s righteous wrath, for sins Jesus didn’t commit. Jesus took the punishment for me, and in turn, imputes, or fills me with His righteousness.

Jesus took my sins, and gave me his righteousness, not a little bit, not some, but he gave me a full portion, more than I deserve. This is Grace!

Jesus didn’t say in this verse that the scribes and pharisees would enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. He said, if you righteousness exceeds these men. We can take comfort in knowing, it’s not by works that we are saved.