"Except Your Righteousness Shall Exceed The
Righteousness Of The Scribes And
Pharisees"
Matt. 5:20
Don Fortner
The scribes and pharisees were
the most righteous men, outwardly, who ever lived. They lived by the ten commandments. According to the letter of the law, they
were blameless. They paid tithes of all they possessed, fasted twice a week,
and prayed three times a day. Yet, our Lord tells us that we must be more
righteous than them, or we "shall in no case enter into the kindgom of
heaven." The fact is that without perfect righteousness no one can ever
enter into heaven (Rev. 21:27; 22:11-14).
The righteousness required by God is a perfect righteousness, a righteousness
which no mere man can produce. In order to enter that perfect kingdom we must
be made perfectly righteous by the righteousness of Christ (Rom. 5:19; II Cor. 5:21).
All who believe are made the righteousness of God in Christ by two distinct
acts of grace.
l. The righteousness of Christ is imputed
to us in justification (Rom.
4:3-8). Our sin was imputed to Christ at Calvary. Though
he never committed sin, he was made to be sin, and became responsible under the
law for our sins, as our Substitute. In exactly the same way, the righteousness
of Christ has been imputed to us, though we never have performed a righteous
deed. Just as the law punished Christ for our sin, which was legally imputed to
him, the law of God rewards every believer for the righteousness of Christ
imputed to us.
2. The righteousness of Christ is imparted to us
in regeneration (II Pet. 1:2-4; I John 3:4-9). "If any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature: old things are
passed away; behold, all things are become new"
(II Cor. 5:17). If I am born again
by the Spirit of God, I have a new nature created in my soul,
a righteous nature is imparted to me, by which I reign as a king over the lusts
and passions of my flesh. Yes, God's people do sin. Sin is mixed with all we
do, so long as we live in this body of flesh. But sin no longer reigns over us.
We are no longer under the dominion of sin (Rom. 6:14-16;
Gal. 5:22-23). The believer's life
is a life of faith, godliness and uprightness.